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Allowing non-Muslim women to enter the men’s area … It is called the interfaith meetings where members of the three religions discuss concurrent matters about their religions

Answered as per Hanafi Fiqh by Askimam.org

A member of the Shura committee in the masjid in our city- in USA- asked me to write to you this email about a issue that the Shura committee members are arguing about. This issue is: Allowing non-Muslim women to enter the men’s area in the masjid and set down in a circle with other Muslim & non Muslim men & women, while non Muslim women and, sometimes Muslim women are not wearing Hijaab and dressed in regular western clothes. It is called the interfaith meetings, were members of the three religions (Islam, Christianity & Judaism) discuss concurrent matters about their religions. The elected Shura member that supports this issue is claiming that this is a sort of Da?waa,& it is necessary to promote the Muslim community in the western society that we live in. The disagreeing committee members argue that this is not Da?waa as this has been happening for a long time now and nothing good has resulted from it, further more, these meetings and the way they occur might not be religiously correct. The Muslims participating in these meetings has a limited knowledge of Shari?aa or Fiqh, none of them has received any academic Islamic studies, even some of them consider Hijaab for Muslim women as a cultural practice and that Muslim women are not-obligated to wear it. A brother raised an issue that some of these women might enter and set in the masjid while she is in her monthly menstrual cycle, and there is no way for knowing that to ask her to leave. Jazakumullahu Khuran..

Answer

In principle, the purpose of interfaith meetings is to convince adherents of other religions to Islam. As Muslims, we are confident that our Deen is Haqq (truth). Allah Ta’ala declares that any religion besides Islam is rejected.

Therefore, we as Muslims, firstly should be discouraged from attending these interfaith meetings. If we analyse the meetings of the past, more harm and destruction is being caused to Islam than inviting people to Islam. The greatest danger is people ignorant of their Deen are attempting to convey Deen to others. How can such people impress on people the true Islam. In fact, there is a fear of them being attracted to the other faith if the inviters of that faith are well-trained as is the case with many Christian missionaries. Deen will only flourish and prosper in the manner show to us by our beloved Rasul (Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam). How did Nabi (Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam) convince the Jews and Christians to accept Islam? The answer is simple, they adorned their lives as Allah ordered them, they obeyed him in totality through which the non-Muslims were attracted to Islam.

We suggest that instead of going to interfaith meetings, hold gatherings wherein Muslims should be reminded and taught about their Deen. If non-Muslims wish to attend, they should be allowed. Scholars and learned people should be invited to address these seminars.

and Allah Ta’ala Knows Best

Mufti Ebrahim Desai

Original Source Link

This answer was collected from Askimam.org, which is operated under the supervision of Mufti Ebrahim Desai from South Africa.

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