then her husband is her guardian. Neither her father, her brother, nor her paternal uncle has guardianship over her while her husband is present, because of the Prophet’s saying regarding women: “They are captives in your care.” (1) ʿawānī is the plural of ʿāniyah, meaning a captive woman. Moreover, the husband is the master of his wife, as Allah says in Surat Yusuf: “And they both found her master at the door” [Yusuf 12:25]—that is, her husband. If she has no husband, then her father is her guardian, followed by the nearest of her agnatic male relatives.

His statement, “to the mosque,” means to attend the congregational prayer. It is disliked for him to prevent her from doing so. In the terminology of the jurists, this disapproval is karāhat al-tanzīh: one is rewarded for refraining from it, but not punished for doing it.

The evidence is the Prophet’s saying: “Do not prevent Allah’s female servants from Allah’s mosques.” (2) This contains an implicit rebuke of the one who prevents her, for the female servant is not your servant, and the mosque is not your house; rather, it is Allah’s mosque. So, if Allah’s female servant seeks Allah’s House, how can you prevent her? Also, he has prevented her from something over which he has no right to prevent her—namely, the mosque.

Some scholars said that this hadith constitutes a prohibition, and the basic rule regarding a prohibition is that it indicates unlawfulness. Accordingly, it is unlawful for the guardian to prevent a woman if she