“Why do you remove me?! I am a storyteller (= a preacher), so if you say to me, add to your stories, I will increase, and if you say shorten, I will shorten, so why do you remove me?!”
This is how Abu al-Haytham Suleiman bin Amr al-Atwari (died after 91 AH), who was one of the most famous preachers in Egypt in the days of the Umayyads, shouted in protest. seeking sustenance and a pension";
As mentioned by al-Fasawi (277 AH) in 'Knowledge and History'.
In fact, if in Islamic history there is a surprising social transformation in its speed and strangeness, it is the matter of retribution and preachers;
That category that did not exist at the time of the Prophet, peace and blessings of God be upon him, and his first successor, Abu Bakr Al-Siddiq (13 AH) and part of the caliphate of Omar Al-Faruq (d. 23 AH), but it quickly spread after the first storyteller obtained permission to cut from the Caliph Omar, so they clashed with the rulers and intervened in the tricks Politics, and they got plenty of money from the trade of preaching and exhortation in the afterlife.
This article records the preaching and stories movement historically;
He stands on some of the phases and roles that he knew, and examples of the most famous figures and personalities associated with them, and the employment that deviated them from their original goal, and similar habits in practices and mechanisms that led them to become a societal industry for earning more than a means of recommendation and correction. calendar;
It is important to monitor these "bread preachers" and extend their threads until the moment, when Muslims live between the corners of the advocates of conscience and the advocates of bread.
A disciplined beginning
, the permission of the two caliphs Omar Al-Faruq and Othman bin Affan (d. 35 AH) for retribution and preachers was limited to reminding the Qur’an, "Ali bin Abi Talib (d. 40 AH) ... Abu Yahya forbade storytelling in the Kufa mosque because he does not know the copyist and the abrogated";
As mentioned by Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 597 AH) in 'Nawasikh al-Qur'an'.
And when the Umayyads came, their political cunning became aware of the propaganda value of the preachers, so they employed them in promoting their political visions, spreading their virtues, and distorting their opponents and outlaws from their various sects.
Among the efforts of Muawiyah bin Abi Sufyan (d. 60 AH) in consolidating the ruler’s control of preachers and retribution;
What was narrated by Ibn Hajar (d. 852 AH) - in 'Al-Isbah' - that Muawiyah, when he was governor of the Levant for Othman, "came to Ka'ab (= Ka'ab al-Ahbar, the deceased followers of 34 AH) while he was cutting, and he said: I heard the Messenger of God (PBUH) saying: «No He relates to the people except for an emir, a commanded person, or a person who is accountable.” Ka’b held back the stories until Muawiyah ordered him to do so.”
and regarding the inclusion of preaching in the political arena;
Ibn Hajar also informs us - in 'Removing the Insult from the Judges of Egypt' - that "the reason for this is that when Ali returned from [the battle of] Siffin, he prayed for those who disagreed with him. And he wrote this to the regions affiliated to him.
This dangerous and early shift in the path of preaching was monitored by Imam al-Laith bin Saad (d. 175 AH) who monitored his upbringing and message and said: “They are two storytellers: the stories of the common people, to whom a group of people gather to preach and remind them; The morning prayer he sat down and remembered God alone and glorified Him, and prayed to His Prophet and peace be upon him.
The Abbasids were no less employed than the Umayyads for preaching councils and stories for political propaganda;
Banu al-Abbas removed the Umayyad preachers and retribution, as al-Fasawi mentioned in the report of Abu al-Haytham al-Atwari, with which we issued the hadith;
He was "the storyteller of the group in Egypt during the days of Bani Umayyah, so when the workers of Bani al-Abbas came, they isolated him from the stories, and that became more difficult for him."
The severity of the isolation on the soul of Abu al-Haytham was accompanied by his funny and revealing comment - with great significance - for the readiness of many preachers and retribution to present what the rulers demand!
Deviant recruitment
The powerful Abbasid military commander Abu Muslim al-Khorasani (d. 137 AH) had a funny ritual in the propaganda recruitment of stories in his war against the Umayyads, and his quest to establish the Hashemite state;
When he turned to the Brotherhood (= a town that was located in what is called today Turkmenistan), Captain Al-Qasim bin Mujasha Al-Tamimi (d. after 158 AH) used the judiciary, so "Al-Qasim used to pray in Abu Muslim and tell stories after the afternoon, mentioning the merits of Bani Hashem and the faults of Banu Umayyah";
As stated in 'Al-Kamil' by Ibn al-Atheer (d. 630 AH).
The Abbasids’ employment of preaching propaganda was not limited to the period of their founding, but continued whenever required by political necessity.
Al-Tabari (d. 310 AH) mentions in his history within the events of the year 284 AH that the Caliph Al-Mutadhid (d. 289 AH) resolved to “curse Muawiyah bin Abi Sufyan on the pulpits, and ordered the creation of a book that would be read to the people, so he feared [the minister] Obaidullah bin Suleiman bin Wahb (d. 288 AH) the public is disturbed, and he is not safe that it will be sedition, so he did not pay attention to that from what he said.
For political and social reasons, the book Al-Mu'tadid, which the people of Baghdad gathered to hear after the Friday sermon, was not read.
It was said that "Al-Mu'tadid ordered the exhumation of the book that Al-Ma'mun (d. 218 AH) ordered to be created by cursing Muawiyah, so it was taken out for him from the Diwan (= archive of documents), so he took from his mosques a copy" of the book that he broadcast on the horizons.
