Poetry (shi'r): its permissibility, limits, teaching, recitation and the rulings that touch poets

Shi'r in language means knowledge: one says that a person "felt" something when he knew of it. The word came to mean measured, rhymed speech because of its dignity. In the technical sense it is rhymed, metred speech composed on purpose. ¹

• Prose (nathr): speech scattered without rhyme or metre, the opposite of poetry. ⁵
• Rhymed prose (saj'): the agreement of two clause endings in prose on one letter, without metre. ⁵
• Rajaz: a form of poetry according to most lexicographers; some say it is not poetry but half or third lines, and so its composer is called a rajiz, not a poet. ⁵
• Huda': the driving of camels with a particular chant, usually in rajaz. ⁵
• Ghina' (singing): melodious chanting of metred or unmetred speech, with or without music. ⁵

Ibn Qudama says there is no dispute that poetry is permitted; the Companions and scholars said so, and it is needed for knowing Arabic, explaining the Qur'an, understanding the words of God and His Messenger, and knowing lineage, history and the days of the Arabs; it is called the register of the Arabs. Al-Shafi'i said that its good is like the good of speech and its bad like the bad of speech: poetry is not disliked in itself, but for what it contains. ⁵ The Prophet heard poetry and asked for more of it, ordered Hassan ibn Thabit (may God be pleased with him) to satirise the polytheists, and his Companions recited before him on journeys and elsewhere; caliphs and leading early scholars recited too, and none of them objected to poetry as such, only to its blameworthy kinds, obscenity and the like. ² Ibn Hajar says that what is permitted is poetry that is not recited often in the mosque and that is free of satire, extravagant praise, pure lies and forbidden love-talk. Ibn 'Abd al-Barr reports consensus on its permissibility under those conditions. 'A'isha said poetry is good in part and bad in part: take the good and leave the bad. The Prophet asked to hear much of the verse of Umayya ibn Abi al-Salt, a hundred lines, and said Umayya had almost become Muslim; he also said that some poetry is wisdom. ^{2 6} Al-'Abbas asked the Prophet to hear some verses in his praise, and he allowed it. 'Abd Allah ibn Rawaha (may God be pleased with him) recited walking before the Prophet during the lesser pilgrimage; 'Umar objected to this inside the sacred precinct, and the Prophet told him that the verses went at the enemy faster than arrows. There is therefore no basis for saying poetry is forbidden in every form, or disliked as such. ⁶

• Obligatory: the Hanafis hold that knowing the poetry of the pre-Islamic period, of those who lived in both periods, and of early Muslim poets, by transmission and understanding, is a communal duty, because the rules of Arabic that serve to understand the Book and the sunna rest on it. ⁶
• Recommended: when it mentions and praises God, praises His Messenger and defends him, praises his Companions, describes the pious and their deeds, or gives counsel, wisdom, warning against sins and an incitement to obedience and noble conduct. ⁶
• Forbidden: when it contains what is not lawful, such as describing wine in a way that stirs desire for it, satirising a Muslim or a protected non-Muslim, exaggeration or pure lies that cannot be taken as hyperbole, erotic talk about a named young man or a woman who is not one's wife, or verses recited to instruments. ³
• Disliked: for the Hanafis, when a man keeps to it so much that it becomes his trade and distracts him from the remembrance of God and the religious sciences, and likewise describing cheeks, figures and hair, and reciting what mentions sin or wine. For the Malikis, excessive recitation without need. For the Hanbalis, satire and tender verse about women. ³
• Permitted, which is the default: a little of it causes no harm (Hanafi); verses that show clever wit and fine comparisons, or that recall ruins, times and peoples, are allowed; the Malikis allow reciting and composing it unless one does so excessively; the Shafi'is allow composing, reciting and listening unless it contains something that forbids it. ^{3 7}

Learning poetry is permitted unless it is frivolous or incites to evil. Learning some of it is a communal duty for the Hanafis. The Malikis hold that there is no dispute about learning the verses that writers cite as evidence. The Hanbalis allow taking a fee for teaching permissible poetry. ⁷

