Recently, my wife has started to play an audio tape in the car which is teaching day and night Du'as with Tajweed. The voice is of a female. Allaah has proven the sacred state of women by not even mentioning the names of women in Quran except of Maryam, may Allaah be pleased with her, for a specific reason. Can the voice of women be allowed to be heard by men through mass media? I did not find any women's Islamic lecture tapes in Saudi Arabia. Please clarify if it is okay for men to listen to such tapes of women teaching Tajweed.

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 is His slave and Messenger.

It is permissible to listen to a marriageable woman's voice provided there is no attractive softness in her speech and provided listening to her does not lead to temptation.

The Sunnah proves the above ruling.

Al-Bukhari reported that 'Aa'ishah said: "Abu Bakr entered my home and found two young female slaves belonging to the Ansaar (i.e. residents of Madeenah) singing with the poetry the Ansaar said on the day of Bu'aath (a battle). The two young girls were not professional singers. Abu Bakr said: "The pipes of Satan in the house of the Messenger of Allaah ?"' It was an 'Eed day. The Prophet said: "O Abu Bakr! Each people have a day they celebrate and today is our 'Eed day."

We know from the above that the Prophet not only listened to the singing of the two female slaves but also disapproved Abu Bakr's rebuke.

Ibn Hajar said while explaining this Hadeeth: "This Hadeeth is used as proof of the permissibility of listening to the singing of the two young female slaves although not belonging to him, because the Prophet did not disapprove of the fact that Abu Bakr listened to them but disapproved of his rebuke and the young girls continued to sing." Ibn Hajar then said: "But it is clear that the permissibility is only if there is no fear of temptation."

There are many other Ahadeeth proving the permissibility of listening to a marriageable woman's voice if there is no fear of temptation. It is, however, important to note here that we now live in a time when temptation and corruption have become widespread and desire-related illnesses have become common. So, the listening of a man to a woman singing with forms of mention of Allaah can stir some bad feelings, so it is better to avoid that in order to stay away from temptation and remain safe from something that could make one's heart inclined to a marriageable woman.

Finally, we would like to inform the questioner that his saying "Allaah has proven…..reason", is an exaggerated statement. In fact, it is not true that mentioning the name of a woman is disrespectful to her. The names of the Prophet's wives were told to us as well as those of his daughters and those of the companions' wives.

So, we warn all people against saying on behalf of Allaah what He did not say.

Allaah Knows best.