Many of you may not realize that although we live in Madinah, our girls and I rarely go to Masjid an Nabawi to pray. In fact, aside from Eid prayers for which it is clearly legislated that the women attend, we usually don't go at all. The reason for this is that the best place for a woman to pray is her home. It reaps the best reward and to that end, I am copying an excerpt from the book My Home, My Path, from the section titled, "The Role of the Woman in the Raising and Education of the Family," by Sheikh Saalih al-Fawzaan, may Allah preserve him.
"The congregational prayers in the masjid are Islamically legislated as the realm of the men, and from the best of their actions, and how much better if it is in the masjid of Allaah's Messenger, praying with him, may Allaah's praise and salutations be upon him. And yet, in spite of all this, he used to encourage the women to pray in their houses.
It is narrated from the wife of Abi Humaid as-Saa'idee,. that she went to the Messenger of Allah, may Allaah's praise and salutations be upon him, and said, "Oh, Messenger of Allaah, truly I love praying with you." So he replied, {I know that you love to pray with me, and your prayer in (an inner room) your house is better than your prayer in your outer room, and your prayer in your outer room is better than your prayer in your residence and your prayer in your residence is better than your prayer in the masjid of your people, and your prayer in the masjid of your people is better than your prayer in my masjid.} So she ordered a masjid to be built for her in the darkest and most private part of her house, and she prayed in it until she met her Lord, Glorified and Exalted is He. (The hadeeth is found in Ahmad 6/371, and Ibn Khuzaimah in his "Saheeh" 3/95 and it is hasan. Look in "Saheeh Ibn Khusaimah")
So the suggestion of the hadeeth is clear, in that the fundamental situation is that the woman stays in her home, so much so that the benefit of the prayer in her house is greater than the benefit of the prayer in his masjid with the Messenger of Allaah, may Allah's praise and salutations be upon him - yet in spite of that he did allow the woman to go out to the masjid."
