Music Good or Bad
Evidence
of prohibition in the Qur’aan and Sunnah:
Allaah says in Soorat Luqmaan
(interpretation of the meaning):
“And
of mankind is he who purchases idle talks (i.e. music, singing) to mislead (men)
from the path of Allaah…” [Luqmaan 31:6]
- The scholar of the ummah,
Ibn ‘Abbaas (may Allaah be pleased with him) said: this means singing.
- Mujaahid (may Allaah have mercy on him) said: this means playing the drum (tabl).
(Tafseer
al-Tabari, 21/40).
- Al-Hasan al-Basri (may Allaah
have mercy on him) said: this aayah was revealed concerning singing and musical
instruments (lit. woodwind instruments). (Tafseer Ibn Katheer, 3/451).
- Al-Sa’di (may Allaah
have mercy on him) said: this includes all manner of haraam speech, all idle
talk and falsehood, and all nonsense that encourages kufr and disobedience;
the words of those who say things to refute the truth and argue in support of
falsehood to defeat the truth; and backbiting, slander, lies, insults and curses;
the singing and musical instruments of the Shaytaan; and musical instruments
which are of no spiritual or worldly benefit. (Tafseer al-Sa’di, 6/150)
- Ibn
al-Qayyim (may Allaah have mercy on him) said: The interpretation of the Sahaabah
and Taabi’in, that ‘idle talk’ refers to singing, is sufficient.
This was reported with saheeh isnaads from Ibn ‘Abbaas and Ibn Mas’ood.
Abu’l-Sahbaa’ said: I asked Ibn Mas’ood about the aayah (interpretation
of the meaning), ‘“And
of mankind is he who purchases idle
talks’ [Luqmaan 31:6]. He said: By Allaah, besides Whom there
is no other god, this means singing – and he repeated it three times.
It was also reported with a saheeh isnaad from Ibn ‘Umar (may Allaah be
pleased with them both) that this means singing.
There is no contradiction between
the interpretation of “idle talk” as meaning singing and the interpretation
of it as meaning stories of the Persians and their kings, and the kings of the
Romans, and so on, such as al-Nadr ibn al-Haarith used to tell to the people
of Makkah to distract them from the Qur’aan. Both of them are idle talk.
Hence Ibn ‘Abbaas said: “Idle talk” is falsehood and singing.
Some of the Sahaabah said one and some said the other, and some said both.
Singing
is worse and more harmful than stories of kings, because it leads to zinaa and
makes hypocrisy grow (in the heart); it is the trap of the Shaytaan, and it
clouds the mind.
The way in which it blocks people from the Qur’aan is
worse than the way in which other kinds of false talk block them, because people
are naturally inclined towards it and tend to want to listen to it.
The aayaat
condemn replacing the Qur’aan with idle talk in order to mislead (men)
from the path of Allaah without knowledge and taking it as a joke, because when
an aayah of the Qur’aan is recited to such a person, he turns his back
as if he heard them not, as if there were deafness in his ear. If he hears anything
of it, he makes fun of it. All of this happens only in the case of the people
who are most stubbornly kaafirs and if some of it happens to singers and those
who listen to them, they both have a share of this blame. (Ighaathat
al-Lahfaan, 1/258-259).
Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):
“[Allaah
said to Iblees:] And befool them gradually those whom you can among them with
your voice (i.e. songs, music, and any other call for Allaah’s disobedience)…”
[al-Israa’ 17:64]
It was narrated that Mujaahid (may Allaah have mercy on him) said:
“And befool them gradually those
whom you can among them with your voice” – his voice
[the voice of Iblees/Shaytaan] is singing and falsehood.
Ibn al-Qayyim (may
Allaah have mercy on him) said: This idaafah
[possessive or genitive construction, i.e., your voice] serves to make the meaning
specific, as with the phrases [translated as] “your cavalry” and
“your infantry” [later in the same aayah]. Everyone who speaks in
any way that is not obedient to Allaah, everyone who blows into a flute or other
woodwind instrument, or who plays any haraam kind of drum, this is the voice
of the Shaytaan. Everyone who walks to commit some act of disobedience towards
Allaah is part of his [the Shaytaan’s] infantry, and anyone who rides
to commit sin is part of his cavalry. This is the view of the Salaf, as Ibn
‘Abi Haatim narrated from Ibn ‘Abbaas: his infantry is everyone
who walks to disobey Allaah. (Ighaathat
al-Lahfaan).
Allaah says (interpretation
of the meaning):
“Do
you then wonder at this recitation (the Qur’aan)?
