Abstract
Music is a very suitable subject in terms of revealing the view and approach of two different religious sciences, mysticism and Islamic law, in the religion of Islam. Music, which is considered ḥaram by some faqīhs (legal scholars) due to religious concerns, is included in dhikr (mystical ceremonies?) to increase the religious motives. The Sūfīs caring esoteric feelings in worship, accepted dhikr accompanied by semā as informal worship since they consider the spiritual experiences that music gives to the Sūfī. For Sūfīs, semā is a piece of news from God. It is possible to inform only about something that is not revealed. The sālik also wants to get news from God when He cannot be reached. Semā provides an opportunity to the Sūfīs to obtain this news? When the missing becomes visible, there is no need for news anymore.
Although the semā is quite important in terms of mysticism, the Sūfīs did not ignore the fact that it was performed with musical accompaniment. Considering the negative feelings that music will arouse in the person, the Sūfīs warned those who would perform the semā, and in this context, they did not find semā approvable for everyone. Izz al-Din ibn Abd al-Salam warns those who perform the semā as follows: “All happiness is achieved by following the Messenger and the companions witnessed by the Prophet as a good generation. A person who has a tendency towards bad desires in his heart should not participate in the semā. Because the semā activates what is in a person's heart, that is, what is pleasant or ugly.”
Ghazālī pays attention to the fact that many people are able to train the tongue and the outward, but very few can train the heart and the inside and with the story of Khidr, he says that the semā is not approvable for everyone. To a person who asks Khidr about the semā in his dream, Khidr says: “It is a slippery stone, only scholars can stand on it.” The semā activates the hidden emotions and secrets of the heart. Therefore, it gets people drunk in a way that overcomes the harms of adab, except for those whom God protects with the light of guidance, grace, and mercy. This semā is more dangerous than music that provokes lust. Because the end of music that provokes lust is to be sinful. However, the end of this kind of semâ is blasphemy.
Despite these warnings, the use of semā went beyond its intended purpose. The semā performed with pure emotions reached extreme dimensions in the sixth and seventh centuries of the hijra and the semā activities turned into a race to gain respect. The development of the semā in the later periods went beyond the expected purpose of the semā and opened the door to some excesses. The semā is filled with followers who walk on fire or pierce their bodies with swords.
Faqīhs approached the issue of semā with a quite different concern compared with the Sūfīs. They have never been interested in whether the emotion and experience that the semā adds to people is positive or negative. They considered it as a problem that the sky was made for the purpose of worship. Faqīhs, who clung to the outward naṣṣ (textual sources of Islam which are mainly the Qur’an and sunna) in understanding the religion, continued this apparent approach to worship and they said that worship can only be performed as revealed by revelation. For this reason, they have strongly analyzed the dhikr performed with music, as they considered it to go out of the determined form. In this context, the following statement of Abū al-Wafā ibn Āqil is quite interesting since it shows the reaction of the faqīhs against going out of the revealed form regarding worship: “What could be uglier than a white-bearded person dancing and clapping to musical instruments?”