Everyday questions › Women's questions
Women's questions
Questions women ask most: hijab and dress, menstruation and worship, travel and mahram, mosque and leadership, marriage and divorce rights, and the hadith used against women.
- Can I travel abroad on my own?
- What can I do in Ramadan while I am on my period?
- Does the Quran really permit a husband to hit his wife?
Example phrasings, not quotations. Each one runs a search.
Latest answers
167 segments in 67 recordings, newest first
10 Mar 2023video
LatestWhy was Imam Malik flogged?
Malik was flogged for refusing to stop transmitting that a coerced divorce is invalid, which undercut forced oaths of allegiance to the Abbasids.
machine7 min 29 s49:58on YouTube
10 Mar 2023video
LatestWho carried on Imam Malik's teaching after him?
His daughter, who had memorised his hadith and taught his classes after him, while his sons showed little interest.
machine4 min 12 s1:02:17on YouTube
10 Dec 2022video
Did Abu Hanifa allow wudu with nabidh when there was no water?
In the early school of Abu Hanifa, someone without water could make wudu with nabidh, a weak fermented date drink, and he helped people out of rash conditional divorce oaths, unlike the sterner Imam Malik.
machine3 min 54 s28:48on YouTube
10 Dec 2022video
LatestHow did Abu Hanifa solve the case of two brides sent to the wrong grooms?
Where Sufyan al-Thawri advised divorces, a waiting period and remarriage to the original spouses, Abu Hanifa had each man marry on the spot the woman he had spent the night with, sparing a waiting period and jealousy.
machine9 min 12 s32:42on YouTube
19 Aug 2022video
LatestIs Quran 22:52 about the satanic verses incident?
No: he rejects the link to 22:52, noting that Surah al-Hajj is Madinan, that the Prophet refused the Makkans' offers of compromise, and that the Quran calls the idols mere stone.
machine5 min 18 s1:09:22on YouTube
9 May 2021video
LatestWhy did scholars say a slave woman's awrah is the same as a man's?
Mufti Abu Layth says most scholars of the past legitimised the practice of slave girls out of pragmatism, realism and sex, and even presented it as a religious act. He contrasts this with music, which they were less keen to permit, and polygamy, which few manage today.
machine7 min 03 s0:38on YouTube
9 May 2021video
Did scholars let slave women uncover more than free women?
Mufti Abu Layth says the scholars dropped their concern for modesty when it came to slave women, and calls the claim that nobody would desire them nonsense. He thinks slave women probably wore working clothes, with arms and lower legs uncovered, rather than walking about topless.
machine4 min 58 s7:04on YouTube
13 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
LatestDoes a community gathering have to be gender segregated?
No: Mufti Abu Layth says adults do not need micromanaging and a gathering of men and women need not be segregated.
machine1 min 18 s10:56on YouTube
13 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Is child marriage legal in Western countries?
No: Mufti Abu Layth says Western ages of consent cluster around sixteen and do not allow an adult with a child, and imams should condemn child marriage with one voice.
machine3 min 57 s2:01:53on YouTube
13 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
LatestCan I fast for a fixed 12 hours when the days are very long?
Follow any timetable you like; Mufti Abu Layth endorses the al-Azhar-derived fatwa that a fast of twelve hours or more is valid for anyone who needs it.
machine6 min 31 s3:21:50on YouTube
13 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
LatestCan I skip fasting because of work, exams or health, and what do I do instead?
It is your call: make the fast up later if you can, or give fidya if your situation will not change, which Mufti Abu Layth bases on the plain wording of Quran 2:184.
machine6 min 38 s3:28:21on YouTube
6 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
LatestDid the Prophet say a wife should prostrate to her husband?
The report is not authentic: it was probably put into circulation to support the family hierarchy of a patriarchal society. The report urging violent jealousy over female relatives is likewise fabricated.
machine4 min 55 s51:13on YouTube
6 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Why are some clerics so harsh in their rulings on women?
Mufti Abu Layth says harsh rulings from some clergy, especially towards women, come from sexual deprivation and a closed madrasa culture, and that love and a normal life soften people.
machine8 min 44 s1:12:51on YouTube
6 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
LatestWhat does Mufti Abu Layth think of France banning the hijab for girls under 18?
