MUSLIM LANTERN'S CONTROVERSIAL TAKE ON FEMALE DAWAH | MY RESPONSE

Dawa is a job for men to do. The danger is when you have women and hijab women coming and saying we're going to give da. They're more dangerous than a woman that is not covered. These are not fitting for a character of a woman. >> Qualified high-ranking scholars who refer to the Quran and Hadith hold the opposite opinion to Muslim lantern who is not a scholar. The female da'wah is permissible. Doing da'ah online in a nab from the privacy of one's home and from behind a screen most definitely ensures there is an appropriate barrier between the genders. Do you think I should end my da efforts for the greater good? This is the new in town on the day of judgment. The first thing we will be asked about is our prayer. For just 100, >> you can help teach 20 to 60 people like me learn how to pray salah. >> And when they teach their children >> and their children's children, >> the reward continues. >> Go to the link and donate now. Asalamaikum, brothers and sisters. If you're watching this video and it's salah time, please pause it and go pray and come back when you're done. Please check out the description section of this video to support the channel. So, Muslim Lantern just made a response video to a viral tweet he put out last week where he spoke about our male and female duat conducting themselves with proper Islamic manners and etiquette whilst doing da'wah. I already did a video addressing this where I respectfully agreed and made the point that if this was applicable to me in any way that I would endeavor to improve, inshallah, I've linked my initial response video in the description and in the pinned comment. However, to my surprise, Brother Muhammad Ali elaborated further and made the claim that Muslim women shouldn't be doing public online da'a in any capacity, which again directly concerns me because it's what I do. So, once again, I have to respond. Let's watch the first clip. >> The sisters, there's a lot more issues to to talk about like sisters inappropriately laughing, addressing men in a shameless manner. Stuff like this, like there's a huge issue to talk about. And is it even permissible for sisters or women to be doing dawa in this way or to be doing dawa to be in the forefront of the dua and to engage and give da and stuff? Is that permissible? Some people are not going to like what I'm about to say now. Okay. But I don't say things for the sake of the people to be happy or not happy. I'm saying it for sake of and I will have people saying I heard the scholar say it's okay. I heard that scholar say it's okay. What is the ruling behind women engaging in da to begin with? Now we're talking about engaging in dawa. I do not mean sisters doing that to other sisters. I do not mean sisters on WhatsApp group or sisters in telegram. We need all of that. Mashallah or sisters writing books that we can all benefit from or doing research. All of that is great. Alhamdulillah. I am the biggest proponent of that. I'm talking about sisters doing this idea of where they are in the forefront of the dawa engaging with men and doing da here and there and going on channels and making YouTube videos and lives and what is the ruling behind that? It is not known that any female Sahaba would go out in the midst of non-maharim of of other Sahaba and would start giving them dawa and lecturing them and this and that. If I'm wrong, you're welcome to show me examples of Sahabia women that would go out in the midst of other Sahaba men that are non maharim and they will stand and they on a podium or whatever and they will start giving them lectures and reminders and this and that. Now some people will say what they will say here but she was asked would come and ask they'll say this day and night okay was asked yeah it is correct who was she was the mother of the believers or the other wives they were the mother of the believers so it's like your own mother and they will call her our mother when they would talk to her and who were those people going asking were the Sahabah the people with the purest hearts and the best of behaviors I'm not talking about non-Muslims and random Josh Mo whatever They were the the best of Sahabah and they would go ask the prophet who were their believers who nobody could marry after the prophetat wasallam and they we understand their status and because they know many things in the household of prophet Muhammad wasallam the other people didn't know so they would go and ask but not just that Allah tells them in the Quran if you ask them for something ask them behind the barrier the wives the prophet and of course the the wives of the prophet are the example for the other sisters for the Muslim sisters. Just like the Sahabah are examples and the prophets are example the prophet are examples for the women Allah tells them in the Quran and remain in your houses. Meaning in most cases if you need something to go out this is yeah if there's a need this is what allahel commanded the wife of the prophet wasallam. >> Firstly I must reaffirm that I have a massive amount of respect for this brother and for the work he has done. So I do not want any of my responses to be interpreted as a sign of disrespect as this is not my intention and credit to him for referencing the Quran and Sunna for the evidence he presented. I agree that Muslim women must stay within Islamic parameters whenever speaking with non-mah men who are not family members. Muslim lantern made reference to scholars saying it is permissible for women to do dawa and to even speak with non-mahim men for this purpose and then dismiss these scholarly opinions. Again I say this with the utmost respect. Muhammad Ali as knowledgeable and intelligent as a dwat that he is is not a qualified scholar and the scholarly opinions he is dismissing are in fact from some of the most respected Salafi Sunni scholars of the modern era. That's not to say