Kaff al-Ruaa an Muharramat al-Lahw wa al-Samaa
- Author died
- 974 AH
- Editions
- Abd al-Hamid al-Azhari
Kaff al-Ruaa an Muharramat al-Lahw wa al-Samaa (Deterring the Rabble from the Forbidden Forms of Diversion and Audition) is a legal treatise on the rulings governing music, singing, and pastimes by the Shafi'i jurist Ibn Hajar al-Haytami (d. 974 AH / 1567 CE) .
Background and Purpose
Al-Haytami wrote the work after being invited to a friend's gathering in the month of Rabi' (or Rabi' I) 958 AH (1551 CE), where he was asked questions regarding the legal branches of audition (sama') . He delivered a stern response refuting lenient views on the topic . He was then informed of a treatise titled Farah al-Asma bi-Rukhas al-Sama (also cited as Qar al-Asma) by the Egyptian Maliki Sufi scholar Abu al-Mawahib Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Zaghdan al-Tunisi (d. 882 AH; another report gives 850 AH), which argued for the permissibility of musical audition; al-Haytami consequently composed Kaff al-Ruaa as a comprehensive refutation of that position .
Structure and Contents
The treatise is organized into an introduction, two main chapters, and a conclusion :
- Introduction (Muqaddimah): Cites twenty-three hadiths on the blameworthiness of musical instruments such as pipes, flutes, and stringed instruments .
- First Chapter (al-Bab al-Awwal): Divided into fourteen sections addressing the categories and rulings of singing (ghina) and musical instruments . It covers unaccompanied vocal singing; singing accompanied by dancing, tambourines (duff), flutes, or stringed instruments; melodic recitation of the Quran; and various instruments, including the kubah drum, other drums, clappers, beating cushions with rods, clapping, tapping porcelain with pens, the shabbabah, the zammarah or reed-pipe (yara'), the mawsul, the Iraqi flute, and stringed instruments and lutes (ma'azif) . The chapter concludes by classifying these acts as minor or major sins .
- Second Chapter (al-Bab al-Thani): Outlines the various forms of pastimes, games, and diversions (lahw wa-la'ib) and their corresponding legal rulings .
Reception and Editions
Al-Haytami cited Kaff al-Ruaa in his other major legal works, including Tuhfat al-Muhtaj and al-Fatawa al-Fiqhiyyah al-Kubra . Bibliographers and biographers, including Hajji Khalifa in Kashf al-Zunun, Abd al-Qadir al-Aydarusi in al-Nur al-Safir, and Ibn al-Imad in Shadharat al-Dhahab, documented the work under al-Haytami's authorship .
The text was printed in Egypt by Mustafa al-Babi al-Halabi alongside al-Haytami's al-Zawajir an Iqtiraf al-Kaba'ir and al-I'lam bi-Qawati' al-Islam . It was also published as an appendix to al-Zawajir in Beirut (1398 AH and 1403 AH / 1983 CE) and has been issued independently in several editions .
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