ON DEVOTIONAL POETRY

We are excited to announce our upcoming Weekend Retreat, which will be held on June 7-9 titled On Devotional Poetry, a study of Book 18 of Imam al- Ghazali’s masterpiece Ihya’ ‘Ulum al-Din (Revival of the Religious Sciences).

While there are differing scholarly opinions with respect to music and singing, Imam al-Ghazali argues in Book 18 that there is both textual evidence and proper analogy that indicate their permissibility under certain occasions and conditions. For example, Imam al-Ghazali mentions the singing that occurred upon the arrival of the Messenger to Madinah and on another occasion, he ﷺ allowed Sayyida Aisha, Radiallahu Anha, to listen to servants beating drums during Eid. Additionally, the messenger ﷺ said with respect to one of his ﷺ he Messenger companions, “[he] has been gifted with a sweet melodious voice out of the voices of the family of Dawud.”

In Imam al-Ghazali’s On Devotional Poetry, he discusses the differing scholarly opinions on music and singing, the permissibility of listening to pleasant sounds, types of pleasant sounds including poetry, five contingencies which make music and singing impermissible, and rebuttals to arguments prohibiting music and singing.

We welcome you to join us in exploring this often misunderstood but, in these times, highly relevant issue in what we pray will be a weekend filled with abundant blessings as we acquire knowledge and spend time in devotion together.