Mukhtasar Tanzih al-Masjid al-Haram an Bida al-Jahala al-Awam
- Author died
- 854 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Bashāʾir al-Islāmiyyah lil-Ṭibāʿah wal-Nashr wal-Tawzīʿ
Mukhtasar Tanzih al-Masjid al-Haram an Bida al-Jahala al-Awam (Abridgment of Purifying the Sacred Mosque from the Innovations of the Ignorant Commoners) is a short treatise on prohibiting religious innovations, disruptive noise, and illicit practices in al-Masjid al-Haram, abridged by the Meccan Hanafi jurist and judge Ibn al-Diya (789–854 AH / 1387–1450 CE) from his own larger work .
Author and Composition
The author, Abu al-Baqa Ahmad (also cited as Muhammad) ibn Ahmad ibn al-Diya al-Qurashi al-Umari al-Makki al-Hanafi, was born in Mecca in 789 AH and served as deputy judge and later independent chief judge of the city, alongside duties overseeing the Sacred Sanctuary (nazar al-Haram) and market inspection (hisba) . Ibn al-Diya originally authored a single-volume book titled Tanzih al-Masjid al-Haram an Bida Jahalat al-Awam, which he subsequently abridged into these concise pages (wurayqat) . The modern editor suggests that he composed both the original work and the abridgment in connection with his official responsibilities over the sanctuary and market inspection .
Subject Matter and Scope
The core legal thesis of the treatise is that raising one's voice (raf al-sawt) in al-Masjid al-Haram—whether during recitation of the Quran, remembrance (dhikr), or supplication—is forbidden, that vocalizing dhikr and prayers aloud is an innovation, and that causing disturbance (tashwish) to circumambulators and worshippers is unlawful . The author argues that most innovations and disapproved acts occurring in the sanctuary stem from or involve loud vocalization .
Among the specific innovations and public infractions enumerated in the text are:
- Reciting poetry and odes loudly inside the mosque and from the minarets in proximity to worshippers .
- Choral group recitations of the Quran (jawqat) with loud, disruptive voices .
- Delivering sermons from pulpits on the nights of completing the Quran (layali al-khatm) in Ramadan .
- Buying and selling, as well as pitching residential tents inside the mosque during the pilgrimage season .
- Crowds rushing barefoot into the Mataf and the Hijr carrying waterskins and jars during rainfall in Mecca, resulting in shouting, clamor, and playing with water .
- Teaching children in the sanctuary and their resulting disruptive noise .
- Communal observances of Salat al-Ragha'ib and customary gatherings on the night of Mid-Sha'ban .
- Festivities on the twelfth night of Rabi al-Awwal for the Prophet's Birthday, where attendants processed with candles, lanterns, and noise, leading to chaos and gender mixing .
- Excessive illumination and candle lighting around the four sectarian prayer stations (al-maqamat al-arba'a) on special nights, causing joking, laughter, and quarreling .
- Beggars calling out loudly around the circumambulation area, tailors setting up stalls and chattering, litigants shouting before judges seated in the mosque, and circumambulators reciting fabricated, ungrammatical, non-transmitted prayers aloud during Tawaf .
Method and Sources
Ibn al-Diya supports the prohibition of raising voices and the merit of lowered tones through several categories of evidence:
- Quranic verses, including وَاقْصِدْ فِي مَشْيِكَ وَاغْضُضْ مِنْ صَوْتِكَ (Luqman: 19), ادْعُوا رَبَّكُمْ تَضَرُّعًا وَخُفْيَةً (al-A'raf: 55), and لَا تَرْفَعُوا أَصْوَاتَكُمْ فَوْقَ صَوْتِ النَّبِيِّ (al-Hujurat: 2) .
- Narrations of the Companions and Successors, citing figures such as Aisha, Abdullah ibn Abbas, Umar ibn al-Khattab, Ali ibn Abi Talib, Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, and al-Hasan al-Basri .
- Exegetical literature, drawing upon commentators such as al-Tabari, al-Zamakhshari, al-Baghawi, Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi, and al-Qurtubi .
- Doctrinal consensus of the four Sunni schools, where the author indexes legal authorities and reference works across the Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i, and Hanbali traditions confirming the censure of raising voices in mosques, noting that contemporary jurists from Mecca, Medina, and Cairo endorsed legal responses prohibiting it .
He notes at the conclusion that readers seeking the detailed quotations should consult the first chapter of his unabridged Tanzih al-Masjid al-Haram .
Manuscripts and Publication
The abridgment survived in manuscript form, including a copy transcribed on Tuesday, 2 Sha'ban 1006 AH in Constantinople (7 folios), and another undated manuscript in Maktabat Makka al-Mukarrama (MS 376, 8 folios), estimated by its cataloger to date from the twelfth century AH .
The text was edited by Nizam Muhammad Salih Ya'qubi and published in Beirut by Dar al-Basha'ir al-Islamiyya in 1420 AH (1999 CE) as the fourth booklet in the Liqa al-Ashr al-Awakhir bi-l-Masjid al-Haram series .
Answer updated