The Public Dhikr (Hadra)

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   Bi ismillahir rahamnir raheem

asaalamu alaikum.

The Public Dhikr (Hadra)

� Nuh Ha Mim Keller 1996.

A person coming to the Middle East to learn something about the tariqa
is likely, at some point in his visit, to see the brethren in the hadra
or �public dhikr� as it has been traditionally practiced by generations
of Shadhilis in North Africa under such sheikhs as al-�Arabi
al-Darqawi, Muhammad al-Buzidi, and Ahmad al-�Alawi before being
brought to Damascus from Algeria by Muhammad ibn Yallis and Muhammad
al-Hashimi at the beginning of this century. 

 Upon entering the
mosque, one will see circles of men making dhikr (women participants
are screened from view upstairs) standing and holding hands, now
slightly bowing in unison, now moving up and down with their knees in
unison, the rows rising and falling, breathing in unison, while certain
of them alternate at pacing around their midst, conducting the tempo of
the group�s motion and breathing with their arms and step. Singers near
the sheikh, in solo or chorus, deliver mystical odes to the rhythm of
the group; high, spiritual poetry from masters like Ibn al-Farid,
Sheikh Ahmad al-�Alawi, �Abd al-Qadir al-Himsi, and our own sheikh. 

Though a very stirring experience, it is meticulously timed and
controlled, and as with all group dhikrs, the main adab or �proper
behaviour� is harmony. No one should stand out in any way, but rather
all subordinate their movement, breathing, and dhikr to that of the
group. The purpose is to forget one�s individuality in the collective
sea of spirits making dhikr in unison. Individual motives, thoughts,
and preoccupations are momentarily put aside by means of the Sacred
Dance, of moving together as one, sublimating and transcending the
limitary and personal through the timelessness of rhythm, conjoined
with the melody of voices singing spiritual meanings. 

 It is an
experience that joins those travelling towards Allah spiritually,
socially, and emotionally. Few forget it, and visitors from the West to
whom it is unfamiliar sometimes wonder if it is a bid�a or
�reprehensible innovation,� as it was not done in the time of the
earliest Muslims, or whether it is unlawful (haram) or offensive
(makruh); and why they see the ulama and righteous attending it in
Damascus, Jerusalem, Aden, Cairo, Tripoli, Tunis, Fez, and wherever
there are people of the path. 

 I was one of those who asked our
sheikh about the relation of the hadra to the shari�a or �Sacred Law�
which is the guiding light of our tariqa. As Muslims, our submission to
the law is total, and there are no thoughts or opinions after legally
answering the question �Does the hadra agree with orthodox Islam?� 

Because it comprises a number of various elements, such as gathering
together for the remembrance of Allah (dhikr), singing, and dancing, we
should reflect for a moment on some general considerations about the
Islamic shari�a before discussing each of these separately.

 First,
the Islamic shari�a furnishes a comprehensive criterion for all
possible human actions, whether done before or never done before. It
classifies actions into five categories, the obligatory (wajib), whose
performance is rewarded by Allah in the next life and whose
nonperformance is punished; the recommended (mandub), whose performance
is rewarded but whose nonperformance is not punished; the permissible
(mubah), whose performance is not rewarded and whose nonperformance is
not punished; the offensive (makruh), whose nonperformance is rewarded
but whose performance is not punished; and the unlawful (haram), whose
nonperformance is rewarded and whose performance is punished. 

Now, Allah in His wisdom has made the vast majority of human actions
permissible. He says in surat al-Baqara, �It is He who has created
everything on earth for you� (Koran 2:29), which establishes the
shari�a principle that all things are mubah or permissible for us until
Allah indicates to us that they are otherwise. Because of this, the
fact that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) did not do
this or that particular practice does not prove that it is offensive or
unlawful, but only that it is not obligatory. 

