when one of them entered ihrām, he would not go under a roof—they were forbidden to do this, as the Most High says:
“Righteousness is not in entering houses from the back. Rather, righteousness is in fearing Allah. So enter houses through their doors.”
He, glorified be He, thus made clear that this is not righteousness, even though it is not itself forbidden. Whoever does it as an act of righteousness and a means of drawing near to Allah is therefore disobedient, blameworthy, and an innovator. Religious innovation is dearer to Iblīs than sin, because the sinner knows that he is sinning and so repents, whereas the innovator imagines that what he is doing is an act of obedience and therefore does not repent.
Likewise, someone who attends gatherings for listening to poetry for amusement and entertainment does not count this among his righteous deeds or hope to be rewarded for it. But someone who does so as a path to Allah Most High makes it part of his religion. If someone forbids him to do it, he regards that person as forbidding his religion, and believes that abandoning it would cut him off from Allah and deprive him of his portion from Allah Most High.
Such people are misguided by agreement of the Muslim scholars. None of the imams of the Muslims says that adopting this as a religious practice and a path to Allah Most High is permissible. Rather, whoever makes this a religious practice and a path to Allah Most High is misguided, fabricates falsehood, and opposes the consensus of the Muslims. Anyone who considers only the outward form of an action and pronounces upon it, without considering how the person performs it and what he intends, is ignorant and speaks about religion without knowledge.
The question about such a matter should therefore be put as follows:
“Is what these people do a path to Allah Most High, a means of drawing near to Him, and an act of obedience that Allah and His Messenger love, or not? Will they be rewarded for it or not? If this is not a means of drawing near to Allah, an act of obedience to Him, or worship of Him, yet they do it as a means of drawing near to Him