QUESTION:
What do the scholars of the Dīn and muftīs of the Sacred Law state regarding the following issue: Is it permissible for women to visit the graveyard or the shrine of a pious saint with a mahram?
Questioner: Zubayr from UK
ANSWER:
بسم اللہ الرحمن الرحیم
الجواب بعون الملک الوھاب اللھم ھدایۃ الحق والصواب
It is also prohibited for women to go to the graveyard with their male mahrams because they end up crossing the limit in terms of wailing and respect.
Just as Sadr al-Sharī’ah, Badr al-Tarīqah, Muftī Muhammad Amjad Alī ‘Āzhmī states that some scholars have said the visiting of graves is permissible for females. This is the statement [view] which has been preferred by Durr Mukhtār, but if she goes to the graves of her elders, she will weep and mourn there. Thus, it is disallowed [i.e. disapproved]; and if she goes to the graves of the pious saints, then there is no harm in an old woman doing so, but for the young women it is disallowed [i.e. disapproved].
It is recommended that women should be completely disallowed, because in visiting the graves of her own, she will do the same weeping and lamenting and at the graves & shrines of the pious, either she will overstep the bounds of respect or end up being disrespectful, as this is found a lot amongst females.
[Bahār-e-Sharį’at, vol 1, part 2, pg 198]
Sayyidī Āla Hazrat, the Imām of the Ahl al-Sunnah, Imām Ahmad Ridā Khān, may Allāh ﷻ shower mercy upon him, referencing Ghunyah, states when answering a question that it is mentioned in Ghunyah that, “Do not ask if it is permissible for women to visit graves or not. You should ask how many curses descend upon her (who visits graves) from Allāh ﷻ and from the one who is in the grave. When she leaves her house intending to visit a grave, curses start descending upon her and the angels keep cursing her until she returns home.”
[Ghunyah al-Mutamallī, pg 594]
Women are not allowed to visit any tomb except the Illuminated, Sacred & Revered Tomb of the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ. Visiting it is a mighty sunnah which is almost wājib [necessary]. There is no such emphasis regarding other graves or tombs and there are chances of the occurrence of tribulation in visiting them. If women are visiting the graves of their dear ones, they will show impatience and if they are visiting the graves of the pious saints, it is feared that they might show disrespect, or they might, out of ignorance, exceed the bounds in veneration; this is known and observed. Therefore, the safest way is that they avoid visiting graves.
[Malfūzhāt Āla Hazrat, pg 315]
واللہ تعالی اعلم ورسولہ اعلم صلی اللہ علیہ وآلہ وسلم
کتبہ ابو الحسن محمد قاسم ضیاء قادری
Answered by Mufti Qasim Zia al-Qadri
Translated by Haider Ali
Read the original Urdu answer here: [Q-ID0598] Can women visit graveyards or shrines of the pious with male mahrams?
Also see:
[Q-ID0447] What is the ruling on women visiting graveyards and shrines of the pious?
[Q-ID0531] What is the method of visiting a shrine of a pious saint and a graveyard?
[Q-ID0847] Is it permissible to visit the graveyard between ‘Asr and Maghrib?