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Fatwa CenterRuling regarding Umrah
Question
I am working as a Daiya in Kuwait. Post of my job requires me to guide new Muslims to go to Umra without a Mahram. What is the ruling about this practice?
Answer
Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds; and blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his Family and Companions.
All the Muslim Scholars agreed unanimously that woman's traveling without being accompanied by a Mahram (unmarriageable person) is forbidden as long as there is any probability of temptation. They disagreed about this if there is no chance of temptation at all. Some Scholars believe that woman traveling without being accompanied by a Mahram is prohibited under all circumstances. They establish their view on the following Hadith. The Prophet said: "No woman who believes in Allah and the Last Day should travel a distance of a day and night journey unless her Mahram is with her". Ibn Abbas reported: "The man must not be alone with a woman except in the presence of her (Mahram). No woman should travel except in the company of a (Mahram). A man said: " O Messenger of Allah! I have been enrolled for such and such expedition, and my wife left for Hajj. He (Blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said to him: " Go and perform Hajj with your wife". (Al Bukhari & Muslim).
Based on the mentioned Ahadith the Hanabilah, Ahnaf and Zahiriyah prohibited that a woman regardless of her age should not travel, anywhere regardless of its distance without being accompanied by a Mahram. Shafiyah and Malikiyah permitted her to travel provided that she be accompanied by a trusted group of women and that the roads are peaceful. Some of them limited this permission to traveling, with trusted women, to perform obligatory Hajj only. Shaik ul-Islam Ibn Taymiyah supported this viewpoint. He said: "A woman can perform Hajj without Maharam (unmarrigeable relatives) if she is in peace and does not have any fear about herself." Some Scholars differentiate between young and aged women; they permitted the latter while they prohibited the former. It is better not to take this as an easy matter, hence the prohibition is not specific to a particular group of women. And a woman could face some situations, in which no one could be an alternate for a Mahram. Allah knows best.
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