The jurists say the Prophet was the most eloquent of the eloquent, but poetry was withheld from him, because God reserved for him the eloquence and inimitability of the Qur'an as a sign of his truth, just as writing was taken from him and he was kept unlettered, so that no doubt could enter the minds of those he was sent to. They cite the verse of the surah of Ya-Sin (69). ^{7 8} The use of a line of verse by the Prophet, quoted or spoken in a metre by chance, is allowed, as 'A'isha reports that he used lines from Ibn Rawaha. The jurists hold that hitting a metre by accident does not make a speaker a poet: many verses of the Qur'an fall into a metre without being poetry, and a rhyme that comes by chance does not make one a poet. ^{8 9}

Most jurists hold that the content decides: if the poem is good, it may be recited in the mosque; if not, not. There is a report forbidding the recitation of poetry in the mosque, and another that the Prophet set up a pulpit for Hassan to recite on in the mosque. Al-Tahawi reconciles the two by reading the prohibition as applying to satire of the kind the Quraysh used, or to a mosque where poetry becomes the main occupation. Al-Nawawi, as reported by al-Zarkashi, says poetry in the mosque should praise Islam or urge noble conduct, and if it is for other purposes it is forbidden. Hassan recited in the mosque, and Ka'b ibn Zuhayr recited two odes there, but not often. Al-Mawardi and al-Ruyani take the prohibition to mean satire or unjust praise. The Hanbalis allow permissible poetry in the mosque; a hadith reports Jabir ibn Samura (may God be pleased with him) saw the Prophet in the mosque many times while his Companions discussed poetry and matters of the Jahiliyya, and he sometimes smiled with them. ^{9 10}

A person in ihram may recite poetry that is free of obscenity; Ibn 'Abbas, while in ihram, sang out to his camels, and explained that obscenity is talk addressed to women. ¹⁰ It is recommended to begin permitted acts, speech, books and letters with the basmala, following a hadith that every matter of worth not begun with it is cut off. Al-Sha'bi is reported to have disliked writing the basmala before poetry, because poetry is mostly mixed with lies and satire. ¹⁰

The Shafi'is hold that teaching a woman poetry may be her dowry, if what is taught is lawful and has enough value to be the subject of a hire. ¹⁰

The Shafi'is hold that theft of books of tafsir, hadith and fiqh requires the hand to be cut, and so does theft of permissible poetry; for poetry that may not be used, there is no cutting unless the value of its binding and paper reaches the minimum. ¹¹

The jurists differ on whether a poet who confesses in his verse to something that calls for a penalty is to be punished. Some say yes; most say no, because the poet may exaggerate until he speaks falsely of what did not happen, for the sake of consoling himself and embellishing speech. They cite Ibn 'Abbas on the verse of the surah of the Poets (224-226), that most of what the poets say is false, and the case of al-Nu'man ibn 'Adi, who confessed in verse to drinking wine; 'Umar blamed him and dismissed him from his post, but did not punish him for drinking. ^{11 12}

Some jurists hold that earning by poetry is unlawful gain, because what a poet is given is usually given to silence his tongue; the Prophet, on meeting a poet on a journey, said to seize the devil. Al-Qurtubi says that is because the Prophet knew this man's habit of selling praise and satire. For a poet who makes his trade of poetry and whose tongue is to be feared, everything he earns is unlawful, it is not lawful to listen to him, and it is not lawful to give him anything unasked, since that helps sin; but if one fears his tongue, one may give to guard one's honour, and that gift is counted as charity. The Prophet is reported to have given a poet forty dirhams and to have said to Bilal to cut off the tongue; he gave his cloak to Ka'b ibn Zuhayr when he praised him. ^{11 12} When 'Umar ibn 'Abd al-Aziz was caliph, poets came to his door; he admitted only Jarir, and told him to fear God and say only the truth. After Jarir praised him, the caliph gave him the last hundred dirhams he had left, saying that it was the dearest money he had ever earned. ^{12 4}

The jurists accept the testimony of a poet who does not commit a forbidden act in his verse or anything that harms his dignity. Where he does, they differ. The Hanafis reject the testimony of one who recites and composes so much that he makes it his trade, because this lowers his dignity. The Malikis accept it unless he commits a forbidden act in his poetry. The Shafi'is reject it if he satirises a person whose blood is protected, Muslim or protected non-Muslim, in terms that make him a sinner; they do not reject it for satire of a hostile unbeliever; they reject it if he names a particular woman in erotic verse or excessively lies. The Hanbalis reject the testimony of a poet who satirises Muslims, praises falsely, or slanders a Muslim man or woman. ⁴