You can pray aloud when alone or with women

18-11-2003 | IslamWeb

Question:

As a woman, not brought up in Islamic tradition and not living with Muslims daily, I used to pray, when praying alone, the Fajr, Maghrib and Isha prayer, aloud, in the way that is mentioned in Surah 17, Ayah 110. However, Muslim women have told me it is not allowed that a woman's voice is heard praying. Please give your opinion. By the way, all books I consult about Islam mostly address themselves to men. This is a very complication for a woman who wants to learn.

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Answer:

Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds; and may His blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his Family and Companions. The prayers where the person should read aloud are: Al-Fajr, Al-Maghrib and Al-Isha. The praying person reads aloud in the first two Rak'ah. The prayers where the person should read silently are: Zuhr and Asr. As for the woman, there are two cases where she reads aloud: First, when the woman is praying alone or leading other women in prayer, in this case, she reads aloud if no alien men are present and where the praying person is asked to read aloud and reads silently where the praying person is asked to read silently. Reading aloud so that the nearest persons to her could hear her. Second, in case, the woman is with alien men, the majority of scholars dislike that she recites aloud. These scholars fear that some men might get tempted because of the woman's voice. The Maliki and Hanafi scholars are of the opinion that it is forbidden for her to pray aloud if there is fear that her voice causes any temptation to men who hear her. Muslim scholars also forbid to the men to enjoy listening to alien women. The evidence of those who believe that it is dislikeable or forbidden for the woman is the following Hadith. The Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam) said: Tasbeeh (saying Subhana Allah) is for men and clapping hands is for women. [Reported by Imams al-Bukhari and Muslim ] So, if it is unlawful for the woman to do Tasbeeh to attract the attention of the Imam to a mistake in prayer and correcting the prayer is a must, then, it is not from Shariah that she reads aloud in prayer since reading aloud is just a Sunnah. Their second evidence is the consensus among Muslim scholars that the woman should not call Azan nor do Hajj Talbiya in loud voices as well as any similar things in which she raises her voice in the presence of alien men. On the other hand, know dear sister that the rules where the order is for men (male gender) concern women too unless there is a word or a phrase that limits that order to one of the two sexes. The Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam) said: Women are equivalent to men [ al-Tirmizi ]. This means that women are analogues to men as if they were their halves. Allah knows best.