Muslim lantern isn't also correct in what he's saying. He absolutely is and many wellrespected scholars also agree with his position. However, we can't just disregard the opinions of scholars who release a fatwa also based on authentic hadith and the Quran. Women like men are obliged to call people to Allah and to enjoin what is good and forbid what is evil. And there are many more respected scholars and institutions that put out similar fatwas permitting women to do public da'wah and even permitting women to speak with non-mera men provided that proper Islamic etiquette of female modesty, moderate speech and correct intention are met. To be fair, as you saw in the clip, Muslim lantern is not completely against women giving da. As he stated, he has no issues with women giving dawa to other women or sisters researching and publishing literature and books, which in reality is the safest option in regards to ensuring all Islamic objectives are met. Muslim lantern also spoke about female Sahabas not going out and publicly teaching non- Maharam men, which is correct. However, when women do da'wah on social media, they do so from the safety and sanctuary of their own home and do not have to go out, which emulates what the female Sahaba did. And that's not to mention that throughout Islamic history, thousands of female narrators transmitted hadith to men, meaning authentic hadith narrations came through numerous female scholars and were taught directly to male students. This alone demonstrates that respectful speech between genders for beneficial Islamic purposes is permissible. The brother spoke about prophet sallall alaihi wasallam's wife Aisha may Allah be pleased with her and he was correct in the context in which he described her as in she is the mother of the believers and the men that learned from her were pure-arthearted sahabas not hostile non-Muslims or Muslims gone astray lantern was also correct that no woman can match the special status of the prophet sallall alaihi wasallam's wives especially in giving da'wah however he made a contradictory yet true statement at the same time when he also said that the wives of the prophet peace be upon him did give dawa to men from behind a barrier and that they are the example for all Muslim women to follow. So if they are our example, shouldn't we emulate them in the modern era and doing da'wah with our version of a barrier being the privacy of our homes whilst being behind the screen and waiting an agab? Especially when we have studied and gained qualifications to do so. And to counter the point the brother made about female to-male da'wah being restricted to only male sahabas with pure hearts. This is not entirely correct because throughout Islamic history, female jurists, scholars, and hadith experts taught men publicly in mosques, in scholarly circles, and in structured learning environments across the Middle East. Let's watch the next clip. >> Dawa is a job for men to do because dawa is a job of the messengers. Someone will be like, "Oh, but there are some scholars like that said that female can be a prophetess." Now that is a regular opinion and is clearly if you look at the evidences in the Quran and you would realize that this opinion has no bearing and it's clearly contradicting. Why? First Allah says in the Quran we did not send before you except so we didn't so we have negation an exception it means exclusivity in the Arabic language except men we did not send before you except men we reveal to them so first Allah says that clearly in the Quran another example prophetam he said that many of the men have reached perfection meaning in mannerisms and good deeds and behaviors and whatever referring to many prophets of course because there were so many prophets hundreds of thousands And only four women reached their perfection. And then the prophet of course talked about Mariam and he talked about the wife of and he talked about were they prophetesses but they reach the prophet said only four. If there were women prophets they would be mentioned and the prophet was speaking about women of the past and women of today. You see when you look at the evidence you realize that these like irregular opinions doesn't work with the evidence. Even just use common sense. Imagine a woman being a prophetist. the the the prophets of God, they were killed, attacked, tortured, persecuted at times, right? Now, imagine a woman. What do you what is the first thought that comes to your mind now? What do you think the disbelievers will do to this prophet is I don't need to go into you understand how common sense it is even why did allahel reveal the hijab. The hijab is a barrier. It's a barrier that the woman makes between her and the other person. Now, the the danger is where you have woman and hijab woman coming and saying we're going to give it gives wrong perception. They're more dangerous than a woman that is not covered. Because a woman is not covered, you know that she's doing wrong. You you will know, okay, like she's doing wrong. She's coming out in a in a way which is not the proper way which a Muslim woman should be and she's coming out. So people would know. So nobody will be confused. But when people can be confused, it gives the wrong perception. And other women that are practicing Islam or following the religion, they may start think I should do this too. It can be more dangerous. The purpose behind the hijab is to make a barrier between you and the opposite gender. It's not for the woman to go and start engaging with men and doing dawa to non men and this and that. It's not a necessity when we have a men fulfilling this role. Especially for women, shyness is a part of your iman is a part of your faith and dawa requires sometimes to get involved in sensitive topics, right? It requires sometimes a level of firmness with the person, sometimes a level of softness. These are not fitting for a character of a woman. So with all