What Are the Limits and Guidelines for the Group Dhikr (Such as the Hadra)?

Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Question

I have read your answers on the permissibility of the hadra in the Hanafi madhab. I have also read from other learned individuals that Ibn Abidin differentiates between balanced and extreme movements during dhikr. So what are the limits and guidelines for the hadra?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Merciful and Compassionate.

The Hanafi scholars differed over movement in dhikr. The relied-upon Hanafi position is nuanced and careful, as Ibn Abidin (Allah have mercy on him) sets it out. This nuanced position permits measured, dignified movement in dhikr for sincere people who maintain self-control, and it condemns dancing that imitates the behaviour of the frivolous.

Thus, this position understands the Hanafi masters who condemned group dhikr with movement as referring to dhikr gatherings that contain condemnable elements.

Many great later Hanafi authorities held the same line in their commentaries, fatwas, and treatises, and so did distinguished scholars and spiritual masters of the Subcontinent.

So the hadra is permitted, with conditions that keep it worship rather than a show.

What Ibn Abidin Distinguishes

Ibn Abidin comments on a line of verse, saying that some scholars deemed whoever holds dancing (raqs) lawful to be a disbeliever. He explains what dancing is meant: “What is meant is swaying, lowering and raising in measured movements, as some who ascribe themselves to Sufism do.” [Ibn Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar]

Ibn Abidin then relays two verdicts against it: a harsh one and a milder one, sinful, not disbelief.

Then he gives the decisive detail, through the answer of Ibn Kamal Pasha, the distinguished Ottoman Shaykh al-Islam and considered by some the mujaddid (reviver) of his Hijri Century: “There is no harm in ecstasy (tawajud), if you are true, nor any fault in swaying, if you are sincere.”

And: “The concession for these postures, during dhikr and listening, is for the knowers who spend their time in the best of works, the spiritual seekers who keep control of themselves against ugly states. They listen only to God and long only for Him.” [Ibid.]

So his line falls less between gentle and wild motion than between purposes: the same swaying is blameworthy as mere entertainment and a concession for the sincere in remembrance.

In another treatise, after condemning gatherings of dancing and forbidden singing, Ibn Abidin adds: “We have no quarrel with the truthful among our Sufi masters, free of every base trait.” Imam Junayd (Allah have mercy on him) was asked about people who seek ecstasy and sway, and said, “Leave them with Allah.” [Ibn Abidin, Shifa al-Alil] Nor with those who follow them in true longing for Allah. His words are against “the corrupt and base among the common folk, who make gatherings of dhikr a net to catch the lowly world.” [Ibid.]

Gathering and Raising the Voice in Dhikr

Movement is one question; the gathering and the raised voice are another.

Ibn Abidin treats both. He notes that the author of al-Bazzaziyya wavered on the issue of raising the voice in dhikr, calling it unlawful in one place and permissible in another.

Then he relays Khayr al-Din al-Ramli’s reconciliation of the hadith that call for voicing dhikr and those that call for quiet: “The reconciliation between them is that this differs with differing persons and states.” Quiet is better in meaning where showing off is feared or where those praying or sleeping would be disturbed; otherwise, as Ramli relays, voicing is preferable, since it reaches listeners, awakens the heart of the one remembering, gathers his focus, and drives off sleep. [Ibn Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar]

Ibn Abidin closes with a report through Sayyid Ahmad al-Hamawi from Imam Shaʿrani: “The scholars, early and late, agreed that dhikr in congregation is recommended, in mosques and elsewhere, unless their voicing disturbs someone sleeping, praying, or reciting.” [Ibid.]

What Sidi Abd al-Ghani al-Nablusi Recorded at al-Azhar

Sidi Abd al-Ghani al-Nablusi (Allah have mercy on him), whom Ibn Abidin constantly cites, records the question in his travel book, al-Haqiqa wa al-Majaz fi Rihlat Bilad al-Sham wa Misr wa al-Hijaz.

In Cairo, he was shown two questions on voiced dhikr in the way of the Sufis, with the written answers of the scholars of al-Azhar. One concerned the Khalwati circles, the Damirdashi line, and others, who practice dhikr in a ring, holding one another’s hands, turning, and repeating “Hu.” An objector had called this dancing and play, and declared those who allowed it disbelievers.

