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Reading a prepared speech for Friday Khutbah

Question

I have one question and I’ll be glad if you answer it. This week before Friday prayer a young lady wrote the Friday speech and submits it to a man to read it in Friday speech. The speech was written by her. Is that allowed by Islam or not? Why, why not! What about our pray following that man? It’s acceptable or not?
There were strong argument about what happened after the pray, some people said its ok other (and me one of them said no).

Answer

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) is His slave and Messenger.

If the written Friday sermon includes its pillars, like praising Allaah, exalting the mention of the Prophet  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) reciting a verse from the Quran and admonishing people to fear Allaah, then it is permissible to read this sermon, even if it was written by a woman.

In principle a Friday sermon should not be read; however, if one reads it from a prepared paper then it is permissible if it meets the afore-mentioned conditions.

We do not know of any scholar who stated that for the Friday speech to be valid it should be written by a man. In addition to this, a woman writing a Friday sermon for a man is considered as consultation. Indeed, it is confirmed in the Sunnah that it is permissible to act according to the consultation of a woman.

For instance, the Prophet  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) acted according to the consultation of Um Salamah  may  Allaah  be  pleased  with  her in relation to Al-Hudaybiyah peace treaty. The Prophet  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) ordered the Companions  may  Allaah  be  pleased  with  them to slaughter their sacrifice and shave their head but none of them did so. He  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) repeated this three times, but no one acted according to his order, [Not because they wanted to disobey him but] because they were very keen and willing to perform 'Umrah - since they came from Madeenah in a state of Ihraam but the people of Makkah did not allow them to enter it]. So the Prophet  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) entered to Um Salamah  may  Allaah  be  pleased  with  her and told her what happened. She told him: "Do you want them to do what you ordered them? Go out and do not talk to anyone of them until you slaughter your sacrifice and shave your head…." [So when the Prophet  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) acted according to her advice, all the Companions  may  Allaah  be  pleased  with  them imitated him] [Al-Bukhari]

Therefore, it is permissible to act according to the advice of a wise woman.

Finally, we advise you to fear Allaah and not scatter and divide into sects and groups because division is evil as Ibn Mas'ood  may  Allaah  be  pleased  with  him said. Division also leads to hating each other and you are in a country where you need to unite upon the truth and calling people to Allaah. So be careful of dividing into sects and groups and be brothers in Islam.

Allaah Knows best.

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