By Shaykh Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Ajibah al-Hasani
Released by www.marifah.net 1428 H
Dancing is divided into three categories:
1. The forbidden.
2. The permissible.
3. The recommended.
1. The forbidden category is the dancing of the common with ladies and youths present. This can lead to spoiling and uncontrolled lower natures, and satanic selves and so on. Its purpose is to show off and to exhibit a state which is not real. This is also forbidden. This is why certain people have said that dancing is forbidden.
2. The permissible category of dancing is the dancing done by the right-acting ones and the fuqara without ecstasy or finding. They do it as a relaxation to the self and energy for their hearts, fulfilling the conditions of time and place and the brothers. No women participate in it, nor youths. This is permissible, and it does not call for prohibition, because the causes of forbidding dancing are what was mentioned before. The latter case is free of these conditions. If this dancing is compared to what the Samiris did when they worshipped the cow, it is seen that their dancing was forbidden because theirs was spoiled. Their purpose was to glorify the calf, and to be happy with it.
This is kufr. If their dancing had been free of that it would not have been forbidden for them. It is confirmed that Ja’far ibn Abu Talib r.a. danced in the presence of the Prophet s.a.w. when he said to him,
“You resemble me in my creation and my behaviour.”
1Excerpted from al-futuhat al-ilahiyya sharh al-mabahith al-asliyya by Sidi Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Ajibah al-Hasani(died 1224 Hijrah)
2 Imam Nawawi said: “Dancing is not unlawful, unless it is languid, like the movements of the effeminate. And it is permissible to speak and to sing poetry, unless it satirizes someone, is obscene, or alludes to a particular woman” (minhaj al-talibin wa `umdat al-muttaqin.
Cairo 1338/1920. Reprint. Cairo: Mustafa al-Babi al-Halabi, n.d., 152)
3 `Ali . said: I visited the Prophet with Ja`far (ibn Abi Talib) and Zayd (ibn Haritha). The Prophet said to Zayd: “You are my freedman” (anta mawlay), where upon Zayd began to hop on one leg around the Prophet (hajala). The Prophet then said to Ja`far: “You resemble me in my creation and my manners”,
This was mentioned by Shaykh Sanusi in his musrat al -faqir.
Ibn Layun at-Tujibi said,
“As for dancing in the mosque, it is in the sahih muslim collection from A`isha . who said, ‘An army came from Ethiopia beating drums on the day of the feast in the mosque. The Prophet s.a.w. invited me and I put my palms on his shoulders and watched them play.’”
Ibn ‘Aynia said that ‘zafaf’ was to dance. So it is confirmed that dancing is permissible. If it was forbidden in its essence, it would not have been done in the presence of the Messenger of Allah s.a.w.
3. The category of dancing which is recommended is the dancing of the Sufis, the people of taste and state, whether they are in ecstasy or seeking ecstasy, whether that is in the presence of the dhikr, or in sama’
.
There is no doubt that the cure of the heart of forgetfulness and gathering with Allah swt is sought by whatever means there are, as long as they are not forbidden with a clear and definite declaration of them as forbidden. We have seen the speech of al-Junayd when he was asked about sama’
Al-Fasi said in his sharh al-hissn from [Shaykh al-Islam] al-Suyuti Q.s that he [al-Suyuti] said:
“How can one condemn making dhikr while standing, or standing while making dhikr, when Allah . says, “. . .those who invoke Allah standing, sitting, and upon their sides” 4. And A`isha r.a.h. said, ‘The Prophet . used to invoke Allah at all of his times.’ 5 And if dancing is added to this standing, it may not be condemned, as it is of the joy of spiritual vision and ecstasy, and the Hadith exists 6 that Ja`far ibn Abi Talib r.a. danced in front of the Prophet . when the Prophet . told him, ‘You resemble me in looks and in character,’ Dancing from the happiness he felt from being thus addressed, and the Prophet did not condemn him for doing so, this being a basis for the legal acceptability of the Sufis dancing from the joys of the ecstasies they experience.”
7 whereupon Ja`far began to hop behind Zayd. The Prophet then said to me: “You are part of me and I am part of you whereupon I began to hop behind Ja`far.”’ Imam Ahmad related it in his musnad (1:108) and Ahmad Muhammad Shakir declared it sound (sahih) in his Riyadh, 1949 edition; it is related also by `Uqayli, Abu Nu`aym from Jabir, and Ibn Sa`d in his tabaqat with a sound chain to Muhammad al-Baqir. [Shaikh GF Haddad in his recently released Sunna Notes says it is a ‘fair narration from ‘Ali by Imam Ahmad’]
4 Qur’an 3:191
5 Sahih Muslim, 1.282: 373
6 In many sources, such as musnad al-imam ahmad, 1.108, with a hasan chain of transmission.
7 Al-hawi lil fatawi. 2 vols. Cairo 1352/1933–34. Reprint. Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al `Ilmiyya, 1403/1983,
Among these people are great Imams, and one of them was the Shaykh of Islam, ‘Izzuddin ibn `Abdul Salam, as is mentioned in the ihya 8.
This is also confirmed by the hadith reported from A`isha r.a.h, and the people from Ethiopia who were dancing. The Prophet s.a.w , said to her, “Would you like to look at the dance of the Ethiopians?” Ibn Zakri mentioned it in the commentary of the nasihaj.
It is reported from previous times, from both the east and the west that the Sufis used to gather to remember Allah and that they used to dance. It is not reported that any of the worthy scholars denied them. I have seen in Fez, in the Zawiyya of as-Siqilli, a group who used to do dhikr and dance from the `asr on the day of jumu`a until the isha, with a lot of scholars around. No one denied what they were doing. It has reached me that our Shaykh, the Shaykh of the group Sidi at-Tawdi ibn Suda used to be present with them sometimes. He did not deny anything to the fuqara, except someone who was a cold imitator or an argumentative competitor.
8 It is authentically reported that al-`Izz ibn `Abdul Salam “attended the sama’ and danced in states of ecstasy”. Stated by Ibn al-`Imad, shadharat al-dhahab 5:302; Ibn Shakir al-Kutabi, fawat al-wafayat 1:595; al-Yafi`i, mir`at al-jinan 4:154; al-Nabhani, jami` karamat al-awliya 2:71; Abu al-Sa`adat, taj al-ma`arif p. 250.Imam Ibn Hajar Al-Haytami also mentions “it is permissible to stand and dance during gatherings of remembrance [of Allah] and audition according to a group of great scholars, among them being Shaykh al-Islam Ibn `Abdul Salam.” (fatawa hadithiyya, p. 298)
Photo: Whirling Dervishes
