Against Smoking. Ahmad al-Rumi al-Aqhisari
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Begging
76 The rights of slaves
77 The prohibition of homosexuality
78 The prohibition of drinking wine
79 The prohibition of cheating (fulūl)
80 The appearing of troubles (fitna)
81 Judges, bribes & false testimonies
82 Who should be appointed preacher
83 The renewers of the religion, every century
84 Eminence of greeting another the first
85 Turning away from a Muslim brother
86 The prohibition of low opinion and spying
87 Frequenting perverts and eating with them
88 The best deed: loving and hating for God
89 The Prophet’s commands and prohibitions
90 The preeminence of God’s mercy
91 “Satan circulates in man like his blood”
92 Being tempted is not punished
93 Satan and the angel are close to man
94 Islam started as something foreign
95 The grace of good health
96 Not entering the mosque if smelling bad
97 What one should not be interested in
98 Recommendation concerning women
99 The ḥadīth “Ask for advice of women…”
100 Women’s obligations
The pious, rigorist admonitions of the Majālis are thus not primarily intended for a prince or a ruler but, rather, for the petit bourgeois milieu of Ottoman bazaaris, ulema and civil servants. Sometimes however, the reader notices criticisms of the authorities, of their deficiencies or of their excesses. Like several of al-Aqḥiṣārī’s epistles, some chapters of his Majālis also remind one of subjects dealt with by Kātib Çelebi in his Mīzān: the use of music for religious purposes (Majlis XLVII), tobacco (Majlis XCVI–XCVII), innovations (Majlis XVIII, etc.), pilgrimages to tombs (Majlis XVII, LVII), supererogatory prayers (Majlis XIX), shaking hands (Majlis L), enjoining right and forbidding wrong (Majlis LXXXIX), bribery (Majlis LXXXI).
According to the famous Delhi theologian Shāh ‘Abd al-‘Azīz (d. 1239/1824): “The Book of the Councils of the Pious and the Paths of the Best, on the science of exhortation (wa‘ẓ) and admonition (naṣīḥa), presents many benefits about the secrets of the Sharī‘a prescriptions and about jurisprudence (fiqh), on the subjects of the [spiritual] way and on the topics concerning the refutation of innovations and blameworthy habits.”1 Al-Aqḥiṣārī’s Majālis also offers wonderfully vivid echoes of the societal reality in which he lived, as well as direct manifestations of his own concerns vis-à-vis the evolution of Ottoman Turkey at the beginning of the 11th/17th century and clear insights into the nature of his reformist agenda. It is therefore appropriate to let him explain himself, about a few issues also tackled by Kātib Çelebi, what was going wrong and which solutions he favoured.
After weighing the arguments for or against religious singing, Kātib Çelebi concludes that “the intelligent man will not be so stupid as to hope to decide a dispute of such long standing.”1 In the Majālis, al-Aqḥiṣārī’s opinion on the subject is clearcut: singing is an even greater sin than listening to singing, and finding it beautiful amounts to becoming an infidel. Such is in fact the status of all those preachers, muezzins and Sufis who indulge in music during their sermons, invocations, praises, and graces, and of those who go to mosques or frequent them in order to listen to them. Particularly interesting for the linguist, the musicologist and the historian of Ottoman religious practices, are the examples of word alterations of which our author then accuses the clerics and mystics of his time:
“Listening to singing (taghannī) is a major sin (kabīra) and someone singing for people brings them to commit this major sin together. As listening to singing is a major sin, that singing is a major sin is thus even more true. Someone singing thus also commits this major sin and the beauty which he puts in it amounts to making lawful that which is categorically forbidden; now this is unbelief (kufr). From this it is manifest that when one attends the Friday and collective prayers in our time, one hardly escapes committing a major sin. The sermons and the recitations of many of the preachers (khaṭīb) and the Qur’ān reciters are indeed rarely free from singing. On the contrary, in their sermons and their recitations, they adopt the ways that they follow with poems and ghazals, to the point that one almost does not understand what they say and what they recite, because of the melodic effects and the scansions. Such is also the situation with the muezzins in their blessings on the Prophet, their calls for God’s satisfaction with others, their “Amīns”, and their “Allāhu akbars” at the various intervals in the prayer. Those present who listen commit this major sin. Some of them or, rather, most of them, sometimes or, rather, most of the time, find them beautiful as the caprice of their soul predominates in them and they do not care about religious matters; from which it necessarily follows that they become unbelievers, according to what is related from Ẓahīr al-Dīn al-Marghīnānī.1 Similarly for those who attend the tarāwīḥ prayers during the nights of Ramaḍān in order to listen to the songs of praises (tasbīḥ) of the muezzins, in the great and the small mosques. The names of God appearing in these [praises], like “O Compassionate!” (yā ḥannān), “O Kind!” (yā mannān), “O Liberal and Beneficent!” (yā dhā l-jūd wa liḥsān), and [phrases] like “Praised be the One Who possesses the Sovereignty and the Royalty! Praised be the One Who possesses the Power and the Empire!” (subḥāna dhī l-mulk wa l-malakūt, subḥāna dhī l-‘izza wa l-jabarūt), and other of the most beautiful names and superior attributes, by multiplying the melodic and musical effects, they change them and they distort them to a degree where it is no longer possible to distinguish them and to identify them. They for instance say sūbḥānā l-mālikī l-ḥānnān! sūbḥānā l-mālikī l-mānnān! (“Prai-ai-ai-sed be-e-e th-th-the Com-m-mpassionate Ki-i-ing! Prai-ai-ai-sed be-e-e th-th-the Kind Ki-i-ing!”), by singularly lengthening the u following the s, the a following the n and the m, and the i following the l and the k, etc. Similar are the musical effects of the Sufis. They for instance say after the meals, as grace, al-ḥamdū lī-Llāh! al-shukrū lī-Llāh! (“Glory-y-y to-o-o God! Thanks-s-s to-o-o God!”), with long vowels after the d, the r and the l, etc. The Muslim ought to be wary of attending these things and hearing them, and shall look for a mosque that is free of them. Such things indeed have the appearence of worship but are in reality disobeying and a major sin. One perhaps even finds them beautiful and his religion is wiped out: he is not aware of it and the situation then is that ignorance will not be an excuse.”2
No wonder that ulema sing in the mosques as, for al-Aqḥiṣārī, they are grievously sick. They themselves suffer from the diseases from which they are supposed to cure people. Moreover, instead of being moral guides reminding the commonalty of the Day of Judgement and Hell, they corrupt them even more by charming them and deluding them with idle hopes in the divine mercy. And what beats all, these worthless ulema often solicit a reward for their evil services! Al-Aqḥiṣārī’s opposition to such clerical mercantilism once again brings him closer to Birgivī as the latter, according to Kātib Çelebi, declared in his al-Sayf al-Ṣārim – The Sharp Sword, “that it was unlawful to accept payment in return for reciting the Qur’ān, or for teaching, or indeed for any act of worship.”1
“One almost does not understand what they say and what they recite, because of the melodic effects and the scansions. Such is