Keeping a Woman in a Small Room of the Mosque

Question

With great difficulty I have taken on rent a small room of a mosque, with space for one bed. My only purpose in taking this room is to marry some poor, respectable, religious widow, and I have already begun efforts to that end. But some people of the neighbourhood say that keeping a woman in this room is impermissible and contrary to the Sharia; therefore they shy away from my marrying and from arranging my marriage, and they say: first arrange a house, then arrange the nikah.

Answer

If the door for entering this room is separate from the mosque and opens outward onto the road, then living in it with a woman is not prohibited.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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