Question
Please write a refutation of sisters going to University in the West, where there is unavoidable free mixing among other evils.
Answer
The questioner should rephrase this question, because the refutation is not just for the Muslim sisters. It is for the Muslim brothers as well, because just as it is Haram for women to study in co-education universities, it is Haram for men to study in co-education universities! The following points should be kept in mind:
- Co-ed universities do not see free-mixing leading to fornication and adultery as a problem, whereas Allah said: ‘Do not go near adultery, for it is indeed a shameful act and an evil way.’ [17:32]
- Co-ed universities do not command men to lower their gaze in front of women and vice-versa, whereas Allah said: ‘Tell the believing men to lower their gazes and guard their private parts; that is purer for them. Indeed, Allah is All-Aware of what they do. And tell the believing women to lower their gazes and guard their private parts.’ [24:30-31]
- Co-ed universities do not enforce an Islamic dress code upon women, whereas Allah said: ‘O Prophet, tell your wives and your daughters, and the believing women to draw their outer garments over themselves; that is more likely that they will be known [as chaste women] and will not be harassed. And Allah is All-Forgiving, Most Merciful.’ [33:59]
- Co-ed universities do not set a partition which prevents men from looking at women, whereas Allah said: ‘And if you ask his wives for something, ask them from behind a screen; that is purer for your hearts and their hearts.’ [33:53]
- Co-ed universities encourage a woman to lose her shyness by mixing with men, whereas Allah said: ‘When he arrived at the well of Madyan, he found a crowd of people watering [their flocks] and found apart from them two women holding [their flocks] back. He said: ‘What is the matter with you?’ They said, ‘We cannot water [them] until the shepherds take [their flocks] away, and our father is a very old man.’ [28:23]
- Co-ed universities do not see men meeting women as a problem within their premises, whereas the Prophet said: ‘Beware of entering upon women.’ [Muslim 2172a]
- Co-ed universities do not take into consideration the serious fitnah of men and women free-mixing, whereas the Prophet said: ‘I am not leaving behind me a more harmful fitnah [trial] for men than women.’ [Bukhari 5096]
- Co-ed universities do not separate men and women when they are walking in its parameters, whereas Abu Usayd said: ‘I heard the Messenger of Allah say when he was coming out of the Masjid, and men and women were free-mixing on the road: ‘Draw back, for you must not walk in the middle of the road; keep to the sides of the road.’ Then women were keeping so close to the wall that their garments were rubbing against it.’ [Abu Dawud 5272; Hasan]
- Co-ed universities do not prevent women from entering their premises in a state of being perfumed, whereas the Prophet said: ‘Any woman who puts on perfume then passes by people so that they can smell her fragrance; then she is an adulteress.’ [Nasa’i 5126]
- Co-ed universities allow men and women to exit the classes once it is over at the same time, whereas Umm Salamah said: ‘During the time of the Messenger of Allah, when the women said the Taslim at the end of the prayer, they got up and departed, whereas the Messenger of Allah and the men who had prayed with him remained where they were (i.e. seated) for as long as Allah willed. Then, when the Messenger of Allah got up, the men did too.’ [Nasa’i 1333]
- Co-ed universities do not prevent men from interacting with women in the classrooms or halls in the absence of a Mahram, whereas the Prophet said: ‘No man can enter upon a woman except if the woman’s Mahram is present with her.’ [Bukhari 1862]
- Co-ed universities do not believe that a woman’s innate-nature demands her to have her class held at a time and place where no male students are present, whereas Abu Sa’id Al-Khudri said: ‘Some women requested the Prophet to fix a day for them [for learning the Deen] as the men were taking all his time.’ [Bukhari 101]
- Co-ed universities allow women to be leaders in mixed classes, groups and societies, and see it as empowering and a means to success and prosperity amongst the people, whereas the Prophet said: ‘No people who appoint a woman as their leader will ever prosper.’ [Bukhari 4425]
- Co-ed universities encourage their students to let their parents know that they shouldn’t fear them mixing with the opposite gender, whereas the Prophet said: ‘I saw a young man and a young woman, so I feared that the Shaytan would tempt them.’ [Musnad Ahmad 1348; Hasan]
- Co-ed universities do not prevent men and women from shaking each other’s hands, or that any part of a man’s body comes in contact with any part of a woman’s body, whereas the Prophet said: ‘For one of you to be stabbed in the head with an iron needle is better for him than that he should touch a woman who is not permissible for him.’ [Al-Mu’jam Al-Kabir 486; Sahih]
From the 15 evidences cited above, and even more evidences which haven’t been cited, the following summary can be made:
In light of the Qur’an and the Sunnah, studying in co-education universities is prohibited for men and women, because it is turning away from the Deen, a means of weakening your Faith, causing unnecessary hardship in your worldly affairs and the Hereafter, the main source of trials and corruption, a cause for shame and modesty to disappear, a promotion of every form of promiscuity, harassment, sexual assault and rape, a door to academic regression, an obstacle to academic achievement, an encourager of divorces, a birthplace of diseases, a destroyer of chastity, a betrayal of family, a mother teaching lies and deception, an inviter of evil to everyone, a destroyer of Islamic manners, an obstacle to marriage, a producer of suspicions and bad thoughts about the chastity of women and men, a game for men to toy with women and their emotions and vice versa, a sickness which weakens men and women, an enforcer of unemployment and slavery, a waste of money, a house that breeds evil much greater than itself, a cause for men to be cursed by imitating women and vice-versa, a means of manliness and femininity disappearing, the root for societies failing, making evil look good due to it being spread, all resulting in the man and woman who attend such universities to defiantly disobey Allah and His Messenger, and Allah’s refuge is sought.