Hadith Analysis & Fatwa: Women Can Travel Without a Mahram - Mufti Abu Layth

right women traveling now I've been asked a question about women traveling and is this without a madam am Akram is a male guardian to whom that is related to the woman in such a way that they could not marry amongst themselves and so brother son father uncle nephew these kind of things for example grandfather stuff like this and muharram and I've

dealt with the question which is also a separate question now on YouTube that if a woman wet-nurse is a man does he become her Muharram which is absurd of course he doesn't so if she kind of breastfed him or he drank from her actual milk does he become and some people have been pushing this in saying that a valid thing in Islam I've explained and I've got that video as a separate that that's absurd and not true

right okay so as to women traveling now we've got to understand first of all I'm going to explain that yes of course a woman can travel in Islam without a guardian I'm explaining that first of all so I'm gonna give you the ruling first of all of course she can and this ruling was simply about safety so once I've highlighted that ruling I'm gonna go through the breakdown and the detail of this topic with you okay now

so there there are this this and this issue arises from certain hadith that are transmitted from the prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam peace and blessings be upon him mainly from four companions okay from even our home are from Abu Zeid in a hoodie from Abu Hurairah and from Abner rhodiola wand'rin so these four companions are the main transmitters of this particular heavy about a woman if she travels she needs a guardian now so that's something I want us to understand

that this is so let's take a look at these narrations first of all all of these narrations seem to vary in key detail okay in how far can a woman travel without a guardian because did they mean by this that she can't even step outside her house generally speaking no scholars understood that generally speaking maybe some nut cases some control freaks may have had such an understanding but generally speaking nobody in Islam understood things like

that that what they meant was a journey okay even if it was a short journey or a long journey this is what they they didn't mean things like her going into into the streets or into that Street or this street or the markets or things like this because everybody has always been doing that okay now we have a hadith from abnormal this hadith is transmitted way in in the muslim vac met in abu dawood in in the book in sahih al-bukhari in sahih muslim and in these

generations in Sahih Muslim even Omar says that it is impermissible he heard from the Prophet for a woman to travel Allah madhurima Harmon meandher except with Muharram for the last that I am the journey Macerata Salathe am a journey that would take three whole days in one narration in sahih muslim he says Mesilla to salah el al that the journey of three nights right so this is ignore much narration it comes in these books in Buhari in Muslim degenerations

in Abu Dawood in the most environment then we have the narration of of Abu Hurairah Abu Hurairah the narration is interesting he seems to mention it's in Buhari it's in Sahih Muslim it Center maybe it's in Abu Daoud Abu Huraira says he heard the prophets Amos irritate you minhwa Leyla but the journey of one single day and a single night Lisa Maha Hermann he uses the word formal which is like sanctity and used often for a

guardian who there is a sanctity that you can't marry because of now in his narration in sahih muslim he says massara tell Leila the journey of one night otherwise it says in sahih al-bukhari mercier at a yeoman one laila of one day and one night this is this is the kind of transmission we're getting from Abu Huraira which is inside Bukhari since I'm Muslim it's in even imagine its intimacy okay so these kind of you've got these

four okay so one two three four are so these four then abou seasonal Kadri he has a transmission which is interesting it's in Sahih Muslim he says I heard the Prophet say that she cannot undertake Suffern a journey which he who knows the Lassiter a Yemen fficer iDEN that is of three whole days and more for sir Eden and above three whole days in his

narration and that sort of intermediate and there's a narration in Abu Dawood that says Suffern focus velocity a young for Sidon in Abu Dawood his narration of upside in houdry says I heard the prophecy a journey which is more than three whole days and Counting so and in his narration in the mustard of Ahmed he says focal falafel e'en a journey that is more than three whole nights and then he has one in Sahih Muslim which just says the word three thelusson and then it's interesting he

