Women's Role in Guiding and Assisting Visitors

In Allah's name, Most Merciful, Compassionate. Praise be to Allah.

Peace and blessings be upon His chosen Prophet.

our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, his family, and all his Companions. Now then.

I thank Allah, then I thank the General Presidency for Religious Affairs.

represented by the Agency for Religious Affairs at the Prophet's Mosque.

for giving me the opportunity to participate in this academic paper.

titled: Women's role in guiding and advising visitors: fatwa as a model.

Speaking about women's role in guidance and counseling is

It is about the role of the General Presidency's Agency for Religious Affairs.

at al-Haram and the Prophet's Mosque, and the role of its Guidance Agency.

and the role of the Inquirers' Guidance Dept.

These departments were only established to guide visitors and advise them.

whether through fatwa, as will be shown, or otherwise.

Among what has been heard and seen is a Report device for Haramain visitors.

With simultaneous translation in it in eleven languages.

Likewise, devices have been provided to connect with shaykhs remotely.

And guidance and informational materials were provided in many languages.

And much more, all to make fatwa easier for those who need it.

All that shows the departments named earlier are doing the work assigned.

And while mentioning this development and progress with pride and honor.

Yet it is only one means and method of guidance and direction.

And it fills a great need in many matters.

But it cannot replace a human, with feelings and a smile.

his asking, probing further, and noting the asker's state.

Likewise, a man cannot fill a woman's role in guidance or counsel.

Each has a role to play. And women have private questions.

In many cases, a woman may confide in another woman.

what she may not tell her husband, much less a stranger.

A woman may understand the female asker's state and feelings.

And what lies within her words may not occur to a man.

Likewise, a woman's strong emotions can weaken her work and judgment.

The hadith forbidding women to visit graves.

And other such cases support the point I mean.

Therefore, a female guide and mufti among visiting women is necessary.

She sees a lack and remedies it, and an error and corrects it.

She sees a wrong, forbids it, and it is abandoned.

And ignorance, which she dispels by Allah's leave.

All this eases knowledge and practice, after Allah grants success

to women visiting the Prophet's Mosque.

If the importance of having a woman guide, and of her role, is clear.

As for guiding female visitors, in broad terms.

Her role will now be explained in some further detail.

And before detailing women's role in guidance and direction.

The paper discussed defining fatwa and its link to guidance and direction.

It showed that fatwa reports Allah ﷻ's ruling on what is asked.

It is clarification and guidance on the Sharia ruling, not imposing it.

A fatwa is an answer to a question. That is common in guidance and direction.

at the Prophet's Mosque, where female visitors ask many questions.

These need the Sharia ruling explained to them.

In this sense, fatwa is narrower than guidance and direction.

Guidance may explain the Sharia ruling to one who asked, or one who did not.

So teaching and the like are included. Guidance may also give a Sharia ruling.

It may also concern things other than rulings, like people or places.

Fatwa is broader in common use than in technical usage.

For in common usage, it includes one who relays another's Sharia ruling.

For example: 'Shaykh Abd al-Aziz ibn Baz RH said such-and-such.'

Or: 'Shaykh Ibn Uthaymin RH ruled such-and-such.'

And the one conveying it need not meet the conditions of a mufti.

It is enough that he know and accurately relay it.

The paper also addressed whether women may issue fatwas.

There is no dispute that women may do so.

Al-Nawawi RH said: Among a mufti's conditions is that he be Muslim.

That he be accountable, Muslim, trustworthy, and reliable.

Free of causes of immorality and breaches of propriety.

With fiqh insight, clear-minded, and level-headed.

Sound in judgment and deduction, and alert—these apply

equally to free persons, slaves, and women, etc.

Islamic history is full of examples of women issuing fatwa.

since the time of the Companions (RA).

Foremost among them was Aisha, Mother of the Believers (RA).

Men and women sought her for fatwa.

Ibn al-Qayyim RH counted among the Companions those who gave many fatwas.

And he mentioned among them Aisha (RA).

He counted Umm Salama (RA) among the moderate muftis.

And Safiyyah and Hafsah, Mothers of the Believers (RA), gave few fatwas.

After those introductions, I cited what women do in the Prophet's Mosque.

