Men mixing with women in Tawaaf from a Sharee‘ah perspective
19-1-2014 | IslamWeb
Question:
My question pertains to what takes place in Hajj, particularly when people throng when performing Tawaaf and throwing the pebbles, where male and female pilgrims who are foreign to each other thrust with their bodies sticking to each other, which makes them sense the details of the body, and thus injures the dignity of the female pilgrim and turns one from the familiar concept of assembly and from the principle that Hajj is the woman's Jihaad.My question is: Does such a setting not break the ablution of the pilgrims, particularly those settings for which ablution is required? Does this not deserve more diligence on the part of the officials, to make women's Tawaaf more dignified?
Answer:
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His Slave and Messenger.
The basic rule is that women should perform Tawaaf behind men, and not mix with them. If the people cannot abide by that, or if they violate it either unintentionally or intentionally, it becomes incumbent upon the Muslim person to guard himself and endeavor to avoid what does not please Allaah Almighty as much as he could. Let him lower his gaze and engage his tongue and heart in supplication, Thikr and the like. If a man's body happens to touch a woman's, it is due on him to move away as much as he could, and not to persist in that. Mere touching does not break ablution according to the preponderant opinion of scholars.