And the preservation of this book by al-Ma’mun preserved in the “Diwan” for inheritance indicates the importance of this propaganda dimension of preaching among the Abbasids.
The later Abbasid caliphs used preaching propaganda in their political and sectarian war against the Fatimids in Egypt. Religious political propaganda in their time developed into writing books in support of the rulers and refutation of opponents.
Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali (d. 795 AH) - in the “tail of the layers of the Hanbalis” within the translation of the great preacher Abu Al-Faraj Ibn Al-Jawzi (d. 597 AH) - stated that in the “Caliphate of Al-Musta’a’ (d. 575 AH) the connection of Sheikh Abu Al-Faraj [to him] is strong, and he classified the book for him Which he called 'the luminous lamp in the state of the enlightened'.
So it is not surprising that Al-Mustafa authorized Ibn Al-Jawzi in the year 568 AH to “sit to preach at the Badr Gate in the presence of the Caliph, and gave him money.”
Not all preachers were in the orbit of the rulers;
The asceticism of Islam recorded immortal positions in advising the sultans and disturbing their moods with preachers and warnings, such as Abu Muslim al-Khawlani (d. 62 AH) - who was described by al-Dhahabi (d. 748 AH) in 'The Lives of the Flags of the Nobles' as "the master of the followers and the ascetic of the era" - with the Umayyad caliphs ;
and the Mu'tazilite Imam Amr bin Obaid (d. 144 AH) and Shabib bin Shayba (d. 170 AH) with Al-Mansur al-Abbasi (d. 158 AH);
Ibn al-Sammak (died 183 AH) and Al-Fudayl bin Iyadh (died 187 AH) with Harun al-Rashid (died 193 AH).
These and their ilk are true to what al-Dhahabi said in “Al-Sir”: “The storyteller in the first time had a great image in knowledge and action!!”
Doctrinal propaganda
One of the things that an observer of the preaching and stories movement notes historically is that the preachers have often exploited their verbal talents, their influential experiences and their continuous meetings with the masses to spread their jurisprudential and doctrinal doctrines, or the fierce attack on sectarian opponents, which is a dangerous departure from the message of preaching that is comprehensive in its nature and the reformist mission of preachers in its purpose;
As a result of that, seditions would arise that would require the intervention of rulers and governors to stop the preaching councils, or the arrest of some of the preachers' rioters and retribution.
Abu al-Qasim al-Qushayri (d. 514 AH), whom Ibn Shakir al-Kitbi (d. 764 AH) describes - in 'Fawat al-Wafayat' - as "was one of the imams of religion and the scholars of Muslims";
When the “Preaching Council was held in Baghdad and the great acceptance of it appeared and the Ash’ari doctrine appeared, the market of strife took place between him and the Hanbalis, and the common people revolted to the combatant, and the Minister Nizam al-Malik wrote (d. 485 AH) to order him to return to his homeland, so he brought him and honored him and ordered him to remain in his homeland .. until he died.” .
Ibn al-Jawzi stated - in al-Muntazam, within the events of the year 516 AH - that the preacher Aba al-Fotouh al-Isfaraini al-Shafi’i (d. 538 AH) “entered Baghdad and stayed there for a while, speaking in the Ash’ari doctrine and exaggerating intolerance, and temptations existed in his days and curses in the markets, and he was between him and Ghaznawi ( Al-Hanafi, the preacher who died in 551 AH, had oppositions of envy, so each of them would mention the other on the pulpit as “ugly”!!
Among the relations of the preaching councils with emotional mobilization is what Ibn Al-Atheer mentioned - in the events of the year 554 AH - that “A great strife occurred in Astrabad (= Gorgan in Iran) between the Alawites and those who follow them from the Shiites, and between the Shafi’is and those with them, and the reason was that Imam Muhammad Al-Harawi arrived in Astrabad So the preaching council was held, and its judge was Abu Nasr.. Al-Nuaimi is also a Shafi’i school of thought, so the Alawites and those who follow them from the Shiites revolted with Shafi’is and those who follow them with Astrabad.”
In the History of Islam, Al-Dhahabi contains many news with profound indications of the pivotal role of preachers in spreading sects and awakening sectarian strife;
Among this is what he mentioned that the preacher Salama Al-Manbaji (d. about 580 AH) “had stayed at home and left the group, because the people of Manbij had begun to impersonate the Ash’ari school of thought, and they hated the Hanbalis because of a preacher who came to [their city] called Al-Maqlab, so he stayed there for a while and improved for them.” That, and the country was empty of people of knowledge, so their hearts drank that.”
He also mentioned that the preacher Abu Othman al-Sabouni (d. 449 AH) "was... his father was one of the great preachers in Nishapur, so I killed him for the sake of the sect."
In the history books and the events of the years there are many incidents that prevented retribution from preaching or required them to avoid what stirs confusion.
In the year 389 A.H., a “great battle between Sunnis and Shiites” occurred in Baghdad, because of which the “Qassas were prevented from preaching,” and after things had calmed down, they were given permission “and it was stipulated that they should not speak of what necessitates sedition, and things went straight.”
