# Does a hadith tell women to pray in a closet?

*Makhda' means an inner chamber, not a closet*

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/kusevqg0low/s/2/
- Date: 2019-05-04 · Kind: lesson · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Daniel Haqiqatjou and Women praying in the Wardrobe -Mufti Abu Layth (5:33–9:26)
- Status: general teaching
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuSevqg0low&t=333s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/kusevqg0low/

**Topics:** Women in worship and mosques; Quranic Arabic; Responses to critics

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** No: the word makhda' means an inner sleeping chamber, not a closet, and such rooms were dark only because houses had no lamps.

**Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth says the makhda' in these reports was the sleeping chamber within the inner part of a house, not a closet or cupboard.

**Evidence, his words at 8:08:** “this was called a Mazda okay now it is not a closet that people had you could even if he said the term chambers he could have said chambers but not a closet it's not a cupboard” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuSevqg0low&t=488s)

## Longer summary

Mufti Abu Layth says that, apart from being ridiculously weak or fabricated and clashing with the sahih hadith and the practice of the Prophet and his wives, the reports are mistranslated: the Arabic word is makhda', not 'closet'. He explains that a house (bayt or dar) had a front sitting area, an inner part, and a sleeping quarter called the makhda', described as a small inner room within a larger residence, which could be called a chamber but not a cupboard. Such rooms were dark, he says, because, as Aisha says in a hadith, houses had no lamps in those days, not because people sought darkness. He concludes that the critic has no idea what a makhda' is.

## Sources and names cited

- Daniel Haqiqatjou
- makhda' (inner chamber)
- Aisha
- report: the houses in those days had no lamps (Aisha)

## Transcript (machine tier, 5:33–9:26)

[5:32] so first of all first of all first of all apart from the fact that these hadith are ridiculously weak unacceptable absurd clash with the teaching of the prophets of the Prophet clash with the practice of the Prophet and his wives they clash with the hadith in the other books ah he Muslims I Hadi they go against the lifetime of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi Salam and the clear teachings in the Quran but do not show any of these kind of distinctions right not only that many of these

[6:10] reports like I mentioned are either fabricated all week right but let's just stop there before we even get into I'd like to go over some of these reports but before we even get into that I want to mention something where did he get this term closet I want her to just pause here right the Arabic term right the Arabic term is Mazda Mazda right so him saying a woman praying in the closet right some kind of wardrobe or some kind

[6:50] of cupboard right first of all just shows his level of Arabic this is the person who is is so intelligent that he thinks a Mazda is some kind of a closet that women had back then okay he is secondly then assuming this closet is part of the Sunnah teachings so let me tell you in the past the houses of the of the way people had them and they called a general house abate okay a house or a DA and that had a Hodja in it

[7:29] which would usually not always but often be like a kind of front room that would be the sitting area and the kind of part of the courtyard that would kinda mix it was a private where people would often be then you had the internal part of the house which was called the bait they may have cooked here they may have kept things they may have and then they had a bedroom right now that section which was set off for the bedroom was usually called a Mazda okay oh they describe it as a bait on servive dahil elvatyl kabir like a small inner quarters within a larger

[8:08] residence this was called a Mazda okay now it is not a closet that people had you could even if he said the term chambers he could have said chambers but not a closet it's not a cupboard and the reason they were dark was not because they used to darken them that i know let's climb inside the wardrobe and shut the door it's because as I shadowed the allahu anhu says in the hadith which is sorry world boots lay set Fiamma Serbia young maize that in that day and age the homes of people

[8:46] didn't have lamps in them so people never had land and so naturally because this the actual sleeping quarters was right in in one corner and at a distant location it would naturally not always but often maybe dark for sleeping purposes make sense so that's the that's why it's not because they would say all you know let's all get in the dark and do things like this okay now so I just wanted to clear this up so he has no idea what a master is and this goes back to those of you by the way those of you that know the famous

[9:25] you probably won't know the poem but ma salem al khattab for example in his in that famous poem where he marries that the prophetess the the famous she's also a false prophet what's her name suggest a jacket availabe yeah so it's ok those of you that don't know there was a after the prophet there was this obviously there were many false prophets that emerged during the time of a worker or the alarm on amongst the Musa Lama who's referred to as ma salem al kitab but there were other people as well and so amongst them was such a at ala BIA this

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment KuSevqg0low/s/2. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/kusevqg0low/s/2/

Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.