How is evil to be forbidden in gatherings of women dancing, by those who are present in that session?

The questioner : Well, may Allah reward you with good, O Shaykh. Due to the limited time, I will just mention the incident that happened and we need a ruling on it. We were at the wedding of one of the good sisters, and since the wedding was an Islamic wedding where the hand drum is played, afterwards the family took the drums from us and started dancing to the songs customary among them. Not songs, songs, but some of the hymns they dance to. Then they took our sister and ordered her to join the dancing; meaning, they made her sit with them. We did not know what the ruling on that was, because we felt there was some swaying. I do not know; some people remained silent, and some left the gathering. So we do not know what the ruling is? Do we prevent the matter, or how should the method of forbidding evil be?

The Shaykh : By Allah, the method of forbidding evil varies from place to place, and you know that forbidding evil has three degrees: , but in such cases, a verse from the Qur'an intervenes, which is His saying—Blessed and Exalted is He—: . So if a woman present at the party stands up and forbids this matter that contradicts the Shari'ah, and they respond, and this is very, very rare for them to respond, because society is corrupt, and because upbringing is almost non-existent today, unfortunately; so response is not expected. If they respond, praise be to Allah. If they do not respond, then the one who enjoins good has no choice at that time but to leave, and as is said in some countries: to save his feathers, meaning: to save himself, acting in accordance with the previous verse: .