Dhikr Circles on Fixed Days and Women’s Participation

Question

Some people habitually hold a dhikr circle every Monday and Thursday, and also on the third, seventh, and fortieth nights following someone’s death, and women are invited to these together with the men; in some places women themselves (both old and young, of both categories) take part, in order to hear the men’s dhikr, and at the very moment of the dhikr the lamp is put out, and after the dhikr some sweets are distributed. Is it permissible according to the Sacred Law to send women to such gatherings?

Answer

Encouragement to dhikr Allah and its merit are abundantly mentioned in the Holy Qur’an and the noble hadith, but fixing these particular days and dates has no basis. To declare it a matter of the Sacred Law is wrong, and it is an innovation (bid‘a)

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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