Among the answers he copies is that of the Hanafi jurist Shaykh Abd al-Hayy al-Shurunbulali, a noted student of the great Hanafi jurist, Imam Hasan ibn Ammar al-Shurunbulali (Allah have mercy on them), author of Maraqi al-Falah and other works. He wrote: “Praise be to Allah, Giver of what is right. Yes: the way of Shaykh Muhammad Damirdash and his deputy, Shaykh Karim al-Din al-Khalwati, has a firm basis in the Sunna, from the practice of our master Ali, Jaʿfar, and Zayd ibn Thabit.” [Nablusi, al-Haqiqa wa al-Majaz]

He then answers the charge that their turning is “idle play (lahw)”: “To count the turning of the Khalwatis as idleness (lahw) or play (laʿib), as Imam Ibrahim al-Halabi did in his treatise, is not as it should be. In idleness, one does what holds no benefit, and in play, one does what has whimsical pleasure; what the Khalwatis do is neither. Their act has a sound purpose in the Sacred Law: bringing the heart to presence by giving it wholly to remembrance. And there is no doubt that sincere remembrance of Allah is among the best of works. That is why they do it.” [Ibid.]

A Shafiʿi scholar in the same record draws the line on the movement itself: “Even granting that it is dancing, dancing free of languid bending and swaying is not unlawful, so long as nothing unlawful is joined to it.” [Ibid.]

The Support of Other Hanafi Authorities

Sidi Abd al-Ghani also defended these circles in his treatise Jamʿ al-Asrar fi Manʿ al-Ashrar an al-Taʿn fi al-Sufiyya al-Akhyar.

Among his proofs is Imam Ali’s description of the Companions of the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace), which Imam Ghazali relates: “When morning came, and they remembered Allah, they swayed as trees sway on a windy day, and their eyes flowed with tears until their clothes were wet.” [Ghazali, Ihya Ulum al-Din]

Shaykh Abd al-Qadir Isa (Allah have mercy on him), a 20th-century scholar from Aleppo and an authorised spiritual master (murshid) of the Shadhili way, gathers these proofs in his Haqaʾiq an al-Tasawwuf.

He relays Sidi Abd al-Ghani’s reading of this report: that it shows the Companions of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) moved in their dhikr, and that a person is not taken to task for how he moves, stands, or sits, so long as he commits and intends no sin.

He also reconciles Ibn Abidin’s two discussions: the prohibitions in his Hashiya concern circles that carry wrongs, such as instruments of amusement and gatherings with the unlawful, while in Shifa al-Alil he permits seeking ecstasy and movement for the sincere and those who follow them.

Imam Suyuti was asked about a man who rose in a dhikr gathering and kept remembering Allah while standing, from a state that had come over him. He answered, “There is no objection to him in that,” and reported that Imam Bulqini gave the same answer. Imam Abnasi added, “In sum, safety lies in accepting the state of the folk.” [Suyuti, al-Hawi lil-Fatawi]

Then Suyuti asks, “How can one object to dhikr standing, and standing in dhikr?” [Ibid.]

Sidi Abd al-Ghani copies this fatwa too in his record of the Azhar answers. Allah Most High says, “Those who make remembrance of Allah standing and sitting and on their sides at rest.” [Quran 3:191; Keller, The Quran Beheld]

The question drew treatises on both sides. Imam Ibrahim al-Halabi argued against such dancing in al-Rahs wa al-Waqs li-Mustahill al-Raqs; Shaykh Abd al-Hayy answered his objections. In defense stand Sidi Abd al-Ghani’s Jamʿ al-Asrar and Ibn Abidin’s Shifa al-Alil; and on voiced dhikr, Imam Abd al-Hayy al-Laknawi wrote Sabahat al-Fikr fi al-Jahr bi al-Dhikr, after Imam Suyuti’s Natijat al-Fikr fi al-Jahr bi al-Dhikr.

The Masters of the Subcontinent Who Permitted Group Dhikr with Movement

Mawlana Ashraf Ali Thanvi (Allah have mercy on him) was asked, in Imdad al-Fatawa, about the Shadhili way of voiced dhikr performed by many people standing together. He sets out the positions on voiced dhikr, holds that those who permit it are right, and concludes, in meaning: once voiced dhikr is established as lawful, it is not restricted to any one form or posture; because the proofs are unrestricted, it is permitted in every manner, alone or together, in a ring or in rows, standing or sitting, or in any other form. [Thanvi, Imdad al-Fatawa]

He adds that no one should be stopped from any form of it. In his own note, he states the condition, in meaning, that no one sleeping or praying is harmed, and that the voice is not excessive. [Ibid.]

