Listening To Music

Listening To Music

Brothers and sisters in Islam, today our khutbah is going to be about music and listening to music. And the main purpose behind this choice is that usually during these Fridays where it's a holiday, a lot of our youth attend the Jumu'ah prayer and it's an opportunity for them to listen to that. We're not explicitly going to be focusing on the evidence that it's haram.

We're going to be focusing on the logical arguments that it's haram. And I believe that all righteous men and women, they know deep down in their heart that it's not permissible. And this belief and this technique was used by the great scholar and the companion and the mufassir of the Qur'an, Abdullah ibn Abbas رضي الله عنهما. A young man came to him and he said:

He said, "O Ibn Abbas, the singing" — and that was the music of their time, singers, and they didn't have sophisticated instruments like we do today — "is it halal or haram?" And Ibn Abbas رضي الله عنه did not quote ayat and did not quote a hadith. He wanted this young man to understand that you know the answer, you know it. And that's the same style we're going to use in this khutbah — that you know the answer.

So Ibn Abbas said:

He said, "On the Day of Judgment, when Allah brings forth the truth and He brings falsehood, which side do you think singing or music will be on?" When Allah brings the Qur'an and the angels and the prophets and Prophet Nuh عليه السلام and righteousness and truth and dhikr of Allah on one side, and on the other side there'll be falsehood — where do you think music will be? And if anyone in the audience listens to music, answer the question: where do you think it will be? The songs that people listen to now, this rap stuff, is it going to be on the side of Nuh عليه السلام or will it be on the side of falsehood?

So the young man said: يَكُونُ مَعَ الْبَاطِلِ — it's going to be with falsehood. So Ibn Abbas رضي الله عنه says:

"Go — you have answered your own question by yourself."

The Logical Argument: What Does Music Gather?

So that's what we're talking about — that deep down people know. It is not righteous and it's not surrounded by righteousness. So logically, let's suppose we're going to have two gatherings in Houston.

The first gathering is going to be like a Qur'an night and a Qur'an competition, and we rent a big arena or something like that. Who's going to come and what will happen at this event? Huffadh, imams, students of tahfidh, students of knowledge, Muslim women in hijab, men and women will be separate, the food will be halal, the drinks will be halal, maybe there's a short lecture reminding us of Allah. When we gathered upon the Qur'an, righteous people came and righteousness happened.

The second gathering: we're going to rent a big concert hall, and we're going to bring a musician — fill in the blanks, any musician, those singers, performers. Who will gather? Who will come to the gathering? Women in skimpy clothing, there will be thugs, cigarettes, drugs, alcohol, fights possibly, haram relationships, people who will make haram relationships at the event. And as some of the mashayikh said, the night usually ends in zina.

So if music is halal, why does it gather the worst? Why does it gather haram? Can you think of anything in the world — not in Islam — that's halal, but every time it happens, only haram surrounds it? Is that possible? Why is it that only halal gathered around the Qur'an? Just logically. Something halal that's only surrounded by haram. Would there be righteous people, imams, at the concert? There's no other example of something that's halal but only attracts haram. Haram attracts haram, and halal attracts halal and righteousness.

Does Music Make You a Better Person?

Some people say that music gets you in touch with your gentle side. It allows you to self-reflect your behavior and so forth. Look at these three categories: actors, athletes, and musicians — by musicians I mean the performers, the rappers, those guys. Which of the three is usually in more legal trouble, and ends up in jail, and does more drugs than the rest? Everybody knows this one. Immediately the answer is musicians. If it really helped you reflect and hold yourself accountable, they would be the best of people. But they're not.

Every time we mention music, someone says, "What about Mozart?" You Google Mozart on your own and see what a depraved human being he was. The argument is, rap makes you corrupt, and classical music makes you refined and well-mannered. No, it doesn't.

"It Doesn't Affect Me"

Some people argue, "It doesn't affect me. I just listen to music as entertainment to pass time. It does not affect me." If it doesn't have an effect on people, why do people listen to it? Why are people so attached to it? Why do people defend it so strongly?

I'll never forget, when I was in my teens, I wanted to explore this issue — is music halal or haram? The first article I found, they wrote about how this imam on the Jumu'ah khutbah mentioned that listening to Umm Kulthum is haram. And the result was that the musallin came up to the minbar to beat him up during the Jumu'ah khutbah. And I didn't even read anything else in the article. I just said, it can't be halal. Did you want to beat up the khatib in the Jumu'ah khutbah? Look at how people are so attached to it. And you tell me it doesn't affect people?

Go to any high school in America. From how the teens dress, can you tell me what kind of music they listen to? Can you tell me who's the goth? Who listens to death metal? Who listens to rap and hip-hop — from how they dress? So it does affect people.

"There Is a Difference of Opinion"

Some people say there are different opinions — is music halal or haram? Wallahi, that is not a true and honest statement. Let me first give you an actual example of opinions of good scholars, not corrupt scholars. Good scholars who made mistakes in the past.