If France has banned headscarves for girls under 18, he says it is an abhorrent breach of basic rights that he strongly condemns. He also opposes pressuring girls to wear it: it should be their genuine choice.
machine7 min 20 s1:21:35on YouTube
2 Mar 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Is the hadith about a woman breastfeeding the adult Salim authentic?
Mufti Abu Layth calls the report of the adult Salim being suckled fabricated and mocks al-Albani's fatwa permitting it directly, welcoming Mohammed Hijab's attack on it as a sign he is outgrowing Salafism.
machine6 min3:23:56on YouTube
16 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Does Quran 33:40 mean the Prophet's descendants cannot rule?
Mufti Abu Layth says 33:40 simply states that the Prophet is not the father of their men but the seal of the prophets; it is not a proof that his descendants may not rule.
machine1 min 17 s1:15:00on YouTube
9 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
What does Islam say about the red pill movement?
Mufti Abu Layth says hating on women, or men, is ridiculous, though he grants some red pill points about how society treats the sexes.
machine11 min 34 s2:38:52on YouTube
9 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Is Mufti Abu Layth a feminist?
Mufti Abu Layth says he would like to think he is a feminist, though feminists seem not to like him.
machine2 min 36 s2:45:32on YouTube
2 Feb 2021video
Did Ibn Ashur say Muslims must believe Jesus was raised alive?
Mufti Abu Layth shows that Ibn Ashur, quoted in Shadee Elmasry's post, held only that Jesus was not killed or crucified and was raised and saved, leaving how it happened open to interpretation.
machine8 min6:15on YouTube
2 Feb 2021video
Did Ibn Ashur believe Jesus died?
Mufti Abu Layth shows that Ibn Ashur read 'inni mutawaffika' as real death, cited Imam Malik for it, and took texts calling Jesus alive as an honorific life like that of martyrs.
machine5 min 20 s8:00on YouTube
2 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
If the hijab has become sexualised, should scholars still push it?
Mufti Abu Layth argues that since the hijab is now widely sexualised, fatwas should not keep pushing it, though people may wear it as culture.
machine9 min 37 s1:20:04on YouTube
26 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Why does the Quran seem focused on men, and why are two women witnesses needed?
The Quran asks for two women witnesses only for debt contracts, because a lone woman was easier to intimidate, not because women are lesser; otherwise one woman equals one man, and the masculine address reflects historically patriarchal societies.
machine9 min 11 s21:34on YouTube
26 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
LatestCan a woman be an imam and lead the prayer?
Yes: a woman can be an imam and her leading the prayer is valid, though whether it works in practice depends on her society accepting it.
machine2 min 38 s50:21on YouTube
26 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Can a woman become a mufti?
Yes: anyone, a woman included, can become a mufti, but must persevere through often dogmatic institutions, in a field he says is neglected and lacks support.
machine9 min 13 s56:57on YouTube
26 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
How should I deal with the misogynistic things some scholars wrote about women?
Do not let contemporary misogynists hijack your Islam, and read past scholars' views on women as reflections of their own age, which do not confine Islam.
machine9 min 15 s1:06:10on YouTube
19 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Does a bald woman have to wear hijab?
Mufti Abu Layth gives no ruling: he jokes about the wording and muses on hair loss in women and men.
machine1 min 07 s24:30on YouTube
19 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Is it halal to perform music or dance at concerts for a living?
Dance is not haram in itself, Mufti Abu Layth says, but Muslim cultures look down on it as a profession, especially for women, so propriety should be kept in mind.
machine6 min 24 s1:11:22on YouTube
19 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Why is it so hard to find real, honest people?
Mufti Abu Layth says nobody fully knows anyone, social media feeds an endless search for someone better, and the appalling conduct of some Muslim men pushes women into hardline feminism.
machine7 min 32 s1:25:08on YouTube
19 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
'Danny Boy's' Telegram post calling female academics 'snarling witches'
Mufti Abu Layth mocks a commentator's post calling female Islamic Studies academics 'snarling witches', and says men who block women's education are insecure.
machine7 min 04 s1:49:09on YouTube
19 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
What did Ibn Rushd say about women's abilities?
Mufti Abu Layth highlights Ibn Rushd's argument, 900 years ago, that women equal men in ability and that confining them to the home impoverished his cities.
machine6 min 55 s2:20:29on YouTube
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