due respect, the brother lost me here when he claimed da'wah is a job only for men and for messengers. This is after him saying in the previous clip that female Sahaba and the wives of the prophet sallall alaihi wasallam gave da'wah to women and men. Also, if he claims da'a is only for messengers and prophets, then that also disqualifies him and all other men from doing da'wah as they are also not prophets. Again, I don't know why he's making reference to there being no female prophets because we all agree with him that Islamically prophethood was reserved for men. However, I must reiterate prophethood is not a prerequisite for someone male or female to qualify to do da'wah. Muslim lantern quoted the prophet sallall alaihi wasallam as saying many men reach perfection in mannerisms, good deeds and behaviors and also some women though fewer in number achieve the same thing. Again, this does not prove his point that women shouldn't give dawa. In fact, it proves the opposite because again he's referring to male prophets and the best of women in Islam which neither today's men nor women can replicate in status. Also, if we break the quote down, the prophet sallall alaihi wasallam basically stated that those specific men and women did achieve perfection in their manners, deeds, and behavior regardless of gender. The brother spoke about the hijab being a barrier. Let us quote the same fatwa concerning female da. If a woman makes dawa to men, she must do so while subserving the hijab and without being alone with any non- maharam man. Social media is a public space, so the not being alone part is taken care of. Plus, I always have a maharam present for live streams as my editors and admins are male family members. Also, if the content is pre-recorded reaction videos like the majority of mine is, there's no such issues. And you will have noticed the shake only mentioned hijab in his fatwa, just like Muslim lantern did when making his point. I actually think Muslim women should go one step further than this and observe nagab to try to ensure there is no fitna, as this is in accordance with verse 59 of surah alab in the Quran. I also respectfully disagree with the brother that a nagabi sister doing online da'wah is more dangerous than a woman that is not covered. His claim was that this is due to it being glaringly obvious that a non- Nagabi is doing wrong. And people upon seeing Nagabi women may be misled into thinking female dawa is permissible. As I just evidenced, qualified high-ranking scholars who refer to the Quran and Hadith hold the opposite opinion to Muslim lantern who is not a scholar. The female da'wah is permissible. Again, this is not to say he is wrong because there are also qualified high-ranking scholars that side with his opinion. My point is that both opinions can be considered as correct despite them being somewhat contradictory. As a brother said, the purpose of hijab is to create a barrier between the genders. And that's not to say that the genders cannot communicate when necessary. Because if that was the case, then everyday life in terms of taking children to school or doing simple things like buying groceries would become impossible. And again, I would counter his point with doing da online in aab from the privacy of one's home and from behind a screen most definitely ensures there is an appropriate barrier between the genders. The brother spoke about haya and shyness being most appropriate for women which I 100% agree with and that da sometimes requires sensitive topics and firmness. Firstly, we can pick and choose what we as women wish to discuss to maintain haya. And secondly, sensitive topics that solely concern women such as menration, child birth, breastfeeding, virginity, and menopause are better discussed by women and not men because women have a lived experience of such things and can communicate the intricacies firsthand rather than men who are just doing guesswork. In fact, across all four Sunni schools of law, the principle derived from Quran hadith practice and scholarly consensus is that female testimony in such matters is more valid than that of males. And in regards to his points about firmness and necessity, many of our male dwat are hesitant to correct women because they don't want to be perceived as being harsh or misogynistic or to face the backlash from Muslim feminist types. So, who's better to be firm with these liberal Muslim women than orthodox conservative Muslim women? That seems like a necessity to me, especially when we consider what's at stake, which is the future generations of women and our being misguided. If the men are falling short in this sense, then the women must step in to correct other women with firmness, which would not land the same if men were to do so. Let's watch the last clip. >> You know, Allah in the Quran says in the the verse of the do not let them not hit with their shoes, make noise with their shoes because then people will start to be attracted to them or think about them. noise with their shoes, let alone now talking and your voice and laughing and even in acts of worship. When the women go and do a pilgrimage, the hadith would say they would do they would lower their voices with it. We do it quietly. If the imam makes a mistake, the the men would say subhan Allah would raise their voice. The woman would make a clap. She wouldn't even speak in the prayer to correct. Why is Allah making these these rulings in the prayer? Wouldn't it make more sense that Allah say it's okay in the prayer say Allah Akbar that is for Allah to say do this rather than it's okay to go and in a YouTube channel or whatever in front of everyone start talking chit chatting with men and and doing that for a Muslim woman always the more hidden the place for her the best it is for her I'm bringing you the Quran and Sunnah you don't like what I say and I'm not saying it for your liking I'm not saying it for your liking I'm