There was a scholar in Muslim history — he was not a corrupt man — but he mistakenly believed that your mother cannot show her hair in front of you; that she has to wear hijab in front of you 24/7. There's another scholar who said dog meat is halal. There's another scholar who said stealing from the kuffar is halal. There's another scholar who said 'Isha in the northern European countries in the summer, you don't have to pray 'Isha. There's another scholar who said a Muslim woman can wear a wig — she's not showing her hair, so it's halal.

If someone asks you, "Is dog meat halal?" and you say, "Well, there's a difference of opinion" — is that honest? A difference of opinion is 60-40, 70-30, 55-45, 50-50. But what I'm trying to say is, look at music. The companions of the Prophet ﷺ differed about some issues. But from the 100,000 companions, not a single one of them ever said music is halal. Not one. The challenge is for anyone to find any companion who thought music was halal. They never differed on this issue.

The four imams: Abu Hanifa رحمه الله says this is one of the sins you have to leave immediately. Imam Malik رحمه الله, Al-Shafi'i, Imam Ahmad, Imam Al-Qasim, Al-Hasan Al-Basri, Imam Ibn Abd al-Barr, Imam Al-Qurtubi, Al-Awza'i — referencing Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz رحمه الله and how he regarded it as haram. Ibn Hajar al-Hanbali, Abu Tayyib al-Tabari, Ibn al-Salah, Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali, Ibn al-Qayyim, Ibn Hajar, Ibn al-Haythami, Makhul, Al-Nawawi, Ibn Qudama al-Maqdisi, Ibn Taymiyyah رحمه الله, Amr al-Sha'bi, Ibrahim al-Nakha'i, Al-Nu'man, and others رحمهم الله. The list goes on and on. The four madhahib, all the companions, and the majority of the scholars of the early generations — all said it was haram.

Quranic Evidence

Allah says in the Qur'an:

"Those who, if they pass by evil play or evil talk, they pass by it with dignity."

Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyyah — who was Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyyah? This is a son of Ali ibn Abi Talib. To differentiate him from the other children — from Fatimah رضي الله عنها, the grandchildren of the Prophet ﷺ — they used to refer to him as the son of al-Hanafiyyah. So this is the son of Ali ibn Abi Talib. And he says regarding الزُّورَ:

"It is singing, it is singing." And we have many such statements from the scholars about verses of the Qur'an.

Allah tells Iblis — when Iblis said he was going to misguide humanity, Allah tells him, go ahead:

"Go ahead and try to dissuade them or misguide them with your voice." Be as creative as you want. What would be the voice of the Shaytan? His whisperings — that's the waswasa, we know that. But what else would his voice be? And then we have the comment from the mufassireen and the great scholars saying yes, it is music. What would be the voice of the Shaytan that he'll use to keep you away from Allah, to take you away from the Qur'an?

Look at anyone who listens to music and weigh the time they spend listening to music versus the time they spend listening to the Qur'an. 800 years ago Ibn al-Qayyim said:

"You cannot combine them in the heart of a believer." You can't. You either listen to music or you listen to the Qur'an. If you listen to both, you listen to one more than the other. It never fails.

And if anyone says "no, you're just an extremist who does not appreciate the arts" — fine. You yourself, take verses of the Qur'an and then put a chorus from your favorite song. Then another verse from the Qur'an, then a verse from your favorite song. And then play that. Just play that. See how uncomfortable it will make you. Right now if a beat came on these speakers and I started rapping the khutbah, the biggest music lover in the audience would be offended. Because we know — it does not pull you in the direction of Allah. It pulls you in another direction.

Common Arguments Addressed

"But the song has good meanings"

Some argued that if the song has good meanings, it's halal. There's never been anything in Islam like this — where it looks like it's halal, and then maybe 70% of the way, suddenly you discover that it's haram. A song starts off, the guy is just having a bad day, his truck broke down, his dog ran away — clearly it's country music, right? And then at the end of the song, he meets a girl and commits zina. Oh, suddenly it was haram. I didn't know that until the end.

Shaykh al-Albani رحمه الله said there's nothing like this in Islam — no meal that you eat where at the end of the plate you realize it was haram. It's halal first, then it became haram. Nothing like that.

"As long as it's not too much"

Who determines what's too much? Is it halal in the morning, then by nighttime you've heard enough and now it's haram? What does that mean? And who, from the people in the world who listen to music, ever gets to a point where they say, "Okay, I think I've reached my quota for the day, it's too much, I need to stop"?

"But the Sahabah sang"

Wallahi, haram 'alaykum. The sahabah sang? You're going to tell me the sahabah sang while digging the ditch — a few words of righteousness that rhyme — and we're going to go from that to Snoop Dogg? Does that make sense?