Pir Meher Ali Shah of Golra (Allah have mercy on him), the great scholar and Chishti master, spoke to samaʿ, the spiritual audition. His son relates that he would say there is no question at all about the samaʿ of the masters, but unqualified people today take those masters’ practice as proof while disregarding its conditions, and this grieves the heart.

Then he would recite Saʿdi’s lines, in meaning: I will tell you, brother, what samaʿ is, once I know who the listener is. If his bird flies from the tower of meaning, the angel falls short of its flight; but if he is a man of amusement and jest, his devil grows stronger in his head. [Pir Meher Ali Shah, Malfuzat-e-Mehriyya]

This is Ibn Kamal Pasha’s point in another tongue: the same act is judged by the one who does it.

The Limits and Guidelines of Group Dhikr

The scholars mention guidelines related to sound gatherings of group dhikr, such as the hadra:

One. Sound creed and sincerity. The gathering is for Allah alone, never for display or worldly gain.

Two. No impermissible musical instruments. Where the scholars differ from your teachers on it.

Three. No mixing of men and women, and no looking at what is unlawful.

Four. Dignified movement. Swaying, rising, and bowing in measure are the concession; the languid bending and swaying of the dancers of frivolity are not.

Five. Sound words. The dhikr and the poetry must be sound in meaning.

Six. No harm to others and no neglect of obligations. The voice is not excessive; no one praying, sleeping, or reciting is disturbed, and prayer times, family rights, and work are kept.

Seven. Under a qualified shaykh and his adab, who guards its form.

Eight. No forcing states and no affectation. If you have no overwhelming state, remain composed in the movement of the circle; do not perform what you do not feel.

Nine. Respect for those who do not take part. Do not condemn those who hold the stricter view, as you would not wish to be condemned for following the scholars who permit it.

[From: Keller, Sea Without Shore; Isa, Haqaʾiq an al-Tasawwuf; Suhrawardi, Awarif al-Maʿarif; Dardir, Tuhfat al-Ikhwan]

Shaykh Nuh Keller’s Description as a Model

Shaykh Nuh Keller (Allah preserve him) describes it plainly: “The hadra is a dhikr made standing together in a group, with motion and breath in unison, to the singing of mystical poetry.” Of its movement, he says, “Like all motions of the hadra, it is dignified and virile, not languid”, and “The movement, like that of the ruh, is purely vertical.” [Keller, Sea Without Shore]

Shaykh Nuh then cites the position that such circles “are neither offensive (makruh) nor unlawful (haram)” when free of other unlawful matters, such as instruments or mixing. [Ibid.]

The Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, “No people sit remembering Allah, but that the angels surround them, mercy covers them, tranquillity descends upon them, and Allah mentions them among those who are with Him.” [Muslim]

Judge the Movement by Its Purpose and Its Form

Movement in dhikr is judged by its purpose and its form. Sincere, dignified, and restrained, it is permitted; frivolous, it is not. If you wish to attend a circle, seek one led by a sound teacher, keep its adab, and let your movement follow your heart, not the reverse.

May Allah fill your heart with His remembrance until it moves you more than any motion of the body.

And Allah knows best.

Faraz Rabbani

• Related Answers
• The Hadra: Is the Group Dhikr With Singing and Swaying Permitted? — The hadra is permitted in itself, as the writings of major Hanafi authorities make clear.
• Is Group Dhikr With Swaying Permissible? — Group dhikr with swaying is permitted according to major Hanafi scholars, and the reported prohibition from Ibn Masʿud is examined.Is It Permissible to Gather for Remembrance? What Are the Etiquettes of the Gatherings of Remembrance (Dhikr)? — Gathering for remembrance is permissible, with six etiquettes, from sincere intention and purity to stillness unless overtaken by a state.
• Is the Permissibility of Hadra the Main Opinion of the Madhab? — Permissibility is the main Shafiʿi view, though a hadra becomes forbidden with free mixing, musical instruments, or licentious movements.