Chapter: Going of women to the mosqu at night and in darkness

Once Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) delayed the `Isha' prayer till `Umar informed him that the women and children had slept. The Prophet (ﷺ) came out and said, "None except you from amongst the dwellers of earth is waiting for this prayer." In those days, there was no prayer except in Medina and they used to pray the `Isha' prayer between the disappearance of the twilight and the first third of the night.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "If your women ask permission to go to the mosque at night, allow them."

(the wife of the Prophet) In the lifetime of Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) the women used to get up when they finished their compulsory prayers with Taslim. The Prophet (ﷺ) and the men would stay on at their places as long as Allah will. When the Prophet (ﷺ) got up, the men would then get up.

When Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) finished the Fajr prayer, the women would leave covered in their sheets and were not recognized owing to the darkness.

My father said, "Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said, "Whenever I stand for prayer, I want to prolong it but on hearing the cries of a child, I would shorten it as I dislike to put its mother in trouble."

Had Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) known what the women were doing, he would have forbidden them from going to the mosque as the women of Bani Israel had been forbidden. Yahya bin Sa`id (a sub-narrator) asked `Amra (another sub-narrator), "Were the women of Bani Israel forbidden?" She replied "Yes."