 This is the reason
that when shari�a scholars speak of bid�a, they do not merely mean an
�innovation� or something that was never done before, which is the
lexical sense of the word, but rather a �blameworthy innovation� or
something new that no legal evidence in Sacred Law attests to the
validity of, which is the shari�a sense of the word. The latter is the
bid�a of misguidance mentioned in the hadith �The worst of matters are
those that are new, and every innovation (bid�a) is misguidance� (Sahih
Muslim. 5 vols. Cairo 1376/1956. Reprint. Beirut: Dar al-Fikr,
1403/1983, 2.592: 867), which, although general in wording, scholars
say refers specifically to new matters that entail something offensive
or unlawful. Imam Shafi�i explains: 

New matters are of two kinds:
something newly begun that contravenes the Koran, sunna, the position
of early Muslims, or consensus of scholars (ijma�): this innovation is
misguidance. And something newly inaugurated of the good in which there
is no contravention of any of these, and is therefore something which
although new (muhdatha), is not blameworthy. For when �Umar (Allah be
well pleased with him) saw the [tarawih] prayer being performed [in a
group by Muslims at the mosque] in Ramadan, he said, �What a good
innovation (bid�a) this is,� meaning something newly begun that had not
been done before. And although in fact it had, this does not negate the
legal considerations just advanced [n: i.e. that it furnishes an
example of something that �Umar, who was a scholar of the Sahaba,
praised as a �good innovation� despite his belief that it had not been
done before, because it did not contravene the broad principles of the
Koran or sunna] (Dhahabi: Siyar a�lam al-nubala�. 23 vols. Beirut:
Mu�assassa al-Risala, 1401/1981, 10.70).

 As for the practice of
Muslims gathering together for group dhikr or the �invocation of
Allah,� there is much evidence of its praiseworthiness in the
sunna-aside from the many Koranic verses and the hadiths establishing
the general merit of dhikr in every state-such as the hadith related by
Bukhari:

Truly, Allah has angels going about the ways, looking for
people of dhikr, and when they find a group of men invoking Allah, they
call to one another, �Come to what you have been looking for!� and they
circle around them with their wings up to the sky of this world. 

Then their Lord asks them, though He knows better than they, �What do
My servants say?� And they reply, �They say, Subhan Allah (�I glorify
Allah�s absolute perfection�), Allahu Akbar (�Allah is ever greatest�),
and al-Hamdu li Llah (�All praise be to Allah�), and they extoll Your
glory.� 

 He says, �Have they seen Me?� And they answer, �No, by
Allah, they have not seen You.� And He says, �How would it be, had they
seen Me?� And they say, �If they had seen You, they would have
worshipped You even more, glorified You more, and said Subhan Allah the
more.� 

 He asks them, �What do they ask of Me?� And one answers,
�They ask You paradise.� He says, �Have they seen it?� And they say,
�No, by Allah, My Lord, they have not seen it.� And He says, �How would
it be, had they seen it?� And they say, �If they had seen it, they
would have been more avid for it, sought it more, and been more
desirous of it.� 

 Then He asks them, �From what do they seek
refuge?� And they answer, �From hell.� He says, �Have they seen it?�
And they say, �No, by Allah, they have not seen it.� And He says, �How
would it be, had they seen it?� And they say, �If they had seen it,
they would have fled from it even more, and been more fearful of it.�

He says, �I charge all of you to bear witness that I have forgiven
them.� Then one of the angels says, �So-and-so is among them, though he
is not one of them but only came for something he needed.� And Allah
says, �They are companions through whom no one who keeps their company
shall meet perdition� (Sahih al-Bukhari. 9 vols. Cairo 1313/1895.
Reprint (9 vols. in 3). Beirut: Dar al-Jil, n.d., 8.107-8: 6408).

The last line of the hadith shows the highest approval for gatherings
of dhikr in the religion of Allah. Some other accounts transmit the
condemnation of Ibn Mas�ud (Allah be well please with him) for
gathering together to say Subhan Allah (perhaps out of fear of
ostentation), but even if we were to grant their authenticity, the
above hadith of Bukhari, containing the explicit approval of such
gatherings by Allah and His messenger (Allah bless him and give him
peace) suffices us from needing the permission of Ibn Mas�ud or any
other human being. Further, the explicit mention of the various forms
of dhikr in the hadith suffice in reply to certain contemporary
�re-formers� of Islam, who attempt to reduce �sessions of dhikr� to
educational gatherings alone by quoting the words of �Ata' (ibn Abi
Rabah, Mufti of Mecca, d. 114/732), who reportedly said, 

Sessions
of dhikr are the sessions of [teaching people] the lawful and unlawful,
how you buy, sell, pray, fast, wed, divorce, make the pilgrimage, and
the like (Nawawi: al-Majmu�: Sharh al-Muhadhdhab. 20 vols. Cairo n.d.
Reprint. Medina: al-Maktaba al-Salafiyya, n.d., 1.21). 

