How to Perform Salah (For Women)

A WOMAN’S PERFORMING SALAT

It is written in Ni’mat-i Islam: 

“When beginning to perform salat, a woman raises both hands up to the level of her shoulders. 

While standing she puts her right hand on the left hand. But she does not grasp her left wrist with the fingers of her right hand. She puts her hands on her breast. 

While making ruku [1], her hands are placed on the knees, but she does not grasp them. She keeps her fingers closed together. She does not keep her legs straight, nor her back level.

While making sajda (prostration), she lowers herself, bringing her arms to her sides while she keeps her abdomen placed over her thighs. She sits on the buttocks, her legs inclined towards right. 

A woman cannot be an imam for men. It is makruh [2] for a woman to be an imam for other women. If they follow a man as imam, they should be in the last line of the jama’at (congregation).

If a woman is kissed (while performing salat), her salat will be nullified.

While performing salat in jama’at, if a woman stands beside or in front of a man, the man’s salat will be fasid (nullified). The man should signal to the woman to move behind. If she does not do as she is beckoned, in that case, only the woman’s salat will become fasid (invalid).

In case of a baby crying or of food boiling over the fire, leaving the salat is permissible for a woman.

A woman does not strecth her hands forward while making dua (suplication), but she keeps them inclined towards her face.

[1] ruku: bowing during the prayer of namaz.
[2] makruh: (act, thing) improper, disliked and abstained by the Prophet (‘alaihi ‘s-salam); makruh tahrima: prohibited with much stress.

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- How should women dress when performing namâz at home?
- What are the differences between the namâzes of men and those of women?

What are the differences between the namâzes of men and those of women?

Question: What are the differences between the namâzes of men and those of women?
ANSWERThey are:

1- When beginning to perform namâz, a woman raises both hands up to the level of her shoulders. She does not grasp her left wrist with the fingers of her right hand. She puts her hands on her breast, right hand on top of the left.

 

 2- While making ruku’, she bends less as compared to men, and she does not bring the heel of her left foot near her right foot. She does not keep her legs straight, nor her back level. She puts her hands on her knees, but she does not grasp them. Also, she does not keep her fingers wide apart.

3- When making sajda, she lays her arms on the ground, bringing her arms to her sides while she keeps her abdomen placed over her thighs.

 4- In the tashahhud [sitting posture], she sits on the buttocks, her feet jutting out towards right. She keeps her toes adjacent to one another.

5- She does not stretch her hands forward while making du’â, but she keeps them inclined towards her face.

6- It is not mustahab for her to perform the morning prayer (namâz) when it becomes rather light (it is termed “isfâr”).

7- In namâz, she does not recite loudly. On the ‘Iyd of Qurbân, after making the salâm in namâzes that are fard, she says the takbîr-i tashrîq (Allahu akbar Allahu akbar Lâ ilâha illallahu Wallahu akbar Allahu akbar wa lillahil-hamd) silently. (Radd-ul-mukhtâr, Tahtâwî)

Question: While a woman is performing namâz, in the sitting postures, is it necessary for her to grasp her knees?
ANSWER: No, they are placed on the knees.

Question: It is written in the books Halabî and Radd-ul-mukhtâr that it is sunnat to bring the heel of the left foot near the right foot when bending for the ruku’. Does this practice also apply to women?
ANSWER: No, women do not bring them together. It applies to men alone.