higher education/women

[searchingsoul]

I've been reading different threads and I'm wondering if higher education for women is acceptable. I know a lot of educated Muslim women but don't know if their education is considered acceptable by Islamic standards. One reason I ask this is because it looks like women aren't supposed to leave the house, or not suppose to leave the house without their husbands approval.

[رياح_الشمال]

slm
donna y no1 answered u yet
i ll be happy 2 go first
there is nothing wrong with women gting their higher education
learning is 'faredah' among every muslim and muslimah in islamic point view
dont think our religion stop women from learning at all
its just that some ppl mix da religion with thier culture
by da way 'faredah' means composery something they have 2 do
hope i didnt spell it wrong
w salm

[searchingsoul]

That makes sense if women staying at home is cultural not religious. Thanks for the clarification. I was wondering how an education could be obtained if you were not encouraged to leave the house.

[SolaceinIslam]

:sl:

I don't think there is anything wrong with women obtaining a higher education since it is every muslim's obligation to educate ourselves. I do think that how we go about educating ourselves play a major role. Mixed universities/colleges cause fitnah, distance education would be better, where possible. Some degrees, such as a medical degree, cannot be completed via correspondence education.

Also, what you do with your education is important. Jobs in a free mixing environment will also cause fitnah. Where possible, education should be aimed at improving/assisting the Ummah.

:w:

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[julie sarri]

:sl: like the sister said before and she put it realy well its a part of islam for women to get educatied in the way of the deen we have to learn about our deen and we need to know it well some women go to uni and some go to women groups which are held in the bigger mosques:w:

[searchingsoul]

:sl: like the sister said before and she put it realy well its a part of islam for women to get educatied in the way of the deen we have to learn about our deen and we need to know it well some women go to uni and some go to women groups which are held in the bigger mosques:w:

I'm referring to college or university.

[searchingsoul]

:sl:

I don't think there is anything wrong with women obtaining a higher education since it is every muslim's obligation to educate ourselves. I do think that how we go about educating ourselves play a major role. Mixed universities/colleges cause fitnah, distance education would be better, where possible. Some degrees, such as a medical degree, cannot be completed via correspondence education.

Also, what you do with your education is important. Jobs in a free mixing environment will also cause fitnah. Where possible, education should be aimed at improving/assisting the Ummah.

:w:

What type of jobs wouldn't allow free mixing? I'm asking these questions because I have a daughter.

[Ansar Al-'Adl]

:sl:
Women can work in Offices with Men ~Shaykh Muhammad al-Duhayyim
Islam and the Pursuit of Wordly Knowledge ~Shaykh Salman Al-'Awdah

:w:

[SolaceinIslam]

:sl:

Hmm, say she studies through a distance learning education and obtain a finance degree.... she could start her own business from home, focusing on women's products.

How about...

Teaching or something else where she would mainly interact with children and/or mothers?
Maybe some IT field where she could do webdesign from home?
Psychologist, focusing on women's issues?
Accountant, working from home?
Daymother/creche?

Still thinking of more...

I work in an office with men, but I work mostly on my own and just have to interact with them on occassion. Of course, I would like to do something from home, but at this point in time it is not possible. I should, however, add that it has caused problems since my husband is extremely unhappy with me working with men... so it is not ideal.

:w:

[searchingsoul]

:sl:
Women can work in Offices with Men ~Shaykh Muhammad al-Duhayyim
Islam and the Pursuit of Wordly Knowledge ~Shaykh Salman Al-'Awdah

:w:

Thanks you answered my question. Women can work alongside men and education should not be discouraged.

[sabreen]

i think women should be educated- anyways women have to leave the house on several occasions- i don't see how further education causes fitnah- universities are large institutes that contain lots of people from various backround- you don't have to mix with people e.g. males if a women. furthermore a job is a job- formal keeping your distance but still friendly- if you carry out procedures in a mature manner its fine: ur helping people- thats my opinion?

[onemuslima]

I think education has no limits 4 both women and men! u don't just get educated to get a job or work. though i know islam allows the woman to work but within rules.

[Nafiisah]

Education is highly recommended in Islam for both men and women so that we can get even closer to Allah.
Of course, we have to respect the limits of modesty as prescribed by Islam the way u interact with people.
We can interact as long as it is for a noble purpose and without any unhealthy approach

[lolwatever]

I've been reading different threads and I'm wondering if higher education for women is acceptable. I know a lot of educated Muslim women but don't know if their education is considered acceptable by Islamic standards. One reason I ask this is because it looks like women aren't supposed to leave the house, or not suppose to leave the house without their husbands approval.