Perhaps
�Ata' intended to inform people that teaching and learning shari�a are
also a form of dhikr, but in any case it is clear from the Prophet�s
explicit words (Allah bless him and give him peace) in the above hadith
that �sessions of dhikr� cannot be limited to teaching and learning
Sacred Law alone, but primarily mean gatherings of Muslims to invoke
Allah in dhikr.

 As for dancing, Imam Ahmad relates from Anas (Allah
be well pleased with him), with a chain of transmission all of whose
narrators are those of Bukhari except Hammad ibn Salama, who is one of
the narrators of Muslim, that

the Ethiopians danced in front of the
Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace); dancing and
saying [in their language], �Muhammad is a righteous servant.� The
Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, �What are they
saying?� And they said, ��Muhammad is a righteous servant�� (Musnad
al-Imam Ahmad. 6 vols. Cairo 1313/1895. Reprint. Beirut: Dar Sadir,
n.d.., 3.152). 

 Other versions of the hadith clarify that this
took place in the mosque in Medina, though in any case, the fact that
dancing was done before the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him
peace) establishes that it is mubah or �permissible� in the shari�a,
for if it had been otherwise, he would have been obliged to condemn it.
For this reason, Imam Nawawi says: 

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).

 This is a legal text for the permissibility
of both dancing and singing poetry from the Minhaj al-talibin, the
central legal work of the entire late Shafi�i school. Islamic scholars
point out that if something which is permissible, such as singing
poetry or dancing, is conjoined with something that is recommended,
such as dhikr or gatherings to make dhikr, the result of this
conjoining will not be offensive (makruh) or unlawful (haram). Imam
Jalal al-Din Suyuti was asked for a fatwa or formal legal opinion
concerning �a group of Sufis who had gathered for a session of dhikr,�
and he replied:

How can one condemn making dhikr while standing, or
standing while making dhikr, when Allah Most High says, �. . . those
who invoke Allah standing, sitting, and upon their sides� (Koran
3:191). And �A'isha (Allah be well pleased with her) said, �The Prophet
(Allah bless him and give him peace) used to invoke Allah at all of his
times� [Sahih Muslim, 1.282: 373]. 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 [in many sources, such as
Musnad al-Imam Ahmad, 1.108, with a sound (hasan) chain of
transmission] that Ja�far ibn Abi Talib danced in front of the Prophet
(Allah bless him and give him peace) 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 (al-Hawi li
al-fatawi. 2 vols. Cairo 1352/1933-34. Reprint. Beirut: Dar al-Kutub
al-�Ilmiyya, 1403/1983, 2.234). 

 Now, Suyuti was a hadith master
(hafiz, someone with over 100,000 hadiths by memory) and a recognized
mujtahid Imam who authored hundreds of works in the shari�a sciences,
and his formal opinion, together with the previously cited ruling of
Imam Nawawi in the Minhaj al-talibin, constitutes an authoritative
legal text (nass) in the Shafi�i school establishing that circles of
dhikr which comprise the singing of spiritual poetry and dancing are
neither offensive (makruh) nor unlawful (haram)-unless associated with
other unlawful factors such as listening to musical instruments or the
mixing of men and women-but rather are permissible. 

 To summarize,
the hadra of our tariqa, consisting of circles of invocation of Allah
(dhikr) conjoined with the singing of permissible poetry and dancing,
is compatible with the Sacred Law of orthodox Islam; and when the
latter elements facilitate presence of heart with Allah (as they do
with most people who possess hearts), they deserve a reward from Allah
by those who intend them as such. And this is the aim and importance of
the hadra in the tariqa.