has another one in Muslim and Bihari that says young man a minute aha two whole days of time now so this narration of Abu Zeid Anil Qadri which is in Tommy the Muslim it's in Abu Dawood and Muslim Ahmed all seem to say more than three whole days and Counting his narrations in Muslim and Bihari say other narrations in Muslim birth I say only two days and then his other narration in Muslim says three days then the fourth companion which is it not bus

now he has a narration that mentioned no time span it only says that I heard the prophecy latter suffer that a woman should not travel who believes in online is messenger ulema are the Muharram except with accompanied by a guardian now this is in body it's in Muslim and it's in the most no Department this from ethnic bossy all appears to be one narration why because at the end of it he says the person then asks the Prophet oh but my wife has gone to Hajj in some

he says she's gone in some he says she's intending to go and I have been enlisted for battle so he's about to go on a battle now he says - and the Prophet that she's already gone and I I've been enlisted and the Prophet says go do the Hajj with her join her upon the Hajj he says that in all of those narrations in body Muslim and Ahmed so it shows that this is one man asking and this seems to be one incident with if not bus so these are the four main

companions upon which this whole understanding rests and is built okay of a woman needing a companion now like I mentioned most scholars all accepted this was not talking about a woman just leaving the house and going about the town this was talking about a journey most scholars in the past said that a woman cannot go on a journey journey unless she's a company this was their understanding based on these kind of

honey then came the issue of Oh what about the Hajj if a woman has to go to the Hajj because Allah is telling in the Koran that we he's stating his instructing Oh - tada I'm income that you know who well alayhi Allen a CHL BT that that people have an obligation to go perform the Hajj so here there is a huge disagreement amongst amongst scholars on who can perform the Hajj a woman let's say a woman doesn't have a guardian to go with her

okay now according to certain scholars she can still go that is not a problem okay now amongst them were people like from the cellar if even a serene even a debate side debate these are like even a job a student of it Nappers the chef a chef area the chef or a method said she can go in a group of women Imam Malik had a very open understanding he said she doesn't she can just go with anybody as long as she's accompanied she can go

whether they are men or not but as long as he they used the term rough patent Munna a safe company and they open up all the great Maliki legend from Muslim Spain uses the referee he says the majority of the scholars are upon this whether they are or not one can argue but this is what I've been about all them from Muslim Spain over a thousand years ago in his commentary on sahih bukhari writes in his understanding the majority of scholars are fonda and he says there's a hadith from ignore Omar that he would do Hajj

with with with neighboring with women who were his neighbors they would come with him when he would go to do Hajj so that's their kind of understanding okay now then in this the hanafi madhhab imam abu hanifa said that if the journey was more than three days like it was a lengthy journey the hajj then she can only go if she has a Muharram and the humbly seemed to go alongside with that as this is hearted Narada way as well in his method and I believe a booth phone

as well so these are some of the classical understandings ok now then came another problem you see what's interesting is this problem came that oh well what if a woman was kidnapped and she's dead you know it just goes to show how some of the ala ma thought they say like Oh what if she's kidnapped or an inflamed and taken far away let's say she's taken away a hundred miles

away so she's oh let's say she becomes a Muslim in a non-muslim land that is hostile to her so how can she much but if she runs away let's say she has an opportunity to run away if she runs away oh but she doesn't have a guardian and what's hilarious is some scholars just outright said you know it's an obligation she must still go it's shocking that they actually problematize

this they actually saw this as a problem like mmm and Kamala D nibble on hammam the famous Hanafy his get out close was that well she can she she must still run away because it is a problem but aha we don't call this a journey because in Arabic this won't be called a journey this will

be called an escape honestly I love how hard bit why not just say look get the hell out of there get the hell out of here any chance you get run why not just say something like are you crazy even trying to contemplate these issues just run run run have you heard of Forrest Gump just do a Forrest Gump that's the forget about trying to

justify and the fact that oh well that's because it would apply but this is called an escape it's not called a journey for god sake do you live in the real world this so sometimes you see when people say all the scholars in the past didn't pick up on this issue you've got to understand that they didn't always think the way we think we are thinking within our own environment they were thinking within their own environment and one could ask why was a great scholar like hypno hammam really trying to justify this so much because

