In Need Of This Reminder

Several traditions of the Prophet endorse this view. In several verses, the Quran says: “For Muslim men and women For believing men and women, for men and women who are patient and constant, for men and women who humble themselves, for men and women who give in charity. There is no authentic prohibitory order forbidding women to enter graveyards. Several verses in the Quran speak in the same vein.The writer is professor of Wholesale Lycra Fabric Islamic Studies and director-general, The Wisdom Foundation end-of. It was never to go there and pray for ourselves, or make the dead speak or help us in our prayers. Further, Imam Jafar al-Sadiq narrated that Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet used to visit the grave of her grand uncle Hamza ibn Abd al-Muttalib every Friday.” There was no mention that it is not permissible for women to visit graves.. It must be stated that there is no segregation of women in the obligatory duty of the Haj pilgrimage obligatory upon all Muslim men and women. (Muslim and Nasai and other authorities as well. Hazrat Umar requested to get buried beside the tomb of Prophet (Bukhari narrates in his Sahih, Book of Janaiz or funeral) .

“When Umar was stabbed he sent his son Abd Allah with a message to Ayesha to ‘Ask her if I can be buried with my two companions,’ that is, in her room, next to the Prophet and Abu Bakr. Ayesha replied: ‘I wanted the spot for myself, but I shall put him (Umar) before me today’. The negative approach articulated by a strong patriarchy is far from the ideals and values of Islam where women and men stand on an equal spiritual ground and are assigned the same religious duties and the equivalent spiritual rewards.” The Barelvis who are also Hanafis, the Malikis, the Shiahs hold it permissible for women to enter the sancta sanctorum of a dargah.)Hazrat Ayesha often visited Hence the purpose of visiting graves is a reminder of the inevitability of death and remembrance of the hereafter. There is no authentic scriptural injunction in Islam for debarring equal rights to women or the entry of women into the sancta sanctorum of a dargah or mausoleum.

The Haji Ali Dargah in 2011 abruptly barred women from entry to the sancta sanctorum, reverting its earlier stance where there was no restriction of space for the entry of women to the confined area. It is interwoven within the mosaic and fabric of our great country India.It must be noted that in Islam worship is meant only for God and there is no second opinion on that. In India, without fuss, men and women of every faith and creed visit the celebrated shrine of the Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti and several others. The negative implication in the contemporary Muslim world where women are barred from entry to the sancta sanctorum is not witnessed in several Muslim countries. Islam endorses the Constitutional clause. Men are by no means more in need of this reminder than women. Women were not excluded from this approval. Imam Malik, some Hanafi scholars and most of the scholars hold it permissible for women to visit graves basing their understanding on the following tradition from Hazrat Ayesha when she once asked the Prophet what should she say when visiting graves and he replied “Greetings to you, people of the abodes among the men and women believers! May Allah grant mercy to those of you and us who went ahead and those who tarried back! Truly we shall — if Allah wills — join up with you.