According to what the tribe of Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 654 AH) narrated in 'Mirrat al-Zaman'.
and in Egypt;
Al-Maqrizi mentioned - in 'The Behavior to Know the Countries of Kings' - that in the year 760 AH a court was held for the Shafi'i jurist Shams al-Din al-Dukali, known as 'Ibn al-Naqash' (d. The Shafi’i school of thought, so it was forbidden to issue fatwas and not to speak in preaching councils except from a book, so he refused after he was imprisoned and then released.”
Sometimes the governors set up “inquisition courts” about the preachers’ beliefs for fear of sowing “sedition”;
As Sultan Mahmud al-Ghaznawi (d. 421 AH) did, “when he entered Rayy (it was located near Tehran) and killed the esoteric ones, he prevented everyone from preaching except for Abu Hatim (Ibn Khamoush al-Razi, who died in 445 AH), and whoever entered irrigation presented his belief to him. Speak to people, or prevent him!
Ibn Khamoush used to say, "He who is not a Hanbali is not a Muslim!"
This is what made al-Dhahabi describe him - in 'Sir' - that he was "a person of the Sunnah and followers, and in it he wears the purification of the non-Arabs"!!
Preaching for demand
The saying of Al-Atwari, the advanced Egyptian preacher, was not an outlier in the preaching movement;
Some preachers were always ready to provide what the listeners asked, whether they were rulers or those who were governed, and the preaching councils sometimes witnessed an unparalleled public turnout.
Ibn al-Jawzi says - in al-Muntazam - on the authority of the preacher Abu al-Fath al-Farawi (d. 514 AH) “He was well-bred and had a sweet logic, and I saw from his gatherings things that I had commented (= I wrote) about him in which words are written, but most of them are nothing, in which there are fabricated conversations and empty delusions that lengthen. He mentioned it.” Like him, other preachers named them and mentioned that their councils “in which there are miracles, excerpts (= false) and meanings that do not conform to Sharia.”
Then he justified this tendency that prevailed over the preachers by saying: “This ordeal pervades most of the retribution, rather all of them, because they are far from knowing what is correct, and then they choose what is spent on the common people as it may be.”
It is funny that the preachers pay attention to what the listeners ask of what the writer Al-Bakhrzi (d. 467 AH) tells us - in “Dummy Al Qasr” - that he attended the preaching council of Judge Abu Mansour Al-Samani (d. 450 AH) “while he was not aware of him, and he preached to people with words that guide the listeners with calmness.” The wings, the serenity of the limbs, and the ease of infallibility is the ease of al-Abtah.”
After a courtesy talk between the writer and the preacher judge;
The latter said: “If I had known of your presence, I would have declared the assembly in good faith!”
Imam Al-Suyuti (d. 911 AH) - in 'Hassan Al-Mahazar' - mentioned a story from the stories of "Dream", the Wali of Egypt Kafour Al-Ikhshidi (d. 357 AH), showing us the extent of the preachers' willingness to flip the broadcast waves according to the frequencies of the intended speech;
He said: "He was in Egypt a preacher to the people, and he said one day in his stories: Look at the humiliation of the world on God Almighty, for he gave it to two weak storytellers: Ibn Buwayh (= Mu`izz al-Dawla who died 356 AH) in Baghdad and he was paralyzed, and a camphor we have in Egypt and he is a eunuch!!
It seems that the preacher did not intend to vex him by attacking Kafur, but tried to draw attention to him, which is what the clever governor understood. Therefore, when they raised Kafour to his saying, “They thought that he was punishing him, so he offered him a disgrace and a hundred dinars, and said: He only said this because of my estrangement to him! The preacher was saying after That is in his stories: He had only three sons from Hami: Luqman, Bilal the Muezzin, and Kafur.
The preachers’ observance of the psyche of the masses and their eagerness to take care of the stories they asked for made the preaching councils crowded with men and women, a crowd that drew the attention of historians;
In Al-Dhahabi's translation - in 'Al-Siyar' - of the handsome imam and preacher Ali bin Muhammad Al-Baghdadi Al-Masry (d. 338 AH) that he was "attended by men and women in his council, and he used to put a burqa on his face for fear that people would be tempted by his good face"!
Competition and proliferation
Many of the popular translation books historically enjoyed by preachers appear;
For example, the preacher jurist Rizq Allah al-Tamimi al-Hanbali (d. 488 AH) used to meet in his preaching council, "a lot of people and a great body to listen to his words";
As Ibn al-Adim (d. 660 AH) says in 'For the sake of demand'.
Al-Dhahabi mentions - in 'History of Islam' - that the preacher Abu Hafs al-Turkistani (d. 602 AH) was from a "house of preaching and mysticism", and he was attending his Western preaching council held "at the soil of... the mother of the caliph... a great character."
Due to the large crowds of preaching;
Sometimes the preacher may have to change the place of his preaching to a more spacious place;
The Hanbali jurist Abd al-Moneim bin Ali (d. 601 AH) was holding a “Preaching Council at Ibn al-Wasiti Mosque, then many people moved to the Great Mosque on Al-Dhafari Street”;
As in 'The Footer of the History of Baghdad' by Ibn al-Najjar (d. 643 AH).
The preacher may combine - with the strength of his influence and the penetration of his words in the hearts - between quantity in the masses and quality in attendance;
Al-Dhahabi tells us in the translation of the Shafi’i jurist and preacher Abu Al-Khair Al-Talaqani Al-Qazwini (d. 590 AH) that when the preaching council was held, “the faces of the state turned to him, and the intolerance of the princes and the elite increased, and the common people loved him, and he was sitting in the regular, and in the palace mosque, and his council attended the nations.”