And
you laugh at it and weep not,
Wasting
your (precious) lifetime in pastime and amusements (singing)”
[al-Najm
53:59-61]
‘Ikrimah
(may Allaah have mercy on him) said: it was narrated from Ibn ‘Abbaas
that al-sumood [verbal noun from
saamidoon, translated here as
“Wasting your (precious)
lifetime in pastime and amusements (singing)”] means “singing”,
in the dialect of Himyar; it might be said “Ismidi
lanaa” [‘sing for us’ – from the same root
as saamidoon/sumood]
meaning “ghaniy” [sing].
And he said (may Allaah have mercy on him): When they [the kuffaar] heard the
Qur’aan, they would sing, then this aayah was revealed.
Ibn
Katheer (may Allaah have mercy on him) said: Allaah says (interpretation of
the meaning) “Wasting your (precious)
lifetime in pastime and amusements (singing)” – Sufyaan
al-Thawri said, narrating from his father from Ibn ‘Abbaas: (this means)
singing. This is Yemeni (dialect): ismad
lana means ghan lana
[sing to us]. This was also the view of ‘Ikrimah. (Tafseer Ibn Katheer).
It was reported from Abu Umaamah (may Allaah be pleased with him) that
the Messenger of Allaah
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Do not sell singing
slave women, do not buy them and do not teach them. There is nothing good in
this trade, and their price is haraam. Concerning such things as this the aayah
was revealed (interpretation of the meaning): ‘And
of mankind is he who purchases idle talks (i.e. music, singing) to mislead (men)
from the path of Allaah…’ [Luqmaan 31:6].” (Hasan
hadeeth)
The Messenger of Allaah
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said:
“Among my ummah there will certainly be people who permit
zinaa, silk, alcohol and musical instruments…” (Narrated
by al-Bukhaari ta’leeqan,
no. 5590; narrated as mawsool
by al-Tabaraani and al-Bayhaqi. See al-Silsilah
al-Saheehah by al-Albaani, 91).
Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allaah have mercy on him) said: This is a saheeh
hadeeth narrated by al-Bukhaari in his Saheeh,
where he quoted it as evidence and stated that it is mu’allaq
and majzoom. He said: Chapter
on what was narrated concerning those who permit alcohol and call it by another
name.
This hadeeth indicates
in two ways that musical instruments and enjoyment of listening to music are
haraam. The first is the fact that the Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “[they] permit”
which clearly indicates that the things mentioned, including musical instruments,
are haraam according to sharee’ah, but those people will permit them.
The second is the fact that musical instruments are mentioned alongside things
which are definitely known to be haraam, i.e., zinaa and alcohol: if they (musical
instruments) were not haraam, why would they be mentioned alongside these things?
(adapted
from al-Silsilah al-Saheehah by
al-Albaani, 1/140-141)
Shaykh
al-Islam (Ibn Taymiyah) (may Allaah have mercy on him) said: This hadeeth indicates
that ma’aazif are haraam,
and ma’aazif means musical
instruments according to the scholars of (Arabic) language. This word includes
all such instruments. (al-Majmoo’, 11/535).
Ibn
al-Qayyim (may Allaah have mercy on him) said: And concerning the same topic
similar comments were narrated from Sahl ibn Sa’d al-Saa’idi, ‘Imraan
ibn Husayn, ‘Abd-Allaah ibn ‘Amr, ‘Abd-Allaah ibn ‘Abbaas,
Abu Hurayrah, Abu Umaamah al-Baahili, ‘Aa’ishah Umm al-Mu’mineen,
‘Ali ibn Abi Taalib, Anas ibn Maalik, ‘Abd al-Rahmaan ibn Saabit
and al-Ghaazi ibn Rabee’ah. Then he mentioned it in Ighaathat
al-Lahfaan, and it indicates that they (musical instruments) are
haraam.
It
was narrated that Naafi’ (may Allaah have mercy on him) said: Ibn ‘Umar
heard a woodwind instrument, and he put his fingers in his ears and kept away
from that path. He said to me, O Naafi’, can you hear anything? I said,
No. So he took his fingers away from his ears and said: I was with the Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) and he heard something like this,
and he did the same thing. (Saheeh
Abi Dawood). Some insignificant person said that this hadeeth
does not prove that musical instruments are haraam, because if that were so,
the Messenger of Allaah
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) would have instructed Ibn ‘Umar
(may Allaah be pleased with them both) to put his fingers in his ears as well,
and Ibn ‘Umar would have instructed Naafi’ to do likewise! The response
to this is: He was not listening to it, but he could hear it. There is a difference
between listening and hearing. Shaykh al-Islam (Ibn Taymiyah) (may Allaah have
mercy on him) said: Concerning (music) which a person does not intend to listen
to, there is no prohibition or blame, according to scholarly consensus. Hence
blame or praise is connected to listening, not to hearing. The one who listens
to the Qur’aan will be rewarded for it, whereas the one who hears it without
intending or wanting to will not be rewarded for that, because actions are judged
by intentions. The same applies to musical instruments which are forbidden:
if a person hears them without intending to, that does not matter. (al-Majmoo’,
10/78).
