Necessity of a mahram to accompany a woman when she travels, even if it is a short trip
Question We live in the country. Sometimes I like to visit my uncle who lives in a city that is 50 km further than us. I have to use mixed transportation and go alone because my father thinks it is very expensive to use transportation. He leaves the matter of meeting my uncle or not…
Question
Praise be to Allah.
The saheeh Sunnah indicates
that it is not permissible for a woman to travel without a mahram. This
includes both long trips and short trips, according to the majority of
scholars. Everything that is called travelling is forbidden for a woman
unless she has a mahram with her.
Al-Bukhaari (1792) and
Muslim (2391) narrated that Ibn ‘Abbaas (may Allaah be pleased with him)
said: The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: ‘No
woman should travel except with a Mahram, and no man should enter upon a
woman unless her Mahram is with her.’ A man said, ‘O Messenger of Allaah, I
want to go out with such-and-such an army and my wife wants to go to Hajj.’
He said, ‘Go to Hajj with her.’”
Al-Nawawi (may Allaah have
mercy on him)said in Sharh Saheeh Muslim, explaining that travel here does
not refer to a specific distance:
Everything that is called
travelling, it is forbidden for a woman to do without her husband or a
mahram, whether it is three days, two days or one day, or anything else,
because of the hadeeth of Ibn ‘Abbaas, according to which the Prophet (peace
and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “No woman should travel without a
mahram.” This includes everything that is called travel. And Allaah knows
best.
End quote.
And it says in Fataawa
al-Lajnah al-Daa’imah (17/339): It is haraam for a woman to travel
without a mahram in all cases, whether the journey is long or short. End
quote.
Based on this, if this
distance is regarded by people in your country as travelling, then it is not
permissible for you to travel without a mahram. But you will be rewarded for
your intention, in sha Allaah, and you can maintain ties with your uncle by
telephone, and that will be sufficient in sha Allaah.
And Allaah knows best.
