Explaining the innovation of collective dhikr among the Sufis and what they call the hadrah?

The questioner : The religious anthems and the collective dhikr with loud voices and swaying are called the hadrah. Are these practices acceptable in the Islamic Shari'ah or not?

The Shaykh : No, if we look at what we mentioned earlier: , we understand that these practices contradict the path of the believers. For without doubt, every scholar who has studied the biography of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) and his noble Companions—whether in his time or after his passing (peace be upon him)—knows for certain that these Companions did not remember Allah in the way that the people of the circles and the *nubat* do. Do you use the word *nubat* here?
The attendees: The hadrahs.

The Shaykh : But the word *nubat* is used by us in Syria, and it is more appropriate for them, because *nubat* is the plural of *nubah*, heh heh. So the point is that these circles and these hadrahs certainly did not exist in the time of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). Therefore, the scholars of the Muslims—among them the jurists—went to great lengths in condemning those who remember Allah (Mighty and Majestic) with this kind of dhikr that is not accepted by transmission or by reason. As for transmission: Our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) commanded us to support our Prophet, to honor him, and to revere him. He is a servant among His chosen, excellent servants. What would be the stance of a servant with his Lord? Without doubt, he would revere him, and there is no greater reverence for anyone else, because He is the Creator of all and everyone. If that is the case, the Companions did not raise their voices in dhikr, not in circles like this, nor in mosques, but in the desert, in the open. It was reported in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim from the hadith of Abu Musa al-Ash'ari (may Allah be pleased with him) who said: There is no power and no strength except with Allah; it is a treasure from the treasures of Paradise. If the Messenger of Allah (may the prayers and blessings of Allah be upon him) forbade his Companions from raising their voices in the desert, with the legal reason that the One you are calling is not deaf nor absent, up to the end of the hadith, what would the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) say to these people who raise their voices in the remembrance of Allah in the houses of Allah? Here there is a violation of two etiquettes: the first is the etiquette with the Lord, which is known from the hadith of Abu Musa; the second is the etiquette with the servant who worships Allah in the mosque. To this reality, or this second etiquette, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) pointed when he heard some people raising their voices in dhikr in the mosque, saying: In another narration it says, “so that you do not harm the believers.” This is the second reason, which involves harming those sitting in the mosque, who are remembering Allah, sending blessings upon the Messenger of Allah, and praying two rak'ahs for Allah. These people disturb them and harm them. Hadiths like these give the researcher the idea that those who remember Allah with these voices—actually, I have not seen here what used to happen to us in Damascus, especially on some nights like the Night of Decree, the twenty-seventh night of Ramadan. You would enter the largest mosque in Syria, which is the Umayyad Mosque, and you would have to plug your ears so that your hearing would not be deafened by the loud voices. There is a circle here and a circle there, here a Qadiriyyah and there a Naqshbandiyyah and there a Rifa'iyyah, etc. And so I like the saying of Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah:
“When people knew in our religion... that singing is a Sunnah to be followed,
and that a man should eat like a donkey... and dance in the assembly until he falls,
and they said: We are intoxicated with the love of the Divine... but what intoxicated the people was only the cups,
just as the beasts... are made to dance by their wind and fullness.”
Here is the point:
“Oh, for the intellects and oh, for the wisdom... is there no one among you to forbid the innovations?
Our mosques are disgraced by listening to music... and honored with such sales.”
And another said:
“Oh, generation of innovation, the worst of generations... you have brought a matter that is impossible.
Did my God say to you in the Qur'an... eat like the beasts and dance for me?”
These people, due to their ignorance of two things: the first is the fiqh of the Book and the Sunnah, and the second is what our righteous Salaf were upon, they get confused (a Syrian expression). They cling to some texts from the Book and the Sunnah that were not in the Book, interpreting them with an interpretation other than their true meaning and explaining them with an explanation other than their true meaning. As for the Sunnah, what they argue with is either authentic but does not indicate what they claim, or explicit but not authentic. For example, from the Qur'an they argue with the statement of Allah the Exalted: Who are they? They say, here Allah said: “And they remember Allah standing, sitting, and lying on their sides.”
We say that the methodology in interpreting the Noble Qur'an is to interpret the Qur'an first by the Qur'an. If there is no verse that interprets a verse, then by the hadith. If there is no hadith, then by the statements of the righteous Salaf and the exegetes. Here, you are interpreting in one case. Who among the exegetes of this phrase of this noble verse interprets it with this interpretation? No one, without exception. If we take the tafsir of Ibn Jarir, who is the imam of the exegetes, and the tafsir of Ibn Kathir, who collected many tafsirs including the tafsir of Ibn Jarir, all of them, without any exception, agree that this verse can be interpreted in two ways and no third.
The first interpretation: Those who remember Allah standing, in the state of being standing, and sitting, in the state of being sitting, and on their sides, in the state of being lying down. This is the first opinion.
The second opinion: And this opinion will show the difference between it and the other. This opinion includes all states, especially in prayer, in any state. Now you sit and say Subhan Allah wa bihamdihi, Subhan Allah al-Azim, or you lie on your side and recite the Verse of the Throne. This is the interpretation of the verse according to the first opinion. The second and final opinion: Those who remember Allah standing in their prayer when able, and sitting when unable to stand, and on their sides when unable to stand and sit. This was explicitly stated in Sahih al-Bukhari from the hadith of Imran ibn Husayn (may Allah be pleased with him) who said: This hadith supports the second opinion, or the interpretation of the verse by the second opinion, meaning in prayer, meaning they remember Allah standing in prayer, because standing is a pillar of the pillars of prayer, as Allah the Exalted said: . No, by Allah, if you cannot do it except sitting, then sit. If you cannot do it except on your side, then on your side.
Then we say that your interpretation is the first to be refuted by you yourselves, because they combine standing and sitting, but they do not lie on their sides. Therefore, we say that during the dhikr, some of you lean on each other until you become a laughingstock for people. And another thing, and more important, the verse has a continuation: .