al-Buka fi al-Kitab wa al-Sunna
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- al-Buka fi al-Kitab wa al-Sunna
al-Buka fi al-Kitab wa al-Sunna (Weeping in the Book and the Sunna) is a contemporary monograph by Ruqayyah bint Muhammad al-Muharib that examines the phenomenon and categories of weeping through the texts of the Quran and the Prophetic Sunnah.
Background and Motivation
The study was prepared by al-Muharib, an assistant professor of Hadith and its sciences in the Department of Islamic Studies at the Girls' Colleges in Riyadh, as a scientific sabbatical research project. The author was prompted to write the work after reading al-Riqqah wa al-Buka (Tenderness of Heart and Weeping) by Ibn Qudamah, wherein he stated his desire to gather reports of the righteous to soften his heart and elicit tears. Al-Muharib concluded that turning directly to the sayings and traditions of the Prophet Muhammad was an even more fitting means of softening the heart and refining the emotions.
Method and Scope
The book is structured as an inductive survey of weeping as portrayed in the Quran and the Sunnah, encompassing both explicit verbal expressions derived from the root b-k-y (بكى) and descriptive depictions of tears and overflowing eyes. Due to the vast number of relevant hadiths, al-Muharib limited her treatment to representative evidence for each specific category of weeping rather than attempting an exhaustive compilation.
Structure and Contents
The book consists of an introduction, a preliminary chapter (tamhid), three main thematic parts, and a conclusion:
- Preliminary Section: Defines weeping linguistically and conceptually and reviews prior literature on the subject, including classical works titled al-Riqqah wa al-Buka by Ibn Abi al-Dunya and Ibn Qudamah, alongside modern monographs by contemporary authors.
- Part One: Praiseworthy Weeping (al-Buka al-Mamduh): Covers weeping during Quranic recitation, in prayer, out of the fear of God, over the inability to perform acts that earn God's pleasure, the weeping of repentance (tawbah), and weeping out of reverence for the Prophet.
- Part Two: Blameworthy Weeping (al-Buka al-Madhmum): Analyzes prohibited lamentation and wailing (niyahah), as well as affectation and deceitful weeping (al-tasannu wa al-kidhb).
- Part Three: Permissible Weeping (al-Buka al-Mubah): Treats grief-induced weeping, classical juristic rulings on weeping over the deceased, tears caused by pain, longing, mercy, empathy, reproof (atab), and joy, along with other reported manifestations such as the weeping of devils and the weeping of inanimate objects.
- Conclusion: Summarizes the legal status and psychological role of each type of weeping, asserting that Islamic teachings do not suppress natural human emotions but discipline them, and encourages specialists in Islamic psychology to examine these traditions.
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