MUSIC
Narrated by Bukhari in a mu’allaq report, The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: There will be people of my ummah who will regard fornication, alcohol, silk (for men), and musical instruments as permissible.
According to the view of scholars, this hadeeth proves the mentioned things are haraam in two ways. First, “Regard...as permissible” implies that it is in fact haraam, but they will regard it as permissible; and second, musical instruments are mentioned alongside some of the major sins (fornication and alcohol), and therefore it is made clear that musical instruments are haraam.
Ibn Taymiyah (may Allah have mercy on him) said, “This hadeeth indicates that maa’zif are haraam, and maa’zif means musical instruments according to scholars of the (Arabic) language. This word includes all such instruments.” Ibn Al-Qiyyam (may Allah 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. 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’an 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).
In Surah Luqman [chapter 31], verse 6, Allah says: And of mankind is he who purchases idle talks (music, singing) to mislead men from the path of Allah. Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) regarded “idle talks” to mean falsehood—the Makkans would tell stories of Persian and Roman kings and the like to distract people from the Qur’an—and singing. Abu’l-Sahbaa narrated: I asked Ibn Mas’ood of the meaning of the verse, “And of mankind is he who purchases idle talks,” and he said, “By Allah, besides whom there is no other god, this means singing,” and repeated it three times. Singing is worse than the stories of the kings the Makkans would tell because people are naturally inclined to it and want to listen to it. The verse condemns those who replace the Qur’an with singing.
In another verse it says, “[Allah said to Iblees:] Befool them gradually those whom you can with your voice (songs, music, and any other type of thing that leads to disobedience of Allah).” Ibn Qiyyam (may Allah have mercy on him) was of the view that the construction of the ayah (i.e. your voice) was to make the meaning specific; everyone who speaks in a way that is not obedient to Allah, everyone who blows into a flute or other woodwind instrument, or who plays any haraam kind of drum, this is the voice of Shaitaan.
