Shair al-Milyon Akhta Sharaiyya, wa Mughalata Shiiriyya
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- Shair al-Milyon Akhta Sharaiyya, wa Mughalata Shiiriyya
Shāʻir al-Milyūn: Akhṭāʼ Sharʻiyyah wa-Mughālaṭah Shiʻriyyah (Million's Poet: Legal Errors and Poetic Fallacy) is a treatise by the Saudi author Dhiab al-Ghamdi that critically examines the televised poetry competition Million's Poet and the wider promotion of colloquial Nabati poetry from an Islamic legal perspective.
Composition and Context
The author completed the treatise in Taif on Monday, 15 Rabiʿ al-Thani 1429 AH (21 April 2008 CE). He framed the work as a concise summary highlighting the core ideological and practical flaws of the televised competition, referring readers seeking an exhaustive, foundational study on the phenomenon of colloquialism and Nabati verse to his earlier work, Kaff al-Mukhtiʾ ʿan al-Daʿwah ilā al-Shiʿr al-Nabaṭī (Restraining the Errant from Calling to Nabati Poetry).
The treatise opens with an endorsement dated 1 Jumada al-Ula 1429 AH by the hadith scholar Abdullah al-Sa'd, who praised the author for detailing the religious dangers and legal prohibitions associated with the program.
Structure and Arguments
The book is arranged around an enumeration of sixteen specific legal infractions (maḥādhīr sharʿiyyah) that the author attributes to the Million's Poet competition and its associated media coverage:
- Linguistic and ideological harm: The author argues that promoting colloquial Nabati verse marginalizes Classical Arabic (al-fuṣḥā), hinders youth from properly understanding the Quran and the Sunnah, falsely confers classical literary titles on colloquial writers, and aligns with external campaigns aimed at undermining Arabic linguistic heritage.
- Tribalism and social division: The competition is criticized for reviving pre-Islamic tribal factionalism (ʿaṣabiyyah), encouraging defamation of lineages (al-ṭaʿn fī al-ansāb), and fracturing Muslim unity along regional dialectal lines—a process the author compares to historical Turkification policies. He explicitly calls on rulers and scholars in the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf states to prohibit such divisive competitions.
- Distraction and doctrinal dilution: The work asserts that the program distorts the Islamic concept of loyalty and disavowal (al-walāʾ wa-l-barāʾ), fosters an excessive emotional attachment to competitors, and numbs the Muslim public by distracting them from pressing political and humanitarian crises.
- Ethical and social transgressions: The author denounces the squandering of substantial sums of money on broadcast transmissions and phone voting while neglecting the poor. He also censures the prevalence of backbiting (ghībah), mockery, arrogance, and the illicit intermingling of men and women (ikhtilāṭ) alongside female unveiling in the program's live broadcasts.
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