the luck and the control that the hanafi madhhab had was a notorious one right so this is y and this is y if no hammam is one of those scholars who actually does disagree with the Hanafi method on a few issues and faces a hell of a lot of slack for it that they actually kind of they've almost dissed him to an opinion that they don't like taking his his anymore within the Hanafi mother and his own student was somebody that disowned him so you can see what they were suffering from so right so that's coming

to this issue and I wanna I'd like to highlight here that you know imam abu hanifa was actually trying to create ease for the woman in his time most of the ulama were going with the understanding that a woman couldn't travel on any journey so he said he took the longest journey which was three whole days and nights so if a woman is to go off on her own for three whole days he said that that's the one we're going to take and in any short journey

she can travel unaccompanied imam abu hanifa was actually trying to make life easy for the women around him what his mother hub of entually started to do was a whole different story okay they then converted this into miles they then like even Abby Dean who really just puts this Eve Nabi Deen you know there's a great scholar but what he did to the hanafi madhhab and I suppose he wasn't the first person but he kind of seals it he turns it into something else honestly he

kind of officially turns it other people before him had already kind of set up this rigid approach and he just kind of locks it into place he says that we're going to not go with Abu Hanifah thing we're gonna go with this one day and one night and and then we're gonna he also reinforces that this should be converted into miles which makes 48 miles and a woman is incapable like she is Islamically incapable of traveling 48 miles and then the shocking thing is okay forget the fact that even a Abby Dean said that people here in the West

in the UK are teaching this now can you believe this so and what's worse is that the UK media has picked up on it so the UK media the independent had an article and the Daily Mail picked up an article in 2016 saying that the Blackburn Muslim Association what it whatever that is for some Association are advising all their Islamic kind of adherents that it is impermissible for a woman to travel 48 miles and if she does she is deserving

of the Hellfire okay she's and this is absurd so you will get women that they allowed to travel 47 miles they allowed to travel 40 7.90 but that final step in eternity you choose that final step this is this one her arm this this step this this just one more one small step one giant leap into the unknown so that you

know that final step that's gonna make it 48 miles that's one small step for a woman one giant leap this is absurd this is ridiculous this one is making mockery of the religion you know this is a mockery of the Deen okay so we're making a mockery people right so now I'm going to come back to arms taking a look at these issues right so these issues people and let's let me give you another example and like the the hanafis the

seller fees especially the saudi seller fees Oh Baba the Saudi seller fees both oh you know these Hannah fees in can be Berkeley layer above the moon they're like whoa they like hmm you think that's controlling will show you controlling so look check this out the Fatah WA that the board of fatwa in Saudi Arabia for tower legend at that

email was asked can a woman traveled without a madam they said yeah i don't wanna learn marathi suffer suffer it's Haram for it to have a journey Badoon madam Mulliken categorically so uh an asura tilma surfer and Pollitz even if it's a long journey or a short journey i

gotta I've gotta act like one of those you know those who did really so and then Chef bimba's chef Mumbai's you've all heard of chef bimba's bimba's is a bit of a sleek name though you gotta say he's got that bombards it's got that kind of ring to it though it sounds like kind of like super hippo more like I don't know like you you're kind of thinking bin bass people say bin baz is gonna come whoa probably picturing like

a super bass a bass but chef minbars who's passed away may Allah have mercy on him and elevate him in Jonah's as elevate every Muslim may Allah have mercy on all of his creation on all in the whole of humanity I mean right so chef bin baz was asked by a saudi a paul so I mean she wasn't pausing financially poor but a an unfortunate teacher

