Can Muslim women attend Eid-prayer?
Thanks to all for your Eid wishes.. My advance Vijayadashami/Dasara wishes to all my readers. May all of us have a kick start is work and learning 🙂 Until the end of college days,Pooja days were eagerly looked forward to,for 3 day-holidays were celebrated by dumping books in shelves as if there were put for Pooja in temples. When mother says,”We muslims don’t put books for Pooja’,I’ld say,”Never mind,let them (books) take rest for threee days ” 😉 ..Now,life has changed and at this moment,and I hope I’ld be able to put all kitchen utensils for Pooja for three long days..hee hee,what an idea!!! Let me give it a try,will let you know the result 
Yes,my Eid was a nice one.. All family members caught up together and had a nice time..Kids were moving around laughing,crying,yelling..Lots of dance-masti and singing..It was all fun ,with lot of happiness.. But I felt it incomplete without being able to attend Eidgah.. I used to attend Eid prayer,before marriage..Here,people are bit conservative in reliigous matters,and women are not allowed/are not supposed/are not interested in attending Eidgah..I have no issues with people who are not interested in doing a particular act,but claming that it is wrong,just because older generations ‘used to do so; ,is unacceptable..One is free to have their own versions of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’..So here is my version of ‘right’.. You are free to accept it or reject it..
It is better for women to go out to the Eid prayer. This was enjoined by the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him).
Al-Bukhaari (324) and Muslim (890) narrated that Umm ‘Atiyyah (may Allaah be pleased with her) said: The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) commanded us to bring them (women) out on (Eid) al-Fitr and (Eid) al-Adha, and to bring out adolescent girls, menstruating women and virgins, but the menstruating women were to stay away from the prayer, but were to witness goodness and the gathering of the Muslims. I said: “O Messenger of Allaah, what if one of us does not have a jilbaab?” He said: “Let her sister lend her a jilbab.”
Al-Haafiz said: This shows that it is mustahabb for women to come out and attend the Eid prayers, whether they are young or not.
Al-Shawkaani said: This and similar hadeeths indicate that it is prescribed in sharee’ah for women to come out to the prayer-place, with no differentiation between virgins and non-virgins, young or old, menstruating or otherwise, so long as they are not going through ‘iddah (following divorce or death of their husband) or their coming out will be a cause of fitnah or they have an excuse.
Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen was asked: what is better for a woman, to come out to the Eid prayer or to stay at home?
He replied: It is better for them to go out to Eid prayer, because the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) enjoined that the women go out to the Eid prayer, even the adolescent girls and virgins – i.e., women who do not ordinarily go out. He commanded them to go out, and he told the menstruating women to go out but to keep away from the prayer-place. So menstruating women should go out with other women for Eid, but they should not enter the place where the Eid prayer is offered, because the Eid prayer-place is a mosque and it is not permissible for a menstruating woman to stay there, but it is permissible for her to pass through or to take something she needs from it, without staying there. Based on this we say: women are commanded to go out to the Eid prayer and join the men in this prayer, because of the goodness, dhikr and du’aa’ they may experience there.
Majmoo’ Fataawa al-Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen, 16/210.
He also said: But they must go out looking decent, not wearing adornment, makeup or perfume, so that they may combine following the Sunnah with avoiding fitnah.
What some women do of wearing adornment, makeup and perfume is because of their ignorance and negligence on the part of their guardians. This does not cancel out the general shar’i ruling, which is that women are commanded to go out to the Eid prayer.
Are Indian Muslims busy walking backward,to that era before 1400 years ? 😕
Nimmy's Experiment with Blogging 
First of all happy Eid!!
Nimmy I had met these girls from African countries, and they were unhappy about the system in India. They said women could go inside the Mosque over there.
Rules are different in different countries? Means it is not religion but customs that are being followed?
Thanks for the wishes IHM..
“Rules are different in different countries?”
Regional customs and traditions have made their way into religions,all of them… Dowry is an indian custom,but all indian muslims religiously follow that..Likewise,there has been to and fro intake or various rituals and this ended up in different versions of a single religion..I’ld quote Shaban Azmi ” I think that the 9/11 crisis also became an opportunity ,because it was the first time that muslims got together to make the world realize that Islam is not homogeneous,that it resides in 53 countries of the world ,and become the cultre of the country in which it resides..Islam is liberal in some countries,moderate in others,intolerant in some and extremist in others…”
Everybody claims that their version is the right one,but God alone knows 🙂
Eid Mubarak!