And this Qazwini preacher is one of the “first to preach at the door of Badr al-Sharif.” Al-Dhahabi explains to us the symbolic value of this position in the history of Islamic preaching;
He says, "It is a place where he used to attend.. the Imam (= Caliph) Al-Musti'a' preached from behind a veil, and the creatures attended, so he used to preach in it Al-Qazwini once, and Ibn Al-Jawzi once."
Imam al-Dhahabi believes that the reason for the attendance of the statesmen and the common people on the councils of al-Qazwini and the popularity of his words among the people is due to “his good character, the sweetness of his logic, and the large number of his memorizers,” even though he was preaching “without rhyme, no expression or poetry.”
He describes his council as being "a lot of good, including interpretation, hadith, jurisprudence, and tales of the righteous."
In the Qazvini era;
The council of the great Sufi Sheikh Al-Suhrawardi (d. 632 AH) also attracted the creation of many private and common people. Al-Dhahabi mentioned that he held a “preaching council in his uncle’s school on the Tigris, so he spoke useful words without embellishment or embellishment, and great manners attended him, and great acceptance appeared to him From the private and the public, and his name became famous, and he was intended from countries.
Monitoring, counting
, and the accuracy of the preachers and their translators’ attention to the numbers of the masses that attend their preaching councils, that they conveyed to us the details of those masses in numbers;
The preacher al-Muzaffar Ibn Ardashir al-Abadi known as 'The Prince' (d. 496 AH) used to "attend his council of thirty thousand men and women", and "people loved him, and the fanaticism of him continued to increase and the loftyness in his love escalated until he was prevented from sitting."
And this Abadi preaching council was informed by His Majesty that Imam Al-Ghazali (d. 505 AH) was “attending and studying”;
As in 'Al-Wafi with Deaths' by Al-Safadi (d. 764 AH).
Sheikh Abdul Qadir Al-Jilani (d. 561 AH) tells us about his experience with the masses and the growth of their numbers in preaching councils;
He says, according to what al-Dhahabi reported in 'History of Islam': "Two and three men used to sit with me and listen to my words, then people listen to me, and the people crowded around me until the assembly was attended by about seventy thousand!"
He used to say: "I wish to be in the deserts and prairies as I was in the beginning, I do not see creation and they do not see me!"
And Imam Ibn al-Jawzi remains the most famous of those who attended his mass preaching councils.
His preaching history has been narrated to us in detail from several aspects;
It was narrated by him in his books, and his contemporaries transmitted it among the Baghdadis or from those who visited Baghdad from other than its people, such as the traveler Ibn Jubayr Al-Andalusi (d. 616 AH).
Ibn al-Jawzi began his path with preaching when he was a ten-year-old child (he was born in 510 AH), as he tells us in this text;
He said: "Ibn Nasir (= Abu al-Fadl Muhammad ibn Ali al-Salami al-Baghdadi, who died in 551 AH) carried me to Abu al-Qasim al-Alawi al-Harawi (d. 527 AH) in the twentieth year (= 520 AH). So I said the words [which he taught me], and the crowd was guessed at fifty thousand.”
This text shows that the beginning of the great preacher of Baghdad with softening the hearts of the people was a mass par excellence;
Fifty alpha is not an easy number, as there was a composition for him in preaching that he wrote before he reached the age of twenty.
And “when Ibn al-Zagouni died in the year twenty-seven (= 527 AH) [Ibn al-Jawzi] asked for his ring, but he did not give it because he was young.” However, “the Minister Anushrwan [Ibn Khalid al-Kashani, who died in 532 AH] authorized him to preach, and this year he spoke to people in places many people from Baghdad, and his gatherings increased and people crowded over him.”
As Ibn Kathir (d. 774 AH) says in 'The Beginning and the End'.
The masses began flocking to Ibn al-Jawzi’s council since he was authorized to preach in the Al-Mansur and Al-Qasr universities, and his council was attended by notable jurists;
About that, he tells us, saying: “It was always guessed that the gathering of my council was ten thousand, and fifteen thousand.” Then it was rumored that the Commander of the Faithful only attends my assembly!
Huge crowds,
and Ibn al-Jawzi relays horrific scenes from attending his sermons, especially after the Caliph gave him permission to sit at the Badr Gate;
He tells us about the intensity of crowding of people and their waiting for him in the heat for extended periods of time from forenoon until after the afternoon, and about their renting covered places to stand so that they can hear his preaching.
The Jamahiriya of Ibn al-Jawzi reached its climax when he held a council “in the Al-Mansur Mosque on the day of Ashura, and a hundred thousand people attended the gathering, and the same happened in the year nine as well.”
Ibn al-Jawzi did not stop at this huge number;
Rather, the enthusiasm took him to double it when he spoke about the invitation of “the people of Harbiya” (= an area in Baghdad) to hold a preaching council for them at night. He promised them a specific night, so they greeted him after sunset with many candles in a wonderful festive ritual, and people crowded to attend his council as usual until he asserted that “If it was said: Those who went out seeking the council and sought the council and sought in the desert between the gate of Basra and al-Harbiyye with those gathered in the council were three hundred thousand, how far is the saying!!
