Fatwa n° 133

Category: Fatwas about Family - Marriage Contract - Etiquettes of marriage

Dancing at a wedding ceremony

Question:

What is the ruling concerning women’s dancing among themselves? May Allah reward you.

Answer:

All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds. Peace and blessing be upon whom Allah sent as a mercy to the Worlds, upon his Family, his Companions and his Brothers until the Day of Resurrection:

If the dance is natural by moving the head and the hands and waving them in accordance with a lawful and virtuous song, void of any similarity with the imported dances and remote from men and the sound of the woman should not go beyond the place where she is and should also be above anything that would excite passion and stimulates lustful desires; then I do not see, with such conditions, any prohibition. This is, rather, a part of the wedding announcement that is religiously commanded. But if the dance includes shaking the waist and the buttocks imitating the new dances, mainly if the woman unveils parts that she is commanded to veil or veils them in a way which does not actually achieve the covering required religiously, through the use of tight clothing which reveals and shapes the body, or the use of transparent dress that displays parts of her body that are underneath the dress and so on. Therefore, in such a case it becomes forbidden because of the temptation involved therein which very likely leads to the acts of disobedience.

The perfect knowledge belongs to Allah عزَّ وجلَّ; and our last prayer is all the praises and thanks are to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds, and prayers of Allah are to Muhammad and his Family, Companions and Brothers until the Day of Resurrection.

Algiers on: Rabî‘ Al-Awwal the 5^th, 1418 H

Corresponding to July the 10^th, 1997 G.