Documents of the Right Word

near them. Annoyed, the Prophet stated, ‘He may not see, but you
do (see)!’ While it was so strongly prohibited for women to show
themselves to men, it is written in the Sunnite books how Âisha
‘radiy-Allâhu anhâ’ leaned her head on the Prophet’s shoulder and
watched the men playing (musical) instruments and dancing. The
Prophet stated, ‘Are you still not sated, o Humeyrâ?’ We could not
say that the basest people would do the same.” Our answer is this:
This behaviour of watching the dances may have happened before
the âyat-i-kerîma commanding (women) to cover themselves was
revealed. On the other hand, (the Prophet’s) prohibiting (his
blessed wife) from showing herself to Ibni Mektûm occurred after
the revelation of the âyat-i-kerîma. Or, perhaps, the dances
watched were those kinds of dances that were not forbidden; they
may have been permissible kinds of dances. As a matter of fact,
(some) sahîh (authentic) reports show that bayonet dances were
performed in the yard of Mesjîd-i-Nebevî. And this, in its turn,
being a war dance, is not sinful. Indeed, the fact that it was
performed in the yard of the Mesjîd (Mosque) indicates that it was
permissible. Even if the watching of the dances had occurred after
the revelation of the âyat-i-kerîma, Âisha ‘radiy-Allâhu anhâ’ was
too young then. She was not liable (to religious commandments)
yet. In fact, Bukhârî and Muslim quote her (hadrat Âisha) as
relating, “Rasûlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wa sallam’ was standing in
the door of the room. Some Abyssinians were doing a dance on the
Mihrâb of the Mesjîd. Rasûlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wa sallam’
covered me with a cloth that was on his blessed back. I watched the
dance, looking through the aperture between his blessed ear and
neck.”
It should be known very well that meddling with the
behaviours of the As-hâb-i-kirâm, and saying whatever occurs to
one’s mind about them, is the lowest degree of insolence and the
last grade of asininity a Muslim could do. A person who bears the
name Muslim should love all the As-hâb-i-kirâm, leaving the
disagreements and rows among them to Allâhu ta’âlâ. He should
know that loving them means loving Muhammad ‘alaihis-salâm’.
For the Messenger of Allah stated, “He who loves them, loves
them because he loves me.” This is the only way to salvation for a
Muslim. Imâm-i-Muhammad bin Idris Shâfi’î ‘rahmatullâhi aleyh’
states, “As Allâhu ta’âlâ has protected our hands from being
smeared with the blood shed among the As-hâb-i-kirâm, so we
should protect our tongues from poking into it.” ’Umar bin
Abdul’azîz also made a similar statement. [Sayyed Ahmad bin Alî
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