Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Question: Is the group remembrance with singing of spiritual poetry and rhythmic swaying, called the hadra, permitted?
Answer: In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful.
The hadra is in itself permitted, as writings of major Hanafi authorities make clear.
Among the imams of the Hanafi school who have specifically permitted it are Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Kamal Basha, Imam Shurunbulali, Sayyidi Abd al-Ghani al-Nablusi, Shaykh Abd al-Qadir `Isa (who cites proofs for it from the major Hanafi reference works, including Ibn Abidin), and Imam Ashraf Ali al-Tahanawi in his “Imdad al-Fatawa” [5.151].
It is simply one way of fulfilling the general sunna of group remembrance, the general and unconditional encouragement for which is authentically established through numerous hadiths of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him).
Wassalam,
Faraz Rabbani