said:

“You will conquer the lands of the non-Arabs and find buildings there called bathhouses. Let no man of my community who believes in Allah and the Last Day enter a bathhouse except wearing a waist-wrapper, and let no woman of my community who believes in Allah and the Last Day enter a bathhouse unless she is ill or experiencing postnatal bleeding.”

Some scholars have questioned this hadith. Whoever enters a bathhouse with the parts of his body that must be covered concealed, does not look at those parts of anyone else, does not allow anyone to touch his own, commits no prohibited act there, and deals fairly with the bathhouse keeper incurs no sin. A woman, however, may enter it out of necessity, keeping covered the parts of her body that must be concealed.

May she enter it if she has become accustomed to it and finds it difficult to give up the habit? There are two views on this in the school of Ahmad and other schools.

The first is that she may enter it. This accords with the position of Abū Hanīfa and was the view preferred by Ibn al-Jawzī.

The second is that she may not enter it. This is the position of many followers of al-Shāfiʿī and Ahmad, as well as others. And Allah knows best.