The Ruling on Poetic Dialogue and Clapping

Question:
He sent you a message, and he asks: What is the ruling on poetic dialogue if it involves clapping and swaying?

Answer:
Poetic dialogue has cautions. First, it is a type of musical entertainment. It is not reciting poetry in an ordinary voice, but rather a broken, melodic voice. So it involves a type of musical entertainment, and this is not appropriate.
It should be abandoned. There is no doubt that it is better to leave it. Also, it may include some inappropriate speech, such as the participants exchanging insults with one another, even if in jest, and this is not permissible.
As for clapping, this is a characteristic of women. If a man claps, he is imitating a woman. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) even in prayer, where there is a need for attention, forbade the woman from speaking and ordered her to clap, while the man speaks and does not clap. If a man does not clap in prayer to alert the imam for a valid purpose, how can he clap outside of prayer?
There is no valid purpose for it except imitation and imitating the disbelievers. This custom of clapping did not come to us except from the disbelievers. We saw them clapping with their hands, so we clapped like them. It is also imitating women, because clapping is a characteristic of women. Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) said: None of the Companions of the Messenger of Allah struck a hand drum or clapped with their hands. The Companions never clapped. Yes.