saying it for the sake of Allah if you are a person who fears Allah who believes in Allah and the messenger wants to submit what the Quran and Sunnah say here is what it says You know in the in the prayer the prophet wasallam would say the best rows for women are the ones in the back and the worst are the ones in the front. Why? Because the woman is shown more prophetam he said that to the prayer of a woman in her house or in her home is better than her prayer in her courtyard because it's more hidden and her prayer in a chamber is better than her prayer in her home. The more hidden the better it is. You're defeating the purpose of the hijab. when you're going out, you speaking, people hear your voice, see your face, this or see your body or this and that. Especially in this day and age where you where your sisters, you know, AI and what people can do with pictures and images and all of this stuff. People will say, "Oh, but there's benefits behind this. There's benefits because the non-Muslims will see look our women are there, they're doing that, how we're doing this, doing that. Our religion is based on what Allah said and the messenger said. It is not meant to please the standards of the disbelievers of their feministic standards. We stop presenting our sisters in the D. We this is what we're doing, right? Oh, they they're saying that our sisters are not in the house. So, we stop pushing them out. Start doing what they want us to do. Our religion is not based on ends justify the means. Our religion is based on what Allah and the messenger command. Now, someone will say that this said this that she said that. Look, I brought you evidence from the Quran and Sunnah. >> I can't argue with the brother referencing the Quran and hadith in regards to female haya and modesty. However, I will counter with no verse in the Quran says women must be silent, cannot speak, or should not use our voice publicly or in public spaces. The Quran verse he partially referred to in regards to women not stomping their feet so as to not draw attention to their hidden adornments, also commands believing women to not reveal adornments except from what normally appears and to draw their veils over their hidden adornments. I interpret this as dressing modestly in the car, which is what I do. The stomping of the feet is in reference to attention-seeking behavior. It does not forbid women walking normally or being in public. An adornment can mean tight or revealing clothes and things such as flashy jewelry and beautifification through makeup. This verse instructs us about proper physical display in movement, not speech or vocal expression. And as for Muslim lantern claiming that hadith states women should not raise their voices during Hajj, there is no narration in Sah Albkari or Sahi Muslim that states women must lower their voices during pilgrimage. This is instead an Islamic juristic opinion and not a hadith. But nevertheless, I agree with it. However, this is in the context of why women should not perform the call to prayer and does not apply to giving da and even for da'wah purposes. There's no need for a woman to raise her voice to the point she's shouting. Muslim lantern was correct in his claim that authentic hadith state that the prophet said men can invite the attention of the imam by saying subhan Allah and the woman by clapping their hands if he makes a mistake during prayer. But once again, this does not forbid female da'wah unless a live stream would involve an imam reciting prayer, which is very rare. And if so, then normal rules of clapping, if required, would apply. Brother Muhammad Ali stated that for a Muslim woman, the more hidden the place for her, the better it is for her. By quoting the prophet peace be upon him when he said that the prayer for a woman in her house is better than her prayer in a courtyard. And during prayer in the masid, the best place for women is the back rows and the worst place is the front ones. All of which is authentic hadith and I agree with it a thousand%. Muslim lantern also cited the scholarly opinion that prayer for a woman in her private chamber is better than in her house. And once again, I agree with this wholeheartedly. The salah is about spiritual focus and as women we must always be careful to not cause temptation through the position of our bodies in front of men. However, this is once again not in reference to giving dawa. It's specific to salah. So I think the brother is once again referring to general things to try to prove his point rather than being specific about female da'wah. And in regards to his point about the dangers of people using AI to harm the image of Muslim women, again, if a sister observes proper nagab, she doesn't have to worry about this because she's unidentifiable. I do disagree with the brother framing female da'wa as appeasing feminism because if done properly in the way I have detailed in this video, female da'wah in fact counteracts feminism to the point it refutes the ideology and re-educates women according to what is taught in the Quran and sunnah. To conclude, I believe the Muslim lantern has good intentions and his heart is in the right place and if we follow his advice, it would no doubt ensure the safety of believing women. However, on the flip side, it would also risk future generations of Muslim women being misguided through a lack of proper Islamic female online presence, resulting in them being negatively influenced by unislamic female role models, which is a risk we cannot afford to take in my opinion. But brothers and sisters, I want to hear from you. Based on the evidence provided by myself and by brother Muslim Lantern, which of the Islamic opinions do you side with more? And do you think I should end my da'wah efforts for the greater good? And do you all think doing so would have the opposite effect? Let me know your thoughts in the comments. Thank you for watching. Until next time. Allahbar.