Saudi woman female teacher who said that to go sometimes whilst we're teaching we have to go from them man the the city the man in Saudi Arabia we have to go by bus to some neighboring kind of some vicinities some localities where we we will be having either a session or delivering something and we'll go by the school bus as in the whole the staff bus we're gonna take the bus

can we go he said he said laughs no it is haram because it goes against the hadith of the Prophet so it's interesting that look that these this whole understanding this whole understanding and I don't think somebody said oh they mean I don't think it was I mean allowed women traveling generally either without a guardian I don't think

he did but that some all of my have and I'll come to that in a moment now see let's take a look at all of this what's really going on you see these hadith I've quoted people these hadith were the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam not trying to set boundaries to confine women at all and anybody who thinks that anybody who thinks that has a poor

opinion of the best of creation sallallahu alayhi wasallam the prophet muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was trying to safeguard now during his lifetime medina and the muslim settlement was attacked and was was undergoing huge hostilities neighboring tribes at time you had hot fun and these are the tribes and all these people you had the assad the coalition against the

Prophet you had so many people targeting the targeting the Muslim communities laying kind of CEO opportunists you had an understanding that the kuffar of Quraish said to the prophet of judah bia that any men that if a man is agile congratula NIF a man comes to you who believes you will have to return him to us and the prophet agreed because the muslims needed this they needed to compromise for this safety for for kind

of a peace settlement now at the time when the women came the prophet said we agreed to men but we didn't say woman so we're not gonna send these women back this infuriated the Crafar of Quraish and other tribes as well people were just dying for an opportunity to get the Muslims back now as the time progressed the Muslims Muslims kind of had treaties peace

treaties with varying tribes ok now some of these like so for example sometimes they were neighboring tribes there was let's say hey bird with the Jewish kind of settlement then that gets settled Muslims kind of take over they established this ok that's not a threat anymore then you've got the coalition ok the coalition breaks away some other tribes come in they become friendly now and these ones then well they think well and towards the end of the prophet's life the whole of arabia had pretty much come under an agreement with the prophet

and most of arabia had come under Islam so you see that based on the dangers the vicinity was varying hence the Prophet was saying oh she shouldn't travel one day because right now the tribe a whole day would get a woman this far beyond that is a danger zone then the the peace treaties expand oh who travels to day is okay but beyond that there's a danger zone oh now it's expanded even further three days oh then it expands a bit more

three days and more this was the Prophet trying to safeguard the women because yes men were targets too but women were greater and Sina softer targets by these people okay so this was why the prophesy Ali Salim had said and how how can we prove this well let's go to another hadith right now I want to take you to a hadith which is also in Bukhari now this

hadith in which the Prophet is addressing a companion by the name of our idea even hurt him okay I did not hurt him he's speaking to the prophet and the Prophet says to him he says to him yeah I D do you know where I'll hear is an era is a place a location it's actually located in Iraq it's very far from the Arabian Peninsula especially in that day and age and he says you know I've heard of it this place called adhira

the Prophet says that the Prophet says to him yeah Rd the Internet's bigger hurts that if life stretches for you that if you live a long life you will see litera Hina you will certainly see the ina a woman traveler female traveler setting off from Al Hara coming to Makkah what a too full bait and she will

do the world on her own Latasha without a half of alone she will fear none except Allah and in another rewire it says to chicken Athena that the prophet said to him that the female traveler and the huge be lady with a ritual without anybody to neighbour her on her own she will come and she will come to Mecca and she will do tow off not fearing anybody but Allah and I'd even heard him say that I thought when the Prophet said this I was

thinking to myself but where's where is that happening from all the massacre bloodshed and rioting that these people the the looting that these tribes are doing how could she come past all of this see even he is thinking of the danger yet he says wallahi in my old age I saw the the hyena a woman coming from that place to Makkah on her own not fearing nobody except Allah but that much stability had come about in the region during that time and the prophecy

of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam had manifested and these are the amazing kind of hadith that we see that people have turned a blind eye to and this is why certain scholars they have been like Abdullah Marcel Oh bacon who is a Salafi kind of Saudi scholar who said that are people crazy that are saying a woman can't travel on her own where are they from this hadith and people like cher admin Parsa Mohammed II Nadja with even Java dramedy as well but she happened Casa Mohammed II from Saudi Arabia and

even chef Dada has a fatwa on a woman traveling by aeroplane and things like this and this ruling has existed in in the methods and I'd like to quote to you from this is a commentary on the motto of Imam Malik by the legend from Muslim Spain I would Walid al Burgi who's almost from a thousand years ago it passes away in 4/9 for Hillary now there is a hadith the with the prop this comes speaking about the head jewel