This great preacher reached his preaching glory when he completed the interpretation of the Noble Qur’an in his preaching councils for the first time in the history of Islam.
In this he says: “In this year (= 570 AH) my interpretation of the Qur’an in the assembly on the pulpit ended until it was completed, so I prostrated on the pulpit of thanksgiving, and I said: I did not know that a preacher had interpreted the entire Qur’an in the preaching council since the Qur’an was revealed; then I began to finish it. I explain them in order.
The traveler Ibn Jubayr (d. 614 AH) described to us - on his journey - the Qazvinite preachers' council and Ibn al-Jawzi;
On the authority of the first, he said: “We attended his assembly in the mentioned school (= the regular) after the afternoon prayer on Friday.. So he climbed the pulpit and took the readers in front of him in reciting on chairs placed, so they were eager and excited, and they came with amazing and embarrassing tones, then the aforementioned Sheikh imam rushed and gave a speech Sermon of serenity and solemnity, and act upon two faculties of science.
Then he described the method of opening Ibn al-Jawzi’s preaching council and said: “And one of the most amazing of his verses and his greatest miracles is that he ascends the pulpit and begins the reciters with the Qur’an, and their number is more than twenty readers. A second verse, and they are still alternating verses from different surahs until they complete their recitation, and they have come up with suspicious verses, which the conscious mind can hardly count, or call them a sequence.
And about how Ibn al-Jawzi dealt with what was recited in his assembly from the Qur’an;
And the Andalusian traveler says: “When they finished, this strange imam took a hasty sermon in his sermon, poured in the shells of his speeches from his words, and organized the first verses read during his sermon in poverty, and brought them in the manner of reading them neither in advance nor in the back. Then he completed the sermon on rhyme the last verse of it."
Ibn Jubayr attended several councils of Ibn al-Jawzi and exaggerated their description and the strength of their influence.
Deadly sermons
Historians convey to us amusing news of the manifestations of the influence of preachers on the masses, the repentance of the disobedient Muslims from them and the entry of non-Muslims among them into Islam;
Sheikh Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani says, according to what al-Dhahabi narrated from him in “History of Islam”: “God wanted me to benefit people, for he had converted to Islam at my hands of more than five hundred, and he repented at my hands of two calibers (= thieves) … more than a hundred thousand, and this is a lot of good. ".
Likewise, Sheikh Al-Suhrawardi, whose “blessings of breath appeared on the creation of the disobedient, so they repented.. and his companions became like stars.”
The preacher Muhyi al-Din Ibn al-Hawari (d. 676 AH) was holding a preaching council, so God wrote, “He has complete acceptance, and many of the Mongols and Turks became Muslim, and they repented at his hand and began to pay zakat and continue to pray.”
As Ibn al-Fawti (d. 723 AH) reported to us in 'Majma' al-Adab'.
Sometimes a preacher's share of influence on his audience is small;
Al-Ghazali spoke - in 'Al-Mankhool' - about those who "attend preaching assemblies and indulge in negligence and the preacher preaches to them on the heads of the pulpits with shouts!"
As it happened to the preacher Sharaf al-Din Shuruh Abd al-Mu’min bin Heba Allah al-Isfahani al-Hanafi (d. after 570 AH), who says Safadi - in “Al-Wafi with Deaths” - that he held a preaching council in Damascus “attended by [the Sultan] Nur al-Din (Mahmoud Zangi, who died 569 AH), and he embraced Islam His hand on the first day is a Christian child, so he said obviously: We set a trap and hit a chick!!
Among the rituals that the repentant perform in preaching councils is that they shave their heads with the participation of the preacher;
Ibn al-Jawzi says - as it came in 'The Tail of Tabaqat al-Hanbali' - that he once spoke "on the day of Arafat at the Badr Gate, and it was a great gathering in which many people repented, and many feelings were cut off."
The traveler Ibn Jubayr describes to us the great psychological impact of Ibn al-Jawzi on the audience of his preaching councils;
He says that when his preaching intensified, "the noise rose, and his sobbing sobbing echoed, and the repentant announced with shouting, and they fell on him, the bed falling on the lamp, each throwing his forelock (= hair on the front of the head) with his hand and cutting it, and wiping on his head inviting him, and some of them fainted and raised in their arms to him So we witnessed a horror that filled the souls with repentance and regret, and reminded them of the horror on the Day of Resurrection!
Likewise, Ibn Jubayr says on the authority of Al-Qazwini Sunu Ibn Al-Jawzi in his preaching that: “Fever and his preaching walked to the souls until they were surrounded by reverence, and they blew them into tears, and the repentant hastened to him by falling on his hand and falling, how many corners she cut, and how many joints of the repentant’s joints were applied with the sermon; This blessed sheikh has mercy on the sinners, and she covers the perpetrators.”
Affect and feelings may be for a seemingly simple reason, but psychologically it does its work in the masses;
As the judge of the judges Ibn Khallikan (d. 681 AH) told us - in 'Deaths of Notables' - that Al-Suhrawardi "One day sang on the chair:
Do not water me alone, so what you used to me ** I sting it on my seat, you are the
honorable, and it is not worthy of generosity ** to water the water The
cup
was present (= they swayed, affected) by that, and many feelings were cut off, and a large gathering repented.”