Ibn
Qudaamah al-Maqdisi (may Allaah have mercy on him) said: the listener is the
one who intends to hear, which was not the case with Ibn ‘Umar (may Allaah
be pleased with them both); what happened in his case was hearing. The Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) needed to know when the sound stopped
because he had moved away from that path and blocked his ears. So he did not
want to go back to that path or unblock his ears until the noise had stopped,
so when he allowed Ibn ‘Umar to continue hearing it, this was because
of necessity. (al-Mughni, 10/173)
(Even
though the hearing referred to in the comments of the two imaams is makrooh,
it was permitted because of necessity, as we will see below in the comments
of Imaam Maalik (may Allaah have mercy on him). And Allaah knows best).
The
views of the scholars (imaams) of Islam
Al-Qaasim
(may Allaah have mercy on him) said: Singing is part of falsehood. Al-Hasan
(may Allaah have mercy on him) said: if there is music involved in a dinner
invitation (waleemah), do not
accept the invitation (al-Jaami by al-Qayrawaani,
p. 262-263).
Shaykh
al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah (may Allaah have mercy on him) said: The view of the four
Imaams is that all kinds of musical instruments are haraam. It was reported
in Saheeh al-Bukhaari and elsewhere
that the Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said that there would be among his
ummah those who would allow zinaa, silk, alcohol and musical instruments, and
he said that they would be transformed into monkeys and pigs… None of
the followers of the imaams mentioned any dispute concerning the matter of music.
(al-Majmoo’, 11/576).
Al-Albaani
(may Allaah have mercy on him) said: The four madhhabs are agreed that all musical
instruments are haraam. (al-Saheehah, 1/145).
Ibn
al-Qayyim (may Allaah have mercy on him) said: The madhhab of Abu Haneefah is
the strictest in this regard, and his comments are among the harshest. His companions
clearly stated that it is haraam to listen to all musical instruments such as
the flute and the drum, even tapping a stick. They stated that it is a sin which
implies that a person is a faasiq
(rebellious evil doer) whose testimony should be rejected. They went further
than that and said that listening to music is fisq
(rebellion, evildoing) and enjoying it is kufr
(disbelief). This is their words. They narrated in support of that a hadeeth
which could not be attributed to the Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him). They said: he should try not to
hear it if he passes by it or it is in his vicinity. Abu Yoosuf said, concerning
a house from which could be heard the sound of musical instruments: Go in without
their permission, because forbidding evil actions is obligatory, and if it were
not allowed to enter without permission, people could not have fulfilled the
obligatory duty (of enjoining what is good and forbidding what is evil). (Ighaathat
al-Lahfaan, 1/425).
Imaam
Maalik (may Allaah have mercy on him) was asked about playing the drum or flute,
if a person happens to hear the sound and enjoy it whilst he is walking or sitting.
He said: He should get up if he finds that he enjoys it, unless he is sitting
down for a need or is unable to get up. If he is on the road, he should either
go back or move on. (al-Jaami’
by al-Qayrawaani, 262). He (may Allaah have mercy on him) said:
“The only people who do things like that, in our view, are faasiqs.”
(Tafseer al-Qurtubi, 14/55).
Ibn
‘Abd al-Barr (may Allaah have mercy on him) said: Among the types of earnings
which are haraam by scholarly consensus are ribaa, the fee of a prostitute,
anything forbidden, bribes, payment for wailing over the dead and singing, payments
to fortune-tellers and those who claim to know the unseen and astrologers, payments
for playing flutes, and all kinds of gambling. (al-Kaafi).
Ibn
al-Qayyim (may Allaah have mercy on him) said, explaining the view of Imaam
al-Shaafa'i: His companions who know his madhhab (point of view) stated that
it is haraam and denounced those who said that he permitted it. (Ighaathat al-Lahfaan, 1/425).
The author of Kifaayat
al-Akhbaar, who was one of the Shaafa’is, counted musical instruments
such as flutes and others, as being munkar
(evil), and the one who is present (where they are being played) should denounce
them. (He cannot be excused by the fact that there are bad scholars, because
they are corrupting the sharee’ah, or evil faqeers
– meaning the Sufis, because they call themselves fuqaraa’ or faqeers
– because they are ignorant and follow anyone who makes noise; they are
not guided by the light of knowledge; rather they are blown about by every wind.
(Kifaayat
al-Akhbaar, 2/128).
Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allaah
have mercy on him) said: With regard to the view of Imaam Ahmad, his son ‘Abd-Allaah
said: I asked my father about singing. He said: Singing makes hypocrisy grow
in the heart; I do not like it. Then he mentioned the words of Maalik: the evildoers
(faasiqs) among us do that. (Ighaathat al-Lahfaan).
Ibn Qudaamah, the researcher
of the Hanbali madhhab – (may Allaah have mercy on him) said: Musical
instruments are of three types which are haraam. These are the strings and all
kinds of flute, and the lute, drum and rabaab (stringed instrument) and so on.
Whoever persists in listening to them, his testimony should be rejected. (al-Mughni,
10/173). And he said (may Allaah have mercy on him); If a person is invited
to a gathering in which there is something objectionable, such as wine and musical
instruments, and he is able to denounce it, then he should attend and speak
out against it, because then he will be combining two obligatory duties. If
he is not able to do that, then he should not attend. (al-Kaafi,
3/118)
Al-Tabari (may Allaah have
mercy on him) said: The scholars of all regions are agreed that singing is makrooh
and should be prevented. Although Ibraaheem ibn Sa’d and ‘Ubayd-Allaah
al-‘Anbari differed from the majority, (it should be noted that) the Messenger
of Allaah
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Adhere to the majority.”
And whoever dies differing from the majority, dies as a jaahili. (Tafseer
al-Qurtubi, 14/56).
In earlier generations, the word “makrooh”
was used to mean haraam, then it took on the meaning of “disliked”.
But this is to be understood as meaning that it is forbidden, because he [al-Tabari]
said “it should be prevented”, and nothing is to be prevented except
that which is haraam; and because in the two hadeeths quoted, music is denounced
in the strongest terms. Al-Qurtubi (may Allaah have mercy on him) is the one
who narrated this report, then he said: Abu’l-Faraj and al-Qaffaal among
our companions said: the testimony of the singer and the dancer is not to be
accepted. I say: if it is proven that this matter is not permissible, then accepting
payment for it is not permissible either.
Shaykh al-Fawzaan (may Allaah
preserve him) said: What Ibraaheem ibn Sa’d and ‘Ubayd-Allaah al-‘Anbari
said about singing is not like the kind of singing that is known nowadays, for
they would never have allowed this kind of singing which is the utmost in immorality
and obscenity. (al-I’laam)
Ibn Taymiyah (may Allaah
have mercy on him) said: It is not permissible to make musical instruments.
(al-Majmoo’,
22/140). And he said: According to the majority of fuqahaa’, it is
permissible to destroy musical instruments, such as the tanboor [a stringed
instrument similar to a mandolin]. This is the view of Maalik and is the more
famous of the two views narrated from Ahmad. (al-Majmoo’,
28/113). And he said: …Ibn al-Mundhir mentioned that the scholars
were agreed that it is not permissible to pay people to sing and wail…
the consensus of all the scholars whose views we have learned about is that
wailing and singing are not allowed. Al-Shu’bi, al-Nakha’i and Maalik
regarded that as makrooh [i.e., haraam]. Abu Thawr, al-Nu’maan –
Abu Haneefah (may Allaah have mercy on him) – and Ya’qoob and Muhammad,
two of the students of Abu Haneefah said: it is not permissible to pay anything
for singing and wailing. This is our view. And he said: musical instruments
are the wine of the soul, and what it does to the soul is worse than what intoxicating
drinks do. (Majmoo’ al-Fataawa,
10/417).
Ibn Abi Shaybah (may Allaah
have mercy on him) reported that a man broke a mandolin belonging to another
man, and the latter took his case to Shurayh. But Shurayh did not award him
any compensation – i.e., he did not make the first man pay the cost of
the mandolin, because it was haraam and had no value. (al-Musannaf,
5/395).
Al-Baghawi (may Allaah have
mercy on him) stated in a fatwa that it is haraam to sell all kinds of musical
instruments such as mandolins, flutes, etc. Then he said: If the images are
erased and the musical instruments are altered, then it is permissible to sell
their parts, whether they are silver, iron, wood or whatever. (Sharh
al-Sunnah, 8/28)
Ma’aazif
is the plural of mi’zafah,
and refers to musical instruments (Fath
al-Baari, 10/55), instruments which are played (al-Majmoo’,
11/577).
Al-Qurtubi (may Allaah have mercy on him) narrated from al-Jawhari
(may Allaah have mercy on him) that ma’aazif
means singing. In his Sihaah
it says that it means musical instruments. It was also said that it refers to
the sound of the instruments.
In al-Hawaashi
by al-Dimyaati (may Allaah have mercy on him) it says: ma’aazif
means drums (dufoof, sing. daff)
and other instruments which are struck or beaten (Fath
al-Baari, 10/55).
