Al-Albaani on Gender Role Confusion · Who Goes Out to Work and Who Stays Home? · Who’s the Foreign Minister and Who’s the Interior Minister? Who Cleans and Who Cooks? Who Attends to Raising the Kids?
Questioner: Is it allowed for a man, is it allowed for a husband to permit his wife to go out to teach while wearing [correct] Islamic clothing [libās sharʿī]?
Al-Albaani: If this is the whole question it’s ok but it is missing something: where does she teach? Does she mix with men or not?
Questioner: She doesn’t mix with men.
Al-Albaani: She doesn’t?
Questioner: No.
Al-Albaani: Yaʿnī, she teaches girls?
Questioner: Yes, girls.
Al-Albaani: And no men go to her?
Questioner: No men go to her.
Al-Albaani: If it is with these restrictions then it is allowed. But what about her livelihood?
Questioner: Sorry?
Al-Albaani: Her livelihood, her wage?
Questioner: From the Ministry.
Al-Albaani: Her wage?
Questioner: From the Ministry.
Al-Albaani: No this is not what I’m asking.
Questioner: Okay.
Al-Albaani: Her wage, who’s it spent on? Herself or you or him?
Questioner: On her and her husband.
Al-Albaani: On her and her husband.
Questioner: Yes.
Al-Albaani: And she’s content with that?
Questioner: She’s content.
Al-Albaani: Okay, there’s no harm in that with those conditions. But does she have children?
Questioner: She has children.
Al-Albaani: Who takes care of them?
Questioner: The father of course.
Al-Albaani: Here the āyah has been turned upside down.
Questioner: Why?
Al-Albaani: The father is the Foreign Minister and the wife is the Interior Minister. Now you have reversed the Divine System.
Questioner: Subḥānallāh!
Al-Albaani: Yaʿnī, I fear that a day will come when the Foreign Minister, who is the husband, will cook and clean [lit: ‘sweep’], and she is the one who will go out and teach, so she becomes the Foreign Minister.
Questioner: And he becomes the Interior Minister.
Al-Albaani: Yes. This is a reversal of the Divine System. It is not allowed.
Questioner: It’s not allowed.
Al-Albaani: But if it was at the start of the marriage, or he’s been tested with infertility—and Allaah is the One who knows the wisdom behind all things related to His Creation—
Questioner: Subḥānallāh!
Al-Albaani: … and she is wearing the ḥijāb and is practising and doesn’t mix with men then Allaah can help the girls through her, as for if she does have kids then she must attend to raising them and the man must set his Ministry aright by working outside the home.
The home is for the women not the men.
That is why in the Noble Qurʾan the Lord of all Worlds said, “And stay in your homes, and do not display yourselves as women did in the days of ˹pre-Islamic˺ ignorance,” [Al-Aḥzāb 33:33] the āyah mentions two things which can go together or be separated: [a sister who is covered] might not go out and display herself like the women of pre-Islamic ignorance did—but [yet] she [still] goes out unnecessarily or without any urgent or pressing need. So the principle foundation regarding women as some of the past scholars, [some of the] verifier-scholars [muḥaqqiqūn] said is that the women remain sitting and it is the men that go forward.
Now [even] in this question where some good things were mentioned [like the sister covering and there being no free-mixing etc.] the āyah has been turned on its head, let alone [it being turned on its head with] the state of many women today where they work in official departments, labs, factories. All of this opposes the legislation.
So, if you are asking about yourself and your wife then order her to stick to her house, and you—find work for yourself. And if you are asking on behalf of a friend of yours then convey this to him, and I entrust you with conveying what you have heard.
And there is nothing on us but to convey the message.
Al-Hudā wan-Nūr, 160.
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