Assalamu’alaikum dear readers,

Lately we’ve received email regarding Alunankasih in which a reader gave us fatwas regarding the haram of music in Islam.

Alhamdulillah the poster meant well when he advised and shared with us information regarding this but I was dissatisfied with his email. Note that when I mean dissatisfied, it doesnt mean that I don’t agree with what he shared. Its just that the information he provided is incomplete.

As a student of a student of knowledge (yes i’m still very far behind!), I would like to touch upon music in Islam as a topic as from what I was taught. If there are mistakes in what I’ve written, please do respond to correct me.

For our benefit, here are some excerpts of what the poster shared with me:

The views of the scholars (imaams) of Islam Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah [ d. 728H ] (may Allaah ave 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 hat 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).

The email list on a number of scholars who prohibits music among the rest not listed here are Imam Syafie, Imam Suyuti, Imam Nawawi and other madhab’s imams and present-day ulamas. Indeed it is a long list.

These are scholars and imams that are regarded with high esteem and their knowledge are well beyond ours and their contemporaries at that time. They have their own dalil when they create a ruling and its never by their own egos. I’ll leave you to pick up and read their dalils on how they reach that conclusion

So when they say music is haram, is it really haram? Yes it is…

BUT

There are also scholars who permit music, among them, Ibn Hazm and Hujjatul-Islam himself, Imam Ghazali, who is also from the Syafie school of thought, and more recently, Yusuf Qardawi et al. Again I would leave it to the readers to pick up a book or consult your religious teachers regarding their dalils.

So who is right here? The answer is both! And it is important to note here that these scholars do not tell each other that they are wrong and “only my ruling is correct!”. The adab of argument between scholars is something we should look up to especially in this day of age where everyone seem to argue for the sake of argument and never for the sake of finding truth.

Most scholars agree that the issue of music is not muqtamad (khilaf), meaning, its non-permissibility (or otherwise) is not confirmed unlike fornication and alcohol, which are clearly haram.

So depending on your orientation and which scholars’ ruling you follow, music is therefore either haram or not. We sincerely advise you to ask your local religious scholar and learn more about the dynamics of Usuluddin and Hadith classification!

It is interesting to note that one of the Wali Songo (the 9 saints who introduced Islam to Indonesia), Sunan Bonang (in which the musical instrument, bonang, was named), uses music as a tool to introduce Islam to the locals. Then again, music such as black metal music or those with profanities in which some of its lyrics praise Syaitan and encourage people to be khayal are indeed contrary to the techings on Islam or a lifestyle of a Muslim.

The AlunanKasih competition which just ended was to me, a beautiful and meaningful event, where everyone there came together to praise the prophet of Allah with songs which we deemed are beautiful both in sound and lyrics (sounds like a maulid event where everyone recites qasidah and nasyids isn’t it?). Indeed, it is a healthier alternative to ALL other music competitions in Singapore.

We look forward to any comments to this humble opinion of ours here in IslamicEvents.sg..

Luqman
IslamicEvents.sg / www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~luqmanha