1. lol why on earth wouldn't it be acceptable, the hadith cleaaaarly mentions 'seeking knowledge is obligation of every male AND female' (most of the time both genders are referred to under the term 'man' , but in this hadith its explicit)

2. Aisha was teh greatest woman scholar, and there where many woman scholars throughout history, some fo the teachers of the greatest male scholars known where female, Ibn al-Qayyim was one of those.

3. The hadith says don't stop your women from going to the masjid, das coz the masjid was the center of knowledge and learning, in fact das how it always was ilsmaically... teh first universities and school where founded in masjids (even for science not only religion)... its only when they became over crowded, a building outside the masjid was established to be a school, and the masjid was rightnext door to it.... it was only becasue the masjid couldn't fit the seekers of knowledge that a seperate school was built next to the masjid...

therefore women had full acess to go to the masjid -and it's instutitional branches- if they wanted to pray and/or learn.


salam

[lolwatever]

ps: some parents do get worried about their daughters going to uni and stuff coz they fear they might be exposed to fitnah overdose (so they prefer them to get married and then continue study etc...) , regardless whether das right or wrong, its nothing to do with it because they're not allowed to seek knowledge... if it was in an Islamic country the parents would probably be punished for doing that especially if the society is moral and islamically behaved.

knowledge isn't something that's suppose to be in the male domain as was in medieval times. Allah adresses the people of intellect in Quran, he doesnt adress 'the men of intellect', because some men are worse than donkeys and many women are mroe intelligent than half the males put together.

[lolwatever]

PPS: there's a neat documentary about all this i THINK its called planet Islam, i saw parts of it very long ago, not bad.. covers thist stuff, even tho learning Islamic history from non Muslim sources isn't the best of ideas.. but it makes the point.

dont get me wrong, masjids where still full during prayer times, but when u hav 30 lectures going on at once in a masjid it gets congested and noisy (das wat actually use 2 happen), so they made the 'educational compound' of the masjid as a seperate building with diff rooms to overcome tha tproblem... its not like ppl would fill the masjid to learn and then not pray there.. just 2make that clear.


mods plsss leave this as 3 diff posts coz it looks too long n boring when they combined into one massiv post.

[SASB]

Yes women are aloud to be educated in Islam!
Wasn't the prophets (Pbuh) second wife (i think) A’ishah a well educated buisness woman or something along those lines? (please correct me if im wrong).
I believe every muslim women should be aloud to go in to higher education, so long as she knows her limits and she uses the education wisely, if she is going in to HE just to doss and waste time, then no. However if she is going in to HE because it is something she truly wants to do out of her own interest, or if she wants to go in to HE because she wants to work in the future, then i see nothing wrong with this.
The only time HE becomes a problem is when young muslims girls take advantage of it and use it to do wrong. If you go in to HE but still follow the rules of islam (dressing in the right attire etc) then there is nothing wrong with it!

[lolwatever]

Yes women are aloud to be educated in Islam!
Wasn't the prophets (Pbuh) second wife (i think) A’ishah a well educated buisness woman or something along those lines? (please correct me if im wrong).
I believe every muslim women should be aloud to go in to higher education, so long as she knows her limits and she uses the education wisely, if she is going in to HE just to doss and waste time, then no. However if she is going in to HE because it is something she truly wants to do out of her own interest, or if she wants to go in to HE because she wants to work in the future, then i see nothing wrong with this.
The only time HE becomes a problem is when young muslims girls take advantage of it and use it to do wrong. If you go in to HE but still follow the rules of islam (dressing in the right attire etc) then there is nothing wrong with it!

salam sis.. sasb

Aisha was too young for bzinss hehe (she was like 18 when the prophet died)... she was the greatest woman scholar, but it was Khadijah who was the successful entrepeneur.

[SASB]

oops! sorry, I knew it was along those lines, thnx for the correction :)

[Hijaabi22]

I've been reading different threads and I'm wondering if higher education for women is acceptable. I know a lot of educated Muslim women but don't know if their education is considered acceptable by Islamic standards. One reason I ask this is because it looks like women aren't supposed to leave the house, or not suppose to leave the house without their husbands approval.

DATS...DATS...DATS ..SORRY BUT THATS JUUS SO OLD FASHIONED!!! A woman has as much ryt to be educated as a man! So the answer to that is yep its perfectly acceptable 4 qa woman to be educated :)

[lolwatever]

^^ i dont like this business of old fashion and new fashion.. its either Islamic or non Islamic, nothing to do with fashion.

As long as the education she's after is beneficial and there's a purpose and it's not going to put her Islam under stress then it's good.