As you have clearly shown here, women are supposed to go for Eid prayers.
First of all, Eid Mubarak!
And lol! Put the utensils for puja, I am sure they will need a very big mandap! 😀
agree with IHM on the customs thing. when its a place of worship, why not follow the religion and not the ever changing customs?
Eid Mubarak, Nimmy!
Hope you have a fun time putting the vessels to puja. That is an excellent idea! I am going to tell my husband that. Only risk is that he might ask me to put my laptop for Puja too 🙂
As for the custom – that’s very interesting. Am sure people like you can make all the difference in pointing out these things. Am sure things will change slowly.
I am in complete awe of your knowledge!! Hats off!! I am just speechless..
I have never seen women in India atleast the cities I have lived in (Kolkata, Hyderabad, Pune) going to Mosque not for Eid prayer and not for any other prayer, but i had seen women in US going to mosque in Eid and also in Evening prayer during Ramadan and I think i have seen then in Friday’s zumma prayer, too, so the different rule in different country confuses me, because Islam was never meant like this!!
And what’s your opinion on women offering regular prayer at mosques? can they do it? this is a real eye openner for me!!
Hi Nimmy,
I think you missed the question I asked about praying daily prayer for women in mosque. If you have any knowledge about it, can you please share with me.
Thanks.
Nimmy, Eid Mubarak! I’m glad you had a nice time getting together with the family. Putting the utensils away for the holiday is a wonderful idea- I wonder no one thought of that before!:)
Re: The custom of going /not going for Eid prayers- I have to say that I have observed that it is the same in all religions. Some communities are ready to be more liberal regarding women- some are not.:(
I think it is high time for women of all religious beliefs to come out of their shackles and say boldly that we will not follow a religion that consider them as second class citizens
heheheh 😀 i laughed like crazy abt u keeping the kitchen utensils out! what a fantastic idea!
i say we’d have gone broke n starving if our moms kept doing that!!
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there is nothing that gets me irritated more than the gender segregation and oppression in the contemporary islam. where i am, women do get to the mosque for eid prayers and many of them don’t even dress up like muslim women, which is heartening to see.
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some name it ‘original’ islam,some name it extremism..Call it anything,oppression is opression,period..
It is Saudi’s that made their tradiitonal dress as that of global muslims..I hate that black dress.. -Nimmy
Take it easy, Nimmy. Don’t ‘hate’. At least, try not to ‘hate’. The world needs less of hate and more of love, don’t you think :)?
Visiting after long – Hope you had a great Eid Nimmy and that you got to keep your kitchen stuff away for all 3 days!
So what finally happened? Did you go for Eid prayers?
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:)Thanks for coming Cris… No,I didn’t go for Eid prayer as no women here does so… And yes,i put my utensils for pooja,will have a post on that 🙂 -Nimmy
Charakan,Manju,Rohini,Ashwathy,Bloggerchat team, Mustaf,Smitha and Kashif….Thanks a lot for your wishes and thoughts..For some odd reason,wordpress doesn’t allow me to reply to comments in personal,except a few..Its been an hour since i’ve been trying to reply in individual,but in vain…
I put my kitchen weapons for pooja,will have a post on it 🙂
First off, Eid Mubarak, Nimmy. Hope you had a nice one.
I am wondering where you live because last when i visited you blog, I took away with me some idea that you lived somewhere in the Middle East, where there is a great tradition of everyone going out for the Eid prayer, irrespective of whether they were praying that day or not.
There are several places in India too where women attend the Eid prayer.
It’s a wonderful and joyous occasion and the atmosphere of the ‘Eidgah’, which is usually a large empty tract of land which can accomodate the gathering on the day, is something memorable indeed. Definitely something to miss if you have been used to going and can’t go again for some reason.
For the last 3 years, I hadn’t been attending the Eid prayers because a) they were too early and therefore b) too cold for the children.
This year, however, we were able to go as a family and it was a beautiful experience. Part of the beauty of the Eid – a large part – is seeing the children in their fancy clothes, playing with their friends, and just generally enjoying themselves in their fullest holiday mood.
I realize I went off-tangent to your post, and I do hope you have a happier Eid next time :).
late in coming here…I’ve missed out on quite a bit of your interesting posts.I realized I’vnt blogrolled you yet…doing it rightaway,Nimmy 🙂
Glad you had a wonderful Eid 🙂
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