In Week 8, we discussed the music and dance of Sufis, who believe in the inner mysticism of Islam. One such manifestation of their worship is Sama, which means \u201clistening,\u201d and one specific form of Sama is whirling by the dervishes of Turkey.<\/p>\n
In Sama, as its name\u00a0indicates, listening is paramount. The performance is a mode for which listening is made possible. The voice is very powerful, and can affect life and death in its listeners. When music is involved, it must be evaluated for its ethical content, based on who, when, and where it is performed. One should perform music very seriously and listen to music not for pleasure, but out of longing for God. This way, true ecstasy can be achieved. The preservation of these measures is important, because it allows the worshipper to channel all of his\/her joy into the revelation of God.<\/p>\n
Dancing in Sama is specific to the Mevlevi order, founded by Jalal al-Din Rumi\u2019s son Sultan Walad. He created a system for his dancers, by first creating poetry for them to learning and recite, and then training them to spin around \u201ca large nail placed between the big toe of the left foot and the toe next to it\u201d for 1001 days (Ernst 192). The dance became a tourist attraction performed on the hill of Galata on the Golden Horn, but has also, at times, been banned. Even now, the question is still: are they performers or are they worshippers?<\/p>\n
In fact, one of the heavily debated aspects of dancing is its legality. The British Journal of Ethnomusicology<\/em> details several arguments in its favor. For example, all Sufis who dance have legally justified their activity with material from hadith, including one particular story where Zayd ibn Haritha, Muhammad\u2019s adopted son, and \u2018All and his brother Ja\u2019far begin leaping with joy in front of the Prophet. Since leaping is part of dancing and the Prophet bore witness to it but did not stop it, then all dancing must be considered legal. Nevertheless, there are additional rules that keep dancing worship-related rather than entertainment or indulgence-related. The dancing must be genuine and follow constraints of the ritual. The dancer\u2019s limbs must be still before dancing to show the separation between non-ritual and ritual. The dancer must be attentive to the speaker and when they launch into motion, the person must be in his\/her own world, not influenced by others estatic states. And finally, only when one is overcome with religious desire, should one dance.<\/p>\n I decided to present one aspect of the \u201cIs dancing legal or not?\u201d argument with a fictional scene between two characters, Ali and Aydin. I chose this medium because legal accounts and hadiths often have narrative arcs that mimics the narrative arcs of plays. In the context of the legality of dancing, I thought it would dramatize the issues in an effective way. I won\u2019t provide more explanation because I think the scene will explain everything.<\/p>\n Enter ALI and AYDIN. Both are 14 years of age, early puberty.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n ALI<\/p>\n Hey Aydin!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n AYDIN<\/p>\n Ali!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n They share a secret handshake.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n AYDIN<\/p>\n How was basketball?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n ALI <\/p>\n AYDIN <\/p>\n ALI<\/p>\n I doubt it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n They laugh.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n ALI<\/p>\n What\u2019d you do?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n AYDIN<\/p>\n My dad and I went to a whirling dance at our mosque. I\u2019d been once before, but this one was especially cool, because my uncle was in it. And he wasn\u2019t too bad.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Aydin laughs.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n ALI<\/p>\n Huh.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n AYDIN <\/p>\n ALI<\/p>\n I just \u2013 I dunno. It\u2019s a little confusing. For me, at least.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n AYDIN<\/p>\n What do you mean?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n ALI<\/p>\n You\u2019re talking about a Sama right?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n AYDIN<\/p>\n Yeah.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n ALI <\/p>\n AYDIN<\/p>\n Like dancing is banned?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n ALI<\/p>\n Yeah?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n AYDIN<\/p>\n Hmm. My mom told me this story a while back and it\u2019s helped me explain it to myself and some other people. Once when the Prophet complimented his adopted son and his friends, the guys jumped into the air in joy. Since we jump when we dance, technically, they were dancing. But the Prophet didn\u2019t say anything about it or punish them, so technically, it\u2019s okay.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n ALI<\/p>\n I kind of like that.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n AYDIN<\/p>\n Yeah? <\/p>\n AYDIN<\/p>\n Yup.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n ALI<\/p>\n But I guess I\u2019m still concerned that it\u2019s like entertainment? Like dancing can get out of control pretty quickly?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n AYDIN <\/p>\n ALI<\/p>\n Okay. Okay.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n AYDIN<\/p>\n I\u2019m sure we can ask my parents \u2013 they know more about it than I do.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n ALI<\/p>\n I\u2019ll have to think about it on my own first.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n AYDIN<\/p>\n Of course.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n ALI<\/p>\n Thanks for explaining, Aydin. See you in class tomorrow?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n AYDIN<\/p>\n Yeah, see you!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In Week 8, we discussed the music and dance of Sufis, who believe in the inner mysticism of Islam. One such manifestation of their worship is Sama, which means \u201clistening,\u201d and one specific form of Sama is whirling by the dervishes of Turkey. In Sama, as its name\u00a0indicates, listening is paramount. The performance is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7976,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ai54musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ai54musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ai54musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ai54musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7976"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ai54musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ai54musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ai54musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14\/revisions\/21"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ai54musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ai54musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ai54musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nOh it was great! Jeremy and I tied with Raquel and Jacob.<\/p>\n
\nThat\u2019s intense. I hear Raquel is getting really good. Wonder if I could beat her?<\/p>\n
\nWhat?<\/p>\n
\nWell\u2026hmm okay. I\u2019ve always thought that \u2013 not saying that you\u2019re doing anything wrong, but doesn\u2019t dancing sort of go against everything we know?<\/p>\n
\nALI
\nYeah. There\u2019s something nice about the Prophet\u2019s approval. Is it in a hadith?<\/p>\n
\nThat\u2019s true. I don\u2019t know all the rules yet, but my uncle says we treat it like a ritual. We make a clear separation between non-dancing and dancing and we only dance when the desire for God becomes too much. And then we release it through movement. And that\u2019s how we show our devotion.<\/p>\n