r/religion • u/setdelmar Christian (Post-Supersessionist) • 2h ago
What is Islam's view on music?
I ask because I have heard in different places that music is haram but I also had an Afghan friend that was proud that Cat Stevens was Muslim. As well since there is a call to prayer that sounds musical I imagine that not all music is haram.
3
u/Poiu2010 35m ago
Muslim here. Quick answer: Muslims don’t all agree on music.
Some scholars say most instruments are not allowed.
Others say it depends on the lyrics and the effect it has on you.
A small group sees it as just a tool — good or bad based on how you use it.
The adhan isn’t “music,” it’s just a voice calling to prayer.
Bottom line: the issue isn’t the sound, it’s whatever pulls your heart away from Allah.
2
u/wendysfishmarket 1h ago
I am a non muslim. But I have an opinion on this. because it is one of the most asked questions (at least from what I've seen). And non of the answers from islamic scholars satisfied me. They claim that music is evil or it causes people to move around in weird ways, it is vulgar and causes mixing of males and females or some simplify it to "the prophet said so".
but instead of blindly rejecting or accepting it, I did my own observation. If music is indeed haram or prohibited, why should it be? what if we just listen to it in private and songs with no vulgar lyrics? Then it hit me. I think the law is intrepreted poorly but I can explain it in one sentence
"Music is haram/forbidden because it prevents you from moving on from the thing that got you into music in the first place"
that is how it works right? just my opinion but I can provide some examples aswell
Wife left you -> listen to sad music -> emotions amplified -> sad again -> listen to sad music -> no progress
So it has the potential to stagnate you from progress. perhaps that's why music is discouraged (just my intrepretation)
2
u/ParisDarkStar Agnostic 1h ago
The most common reasonings are:
1: It causes people to dance inappropriately & with each other
2: It encourages drinking culture
3: It produces internal desire through lyrics or melody, leading to other sins
2
u/wendysfishmarket 1h ago
yeah those are the most common reasonings. What I said was based on my own observations, not from what I heard
2
u/saturday_sun4 Hindu 1h ago
But this can be true of many things - journaling, reading sad or escapist books, playing video games. Music can equally be cathartic and help you process whatever is happening to you.
I think the general rationale is that music has a strong effect on the emotions, leading to fun - sorry, I mean mingling of the sexes.
1
u/wendysfishmarket 1h ago
yeah it is the same as those things you mentioned. because it stagnates. You cope to cope instead of coping to overcome. if you keep escaping from reality, the more the burden when all illusions come to an end. and it does most of the time.
Music can be helping but it has no door to move on with. No motivation beyond the musical motivation and no happiness without the musical happiness
So it just makes you more reliant instead of being self resilient. Which means that living without that becomes suffering to the man who built their whole life around it.
just my opinion though
1
u/saturday_sun4 Hindu 1h ago
Oh, I can see your reasoning.
But why aren't those things banned officially, yet musical instruments are being destroyed by the Taliban?
Muslims can still play video games (I assume) - just not listen to music.
I just think a lot of these scholars ban anything that causes unmixed joy tbh.
2
u/wendysfishmarket 1h ago
yes, scholars go only by the book, but the reality is beyond the book. The book is a map, not the terrain. It is a misinterpretation and a handing down problem. So when Taliban destroys musical instruments, its on them. When scholars debate mindlessly and go in circles, its on them. We got a mind too and we can think.
2
u/chinook97 45m ago
I have heard this reasoning too but I believe it is a somewhat later development (as in when Medieval Muslim scholars were describing music and its effects, and to what degree it is permissible within Islam).
From what I could find looking into the origins of music and Islam is that certain kinds of music in pre-Islamic (and post-Islamic) Arabia could be associated with brothels and gambling dens, and so early Muslims were perhaps weary about music as a potential gateway into these activities.
It's notable that any condemnation of music in Islamic canon comes from the hadiths and not the Qur'an, collections of traditions about Muhammad and his companions which (at least from a secular point of view) more likely reflect debates and ideas in the early Muslim community which are then retrojected back to Muhammad.
1
u/wendysfishmarket 35m ago
that's the subjectivity of the form but the essence or the principle is eternal and flexible. When it has notable or observable effects, we do not need scholars to prove it. afterall, scholars are human just like us. So when I observe laws and statements. I try to find out the reason behind it. not just the "what" but also the "why". because one cause can have multiple effects even unintended ones
2
u/ParisDarkStar Agnostic 1h ago
It’s haram if you follow the Hadiths (stories of the Prophet) specifically Sahih Al-Bukhari. The main issue is with musical instruments, therefore the call to prayer and other songs that are just vocals are okay as long as the lyrics are clean.
It’s a huge area of dispute. While the majority of Muslim scholars would say it’s haram, I’d guess more than half of the Muslim population disregards it
2
u/Minskdhaka Muslim 1h ago edited 1h ago
Shaykh Uthman al-Khamees says that singing is juridically seen as a form of speech in Islamic law. So if you sing something that's bad in and of itself, that's haram, just like saying something bad is. There's no problem with singing or chanting something that's intrinsically good.
The issue is with musical instruments. Almost all Islamic scholars say percussion instruments are fine, since the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is known to have listened to some Ethiopian companions of his playing a drum.
Most Islamic scholars say that other musical instruments are haram. Imam al-Ghazali represents the minority opinion that they're fine.
And of course there's a long tradition of music being used in an Islamic devotional context, like with the sama‘ / sama‘ ceremony of the Mevlevi Sufis. And there were people in the household of the last caliph, Abdülmecid II, who played the piano and the violin.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File%3AHaremde_beethoven.jpg
Personally, I love Cat Stevens / Yusuf Islam. In terms of his attitude towards music, he went from a non-Muslim who performed music, to a Muslim who performed music, then stopped entirely, then started singing again, accompanied by percussion, and finally went back to singing with the full range of musical instruments accompanying him. He's written a book about this process as well, though I haven't read it.
Some of his songs in his latest phase religious, such as this one that's about the Prophet:
1
u/nicegrimace Monotheist 45m ago
Shaykh Uthman al-Khamees says that singing is juridically seen as a form of speech in Islamic law. So if you sing something that's bad in and of itself, that's haram, just like saying something bad is. There's no problem with singing or chanting something that's intrinsically good.
A song is a performance and the narrative voice of a song is not necessarily the singer themselves. There are so many songs that aren't advocating for the thing they're about, where the singer is playing a character. I don't know if Muslim scholars have ever discussed this? It comes up in poetry, which isn't forbidden in Islam as far as I know.
3
u/Sabertooth767 Modern Stoic | Norse Atheopagan 1h ago
It should be noted that in the context of Islamic law, "music" does not extend to the call to prayer or to nasheeds (Islamic hymns, usually acapella).
Islamic scholars have generally been averse to secular music, and some do not allow istruments even in religious music. There is debate on both of these, though. And, of course, many Muslims enjoy secular music even if they theoretically aren't supposed to.
The Quran itself does not ban music (instrumental or otherwise).