Women's role in guidance and fatwa for women, through the following points.

First, there are existing services by the Guidance and Counseling Agency.

through the Inquirers' Affairs Department. Women provide them, just as men do.

That includes designating locations inside the mosque.

They are placed to receive visitors' questions, apart from the main office.

And eight phone booths were set up four of them on the eastern side.

and four on the western side, to answer their questions.

A select group of scholars answer them.

with dedicated toll-free numbers to guide callers by phone.

Second, the success of guidance, counsel, and fatwa for seekers

depends, after Allah ﷻ's help, on the strength of the truth to be conveyed.

and the right way to convey it, while knowing the one addressed.

The first two require real knowledge and insight into the ruling.

Say, 'This is my way: I call to Allah ﷻ with insight.' It requires

To convey it: ability, skill, training, and wisdom, as will follow, Allah willing.

As for the third—knowing the invitee's state—it is no less vital.

This is shown by the hadith of Mu'adh when the Prophet ﷺ sent him.

to Yemen and told him their state. "You are going to a people of the Book."

Then he explained the wisdom in what he should call them to first.

Female visitors to the Prophet's Mosque vary in approach, madhhabs, creed.

Some come with prior positive or negative views of the Haramain's people.

Some are educated; some illiterate. Some are argumentative and obstinate.

Others are ignorant and inquire with good intent.

Each one requires her own approach: ignore or guide her.

Since guidance, counsel, and fatwa hinge on knowing truth and conveying it.

So the women working in guidance and counseling took special care.

to identify the most frequent questions through a survey for them.

This paper addressed them for study and to unify fatwas and guidance.

Fatwas of the Council of Senior Scholars were cited in it.

Thus they attain knowledge and insight

And experience in the work amid many female questioners

gives the female guide experience and skill in rightly conveying truth.

There are also training courses held from time to time.

to improve the staff's skills in dealing best with visitors.

Third, among the roles women play in the Prophet's Mosque.

are guidance and giving fatwas to women.

holding seasonal lessons on the rulings of visitation, Hajj, and Umrah.

while leaving a large part of the lesson for answering female questioners.

Twelve chairs for guidance and instruction were set up for women.

Among what deserves praise, mention, and thanks is what we heard last Hajj.

An initiative called the Imams' Chair for fatwa and answering questioners.

At the Prophet's Mosque, where its imams and its preachers give fatwa and guidance.

It is an initiative whose scope must be expanded to provide fatwa chairs.

for qualified female scholars, with Madinah scholarly institutions.

Fourth, among the announcements by the Guidance and Counseling Agency

Represented by the Department of Teaching Affairs and Quran circles.

announcing 1,000 Qur'an teaching circles.

Within it are a thousand male and female guides who teach visitors, men and women.

Usually, sitting before the male or female teacher includes Q&A and guidance.

Fifth: drawing on the wives of scholarship students at Islamic Univ.

for translation and guidance in their native tongue, by hiring them.

That is after selecting those qualified among them in creed and knowledge.

This is already a practical reality. No doubt it aids grasp and acceptance.

and better conveys the message.

Help can also be sought from students at the Prophet's Mosque College.

of different nationalities, to benefit from them in translation.

to make use of every possible means to serve women visitors.

Sixth: guidance and teaching through year-round study or hifz circles

This gives resident local women culture and knowledge whose fruits return.

most of all to the women visitors to Masjid Nabawi.

stressing the importance of

Caring for them through direct guidance or leaflets.

Especially study-circle teachers, so they can actively guide women visitors.

while in the mosque, guiding them and students to official desks

and explaining services for women.

Then the paper concluded by listing women visitors' most frequent questions.

with answers, and it limited itself

by citing fatwas of Saudi Arabia's Permanent Scholarly Research Committee

If none were found, then from the fatwas of Shaykh Ibn Baz RH, perhaps

a resource for women muftis and guides.

And in the hope that it will be printed after review by Religious Affairs.

at the General Presidency for the Haramain, and in multiple languages.

for distribution to women visitors to achieve the goal

The hoped-for goal: guiding them to correct practice. And Allah knows best.

And peace and blessings on our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, his family, all Companions.

[Birds chirping].