The most influential preachers and the most dangerous of them to mankind are those who die because of their preaching;
It seems that the incidents in this abounded until it became a common thing, so that we found Al-Maqrizi (d. 845 AH) talking - in 'Enjoying the Listening' - about "creations of this nation died in preaching councils, as is known in the news books"!!
Al-Maqri al-Tilmisani (d. 1041 AH) - in “Nafh al-Tayyib” - tells that Sheikh Aba Madian al-Ghouth (d. 594 AH) had a “preaching council to speak in, and people gather on him from all sides…, and he often dies in his gathering of the people of love”!
This is similar to what Ibn Kathir mentions - in “Tabaqat al-Shafi’i jurists” - that al-Fakhr al-Razi (d. 606 AH) “had a great council for preaching, and he spoke good words, and he was able to preach in the Arabic and Turkish languages, and he was attended by people of different classes and sects, And princes, dignitaries, and kings come to his council, and the seat of his council obtains for him tenderness, and he shows reverence because of which many people have died!!
Weekly appointments
Muslims took from the provisions of the age foundation for preaching and stories to adhere to a specific day that suits their times and places, and because of their strong commitment to a specific day and time for preaching, the sermons became called “appointments” and “appointed”;
It is often repeated in the translations of the media that So-and-so was making "appointments", that is, holding preaching and updating councils on certain days and specific places.
It is natural for Friday to be the most suitable for preaching dates.
Therefore, Ibn al-Jawzi preached to the public in the house of al-Wazir Ibn Hubayrah (d. 560 AH), and Ibn Al-Akbari al-Baghdadi (d. 599 AH) - a student of Ibn al-Jawzi in preaching - used to “hold a preaching council at Ibn Bahliqa Mosque [west of Baghdad] every Friday, so he remained on That was for a long time and then it stopped."
As in the 'tail of the Hanbali layers'.
Perhaps some preachers saw that the two Friday sermons suffice the people to preach on one day, so they made their preaching appointments on another day;
The preacher Sibt Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 654 AH) “came to Damascus in the age of six hundred and enjoyed it with the kings of Bani Ayyub, and they presented him and were good to him, and he had a preaching council every Saturday early in the day... People used to sleep on Saturday night in the mosque and leave the orchards in the summer until they heard its time, then They rush to their orchards and remember what he said of benefits and good words on the way of his grandfather.” Abu al-Faraj Ibn al-Jawzi;
As Al-Nuaimi (d. 927 AH) says in 'The Student in the History of Schools'.
Likewise, the judge of judges Nizam al-Din Ibn Muflih al-Maqdisi and then al-Salihi (d. 909 AH) was one of those who “worked the appointment on Saturday, reel in the day, in the manner of his father.”
Some preachers took care of preparing his lessons in writing in the form of written systematic research, preparing them on a weekly schedule, memorizing them perfectly and delivering them in front of his audience with mastery by heart;
Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar mentions - in “Al-Durar Al-Katainah” - that Ibn Abi Mahdi Al-Qahri Al-Basti (d. 719 AH) was “quick to memorize. He worked in the preaching council - in the month of Rajab, Sha’ban and Ramadan - every Saturday, arranging it and writing it in some seven hundred lines and looking into it on the day it was arranged. (= preparing it) on Wednesday, then repeat it on Thursday and Friday, then dictate it from his chest on Saturday.
We found that families took care of the profession of rhetoric and passed it on to their generations according to a training plan for their children in rhetoric since their childhood. Therefore, many of the media were described as being from a “house of preaching” or “a house of oratory”;
As previously mentioned about the Turkistani preacher, and as we find it in the translation of the preacher judge Abd al-Salam bin Yahya al-Taghlabi al-Tikriti (d. 616 AH), who was “from the house of justice and rhetoric in his country”;
According to the historian Ibn al-Shaar al-Mawsili (d. 654 AH), who informs us - in his book 'Qila'at al-Juman' - that this al-Tikriti "memorized exhortation chapters, and his father arranged preaching councils for him.., and spoke in their home until he trained and became a good path for him.., so he contracted for him." The assembly in some of the scenes of Tikrit where the preacher spoke, spoke and preached to the people, and he was nine years old at that time!!
It seems that there was also a group of "travelling preachers" who were traveling around the countries to spread the message of preaching wherever they went, including Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab al-Ansari al-Dimashqi al-Hanbali (d. 657 AH), who was a disciple of Ibn al-Jawzi, the preacher of Baghdad, and Ibn Abd al-Malik al-Marrakchi (d. 703 AH) spoke about him. - In 'The Tail and the Complement' - he said that he met him in Marrakesh, which he arrived in the year 652 AH, and from there across the sea to "Andalusia, circling the country in which preaching councils are held", although "he could hardly understand what he was saying because of the excessiveness of his tongue";
And from Andalusia he went to Egypt, where he died!!
Women’s participation
The profession of preaching was not restricted to men, but women had a position and a share in it, and that is why the title of “preacher” abounded in the translations of Sheikhs and Scholars.
Al-Dhahabi translated - in 'History of Islam' - for more than ten female preachers, including the one: especially the daughter of Abi Al-Muammar Al-Ansari (d. 585 AH), he said, "She is the companion of Sheikh Abu Al-Najeeb Al-Suhrawardi (d. 563 AH), she was preaching her bond on women."