Murat and that a woman needs a guardian if she's gonna go on Hajj okay now check this out I will Walid al bhaji I will do little bhaji he says okay the hadith of Abu Zeid Raad rely on Allah Martin took me noble Emil Artin and to suffer Mesilla - you mean well laila allama adama I mean mean had that this hadith of abu saeed that a woman cannot go a day or night journey without Muharram he says this is not an obligatory journey this is generally in blah blah blah he gives

this example and then he says well Karl Imam Oh able to elite are below elite and this is a style by the way of the legacy of our scholars especially the Maliki's and other people they often used cuneus okay Abu I will relieve they always usually went with their cuneus even after but always goes with Abu Omar and hence you have a belief in front of you people he says what would you like Andy right so he's speaking about who you should go with and so mass Allah when Allah had led that care about the

house happiness he says this which some of our Lama said that oh a woman must go accompanied and stuff like this in in the man who are fee Hal in the mouth sorry the muscle and not that about a woman must or neuron that he says this which some of our ulema have mentioned that traveling with if you're accompanied by the certain relatives that you didn't get on with for example he speaks about like they give the example of raba he says in nama who are fee Holly in Fiat while other Delia's here this is when we're speaking about a very small number of people traveling or

if the woman is traveling on her own now listen to this for America waffle Allah or diamond this is almost a thousand years ago says as two large caravans what Oracle mosh terracotta la mera al Munna and as two great highways when many people go on these highways and they are safe he says for in ha I'm the mythril balada Latia Kuna feel us work what to job these to me are like marketplaces where everybody is mixed for in Menomonee a

saloon a dune the Muharram in wa lam raha a woman is safely without any guardian all without any female companion a woman can go to the marketplaces and he says and this is what imam Hosea he had also taught and that is from his and what is great as well you see the legend in our Malik when he transmits this hadith in his mother in his German where he's speaking about a woman traveling with a do Muharram he begins he brings three a hadith in that book and he begins it by the hadith

that the Prophet said two men traveling or shaytan's or they like one is a Shaitaan two or two shaytans but three three of companions why was the Prophet and then Imam Malik wings the hadith let not a woman travel except with the Muharram now you tell me why is the prophet calling two people traveling Devils this was religious rhetoric too kind that was used in the day and age to safeguard them because there was hostile territory okay so this is to kind of bring to our understanding

people the that women can travel of course they can travel and I was reading a fatwa by some selfies they said Oh some people say that look they said that shared Mustafa's our car from sham in the past had given the fatwa woman can travel by aeroplane it's absolutely fine and she can be received on the other end and people like Cher said that as well and so somebody said no I was reading the criticism and they said because really the safety that these people are saying is in airports

is it really there and if the woman gets in danger like she's attacked really she needs the husband who can truly take care of these unlike the security staff at an airport I mean really the husband's probably thinking okay I've gotta take on

everybody I mean the security of God's sake this trained security guards but but I've gotta be the soul warrior I mean this is the kind of thinking that these people are carrying that know if a woman was to come under attack unlike the security and a nipple the true safety can only be undertaken by the husband who who must it is I I am here step back here real for God's sake what

is wrong with people Wow Wow so this is so yes it is absolutely fine for a woman to travel on her own as and the key thing was all about safety okay and please stop circulating these rulings about 48 miles it is really making a mockery of the Deen and people need to really open up and then then they ask me why do I think some of these colors in the UK you know are building caves not communities you know to quote imam sahib web that look because

are they doing that is because look you can't this is bizarre that you're asking women that they can travel 47 miles and not 48 it's absurd right so please please please people like Ivan Walid al bhaji were ahead of you and they were a thousand years ago so Live Love Laugh & learn people right so that's some of the interesting