One of the most famous preachers was Umm Zainab Fatima bint Abbas al-Baghdadi (d. 714 AH), who was called the “Rabbat al-Baghdadiah” in Cairo when it was established in the year 684 AH. The historian Salah al-Din al-Safadi (d. 764 AH) stated - in “Notes of the Age” - that she “was ascending the pulpit and preaching to women.” … [and] a group of women made peace with it in Damascus…, [then] it turned after the seven hundred to Egypt, and a group of women benefited from it in Egypt, and after its reputation.”
And before this Baghdadi preacher;
We find another Damascene sheikh whose ascension to the pulpit made her famous as the ‘Alima’. She is the mother of the Shafi’i jurist Shihab al-Din al-Ansari, known as “Ibn al-Alamah”;
Qutb al-Din al-Yunini (d. 726 AH) - in 'The Tail of the Mirror of Time' - narrated that when King Al-Adil Al-Ayyub died in the year 615 AH, they searched for a "woman who spoke in mourning. In this case, they adhered to her and took her under duress, and she had memorized many of the 'vegetarian speeches' (= the sermons of Sheikh Ibn Nubata Al-Fariqi, who died in 374 AH), she said: I was asking God Almighty on the way not to expose me in that forum while I shivered from that. : When I came and ascended the pulpit, I was secretly secretive, and I recited something from the Qur’an and delivered the 'sermon of death'... and he agreed in that assembly from crying...unless there was agreement in others.
ومن غرائب التنظيم الإداري للوعظ النسائي بمصر أن الواعظات كنّ يتبعن لإدارة ما يمكن تسميته "نقيبة المغنيات" التي كانت تـُـدعى حينها ‘ضامنة المغاني‘ وكانت تدفع ضرائب لدولة المماليك من عائدات قطاع حرفة الغناء! ويحدثنا الإمام ابن الحاج المالكي (ت 737هـ) -في كتابه ‘المدخل‘- عن اشتهار هذا الأمر في مصر، فيقول إنه من "العجب العجيب.. اعتقاد بعضهن في هؤلاء الشيخات من النسوة، وهنّ -كما قد عُلم في هذا الزمان- لا يمضين لموضع يعملن فيه إلا بعد إطلاقهن (= الترخيص لهن) عن ‘ضامنة المغاني‘…، فتجيء -بعد إطلاقها من الضامنة- ومعها حفَدَتها ويرفعن عقيرتهن بالقراءة والذكر جماعة"!!
قلوب وجيوب
من طرائف الملاحظات التي لا تخطئها عين الراصد لأدوار الوعاظ والقصّاص في التاريخ الإسلامي؛ أن بعضهم جعل الوعظ -الذي يُقصد به أصلا التزهيد في الدنيا والترغيب فيما عند الله- وسيلةً لجمع المال والإثراء، فكأن هؤلاء سعوا لترقيق القلوب وتضخيم الجيوب؛ وهي مفارقة لطيفة!
فها هو الإمام الذهبي يخبرنا -في ’تاريخ الإسلام’- أن الفقيه الحنفي أبا سعد الغياثي الماهاني (ت 554هـ) "واعظ كثير المحفوظ، كثير الرغبة في تحصيل المال"! ويقول إن الواعظ ابن نجية الأنصاري (ت 599هـ) اقتنى "أموالا عظيمة، وتنعم تنعما زائدا، بحيث أنه كان في داره عشرون جارية للفراش تساوي كل واحدة ألف دينار (= اليوم 167 ألف دولار تقريبا للواحدة!!) وأكثر، وكان يعمل له من الأطعمة ما لا يعمل للملوك، وأعطاه الخلفاء والملوك أموالا عظيمة، ومع هذا مات فقيرا، كفنه بعض أصحابه"؛ كما في ’تاريخ الإسلام’ للذهبي.
ويفيدنا السخاوي (ت 902هـ) -في ’الضوء اللامع’- بأن الفقيه الشافعي الواعظ أبا العباس القدسي (ت 870هـ) دأب على عقْد مجلس الوعظ "وساد فيه وتمول منه جدا وتخطى الناس فيه لكونه غايةً في الذكاء". ويذكر أيضا أن الفقيه الشافعي الواعظ عبد الرحيم ابن الموفق الزين الحموي (ت 848هـ) عقد "مجلس الوعظ فبرع وراج أمره فيه وصار له صيت وجلالة وأثْرَى".
وهذا الفقيه الشافعي الواعظ شهاب الدين ابن عبِّية المقدسي (ت 905هـ) يقول السخاوي إنه "أقام بالشام يسترزق من الوعظ"، وهو الذي وصفه نجم الدين الغزي (ت 1061هـ) -في ‘النجوم السائرة‘- بأنه "شيخ العالَم الواعظُ المذكور"!! وقد تقدم معنا خبر أبي الهثيم المدني وأن مقامه بمصر كان للاسترزاق بالوعظ!!
وقد يطلب الواعظ المال لمساعديه في تنظيم مجلس الوعظ؛ فالذهبي يقول -في ’تاريخ الإسلام’- إن الواعظ أبا بكر ابن عبد الجبار السمعاني (ت 510هـ) "طلب مرة للذين يقرؤون في مجلسه، فجاءه لهم ألف دينار من الحاضرين".
وفي ’مرآة الزمان‘ لسبط ابن الجوزي؛ أن الواعظ عبد الرحمن بن مروان التَّنوخي المَعَرِّي (ت 559هـ) كان "شحّاذًا نتّاشًا حَوَّاشًا، قلما يخلو يوما شَرَكُه من صيد، حتى لو رآه الحريري (= صاحب ‘المقامات‘) لم يذكر أبا زيد [السروجي]"!! وكان هذا الواعظ في بداية مساره الوعظي "ينشد في صباه في الأسواق ويمشي على الدَّكاكين، وكان في صوته شجًى…، ورُزِق قَبولًا واكتسب من الوعظ مالًا".
احتساب ورقابة
تقدم معنا أن بعض الوعاظ اتخذ مهنة الوعظ سبيلا لجمع المال، ولن نستغرب إذن أن يكون بين الوعاظ فسقة يقولون ما لا يفعلون، أو مبتدعون يجعلون من المحْدَثات عبادات. وقد لاحظ ذلك ابن الجوزي نفسه فدعا -في كتابه ‘صيد الخاطر‘- إلى التصدي له بقوله: "تأملت أشياء تجري في مجالس الوعظ يعتقدها العوام وجهال العلماء قُرْبة، وهي منكرٌ وبُعدٌ [عن الشرع]؛ وذاك أن المقرئ يطرب ويخرج الألحان إلى الغناء، والواعظ ينشد بتطريب أشعار المجنون وليلى، فيصفق هذا! ويحرق ثوبَه هذا! ويعتقدان أن ذلك قربة! ومعلوم أن هذه الألحان كالموسيقى توجب طربا للنفوس؛ فالتعرض بما يوجب الفساد غلط عظيم، وينبغي الاحتساب على الوعاظ في هذا".
وقد استدعى هذا التحولُ أن يُبوَّب في كُتب وظيفة "الحِسبة" للاحتساب على الوعاظ، للأخذ على أيديهم وإلزامهم بسلوك جادة الطريق التزكوي الصحيح. ومن نماذج ذلك ما يورده الحافظ ابن حجر -في ’إنباء الغُمْر’- من أن المحتسب نجم الدين الطُّنْبُذِي (ت بعد 794هـ) اتخذ في عام 790هـ "مِن فقراء الفقهاء مَن يعلّم أصحابَ الدكاكين من العامة الفاتحة وفرائض الصلاة، ونهى قرّاء المواعيد والوعاظ عن التهتك وأمرهم أن يبدلوه بالصلاة والسلام على النبي (ص)".
وقد وُصف بعض الوعاظ بالمجون مثل مفتي القدس عبد المؤمن بن عمر الرهاوي الشافعي (ت 845هـ) الذي يقول العُلَيْمي الحنبلي (ت 928هـ) -في ‘الأنس الجليل‘- إنه كان "خيِّرا عالما فاضلا مفتيا واعظا متفننا، يعظ بلطافة ومجون وجد وهزل". وجاء في ’الوافي بالوفيات’ للصفدي أن الواعظ محمد بن عبد الله الظريف (ت 576هـ) كان "يُرمَى بأشياء منها شرب الخمر وشَرْي الجواري المغنيات وسماع الملاهي المحرمة، وأخرِج عن بغداد مرارا لأجل ذلك"؛ كما رُمي بمثل ذلك الواعظ المظفر ابن أردشير المتقدم ذكره.
وفي مجال رمْي مؤرخين لوعّاظٍ معينين بالمجون لا يمكن أن نغفل أن للمعاصرة أحكامها التي لا تخلو من التحامل والتنافس؛ لكن تبويب كتب "الحسبة" على الاحتساب على الوعاظ ومجالسهم يدل على ما كان يقع فيها أحيانا من مخالفات شرعية، ولذا نجد أن ابن الأخوة (ت 729هـ) -وهو من العلماء الذين انخرطوا في الحسبة مدارسةً وممارسةً- خصص الباب الثامن والأربعين من كتابه ‘معالم القربة في طلب الحسبة’ للحديث عن الاحتساب على الوعاظ، وبيان شروط من يحق له الوعظ.
وقد مهد ابن الأخوة حديثَه ذلك بخلاصة لمسيرة رسالة الوعظ وسلوك الوعاظ تبين البون الشاسع بين ما كان وما وهو كائن في زمنه؛ فلنسمعه يقول: "كان العصر الأول لا يصعد فيهم المنبرَ إلا أحدُ رجلين: خطيب في جامع يوم الجمعة أو يوم العيد، أو رجل عظيم الشأن يصعد المنبر يعظ الناس ويذكّرهم الآخرة، وينذرهم ويحذرهم ويخوفهم ويحثهم على العمل الصالح، وكان للناس بذلك نفع عظيم. وفي زماننا هذا لا يُطلب الواعظ إلا لتمام شهر ميت أو لعقد نكاح أو لاجتماع هذيان، ولا يجتمع الناس عنده لسماع موعظة ولا لفائدة، وإنما صار ذلك من نوع الفرح واللعب والاجتماع، ويجري في المجلس أمور.. لا يليق ذكرها، وهذا من البدع المضلة".
and before the nephew;
Al-Muhtasib Al-Shizari (d. 590 AH) wrote his book “The End of the Adorable Rank in the Request for the Honorable Hesba,” in which he said that the Muhtasib should inspect “the councils of preachers, so he does not let men mix with women and put a curtain between them. And they go the other way, so whoever of the young men stops on their way without the need of his honor.”