Ibn al-Jawzi رحمه الله said:

"The mufti and the scholar are like the doctor." And he says, before they prescribe the medicine, they need to find out about the person, where they live, what their background is. You can't just take something like this and give a fatwa — saying that the sahabah sang some lines of poetry during work or during travel, therefore this stuff you hear now, this disaster that you hear now, is halal. That makes no sense.

The Hadith of the Prophet ﷺ in Sahih al-Bukhari

The Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 5590)

"There will be people from my ummah who make halal" — and in order to make something halal, it has to be haram; you can't make water halal, it's already halal — يَسْتَحِلُّونَ means something is forbidden and they make it halal. So he said: الْحِرَّ — meaning zina — وَالْحَرِيرَ — silk, meaning they make it halal for men — وَالْخَمْرَ — wine or alcoholic beverages, they make it halal — وَالْمَعَازِفَ — musical instruments.

Today we know that there are some scholars — and some of them we even respect — who say music is halal. They have a problem with this hadith because it's authentic, it's in Sahih al-Bukhari. How do you explain this hadith? One of the explanations they gave — and this is an old explanation — is that if you combine zina with silk and wine and music, then music is haram. So then the scholar responded: zina, wine, polyester, or music — is it halal now? We just changed the silk for polyester. That doesn't make any sense.

What's interesting is that Imam Al-Shawkani رحمه الله refutes that. He says, that's like using the ayah:

"He used to not believe in Allah, the Most Great, and he did not urge the feeding of al-miskeen." So he said: based on your logic, that would mean it's haram to disbelieve in Allah only if it's combined with discouraging feeding the poor — meaning it would be halal to disbelieve in Allah as long as you encourage feeding the poor. What kind of logic is that argument?

The Hadith of Ibn Umar and the Flute

We have a hadith that some people use to argue that music is acceptable. They said that Abdullah ibn Umar was walking with Nafi' al-Daylami — Nafi' was from the great scholars of the Tabi'in, and he was a servant of Abdullah ibn Umar. They were walking in the desert when they could hear a flute in the distance. So Abdullah ibn Umar plugged his ears. He said to Nafi', "When you can't hear the flute anymore, let me know so I can unplug my ears." And after a while he told him, and he unplugged his ears. Then he said, "This same thing happened to me with the Prophet ﷺ. I was walking with the Prophet ﷺ and there was someone playing a flute somewhere in the distance — some shepherd or something. And the Prophet ﷺ plugged his ears and said, 'Let me know when you can't hear it anymore and I'll unplug my ears.'"

So some scholars said this is proof that music is halal — because the Prophet ﷺ didn't tell Ibn Umar to plug his ears. But actually, the scholars said this is proof that it's haram. Why? Because there is a difference between hearing music and listening to music — someone who is actively listening versus simply hearing it. We go to a restaurant now and there's music playing, but we're not listening to the music; we hear it. You're watching a documentary and there's music in the background — you're not listening to it, it's secondary, it's in the background. So they said: the Prophet ﷺ did not even accept the lesser of the two — which is merely hearing — let alone actively listening. He didn't even want to hear it. How would that prove that it's halal?

Your Own Honest Reflection

The message is: you look at it yourself. You look at the words of all these singers and rappers, whatever genre of music it is. Just look at it. Is this something a righteous believing man or woman should be listening to? Is this something appropriate?

Some of us listen to things that if we said, "Okay, on Jumu'ah in front of the whole community we're going to put the lyrics that you listen to up on the board" — we'd be ashamed. Very nasty things, very disgusting. All the righteous believing men and women know in their heart that this is not acceptable, that this could not possibly be halal. That's what we're arguing today, that's what we're talking about.

What Is Permitted: The Duff and Anashid

We'll close by saying there are times where something is allowed, and when we say that, what is allowed does not include or involve musical instruments — string or wind instruments or anything that synthesizes that same sound. But the duff — the duff, which is like an animal skin stretched over a wooden circular frame that they beat — that is the duff. And the Prophet ﷺ allowed that for women. And some of the scholars said he didn't explicitly disallow it for men. We're going to let the duff go — not a problem. If that's the issue, welcome to the duff.

So when is it allowed? Weddings and Eids. And the Prophet ﷺ actually told the women to beat the duff and sing songs. But that was not in front of men — they weren't gyrating in front of men; it was among themselves. So in these kinds of events, as long as the lyrics are clean and there are no musical instruments, meaning you listen to anashid and things like that — that is your tanfis, that's your way out, and that's what's permissible.

And this is one of the most beautiful things about Islam. Islam is about moderation in everything, even in the halal. And the scholars said something magnificent that shows intense wisdom: even with anashid, don't overdo it. Nothing should take over your life. No sport should take over your life. No diet should take over your life. Nothing takes over your life — your life is for Allah. So even if the anashid is halal, moderation in everything. Eating is halal — moderation in eating. Moderation in everything.

We ask Allah for His forgiveness. Indeed, those who ask His forgiveness shall prosper.

With that, we ask Allah to make us of those who recognize the truth as clear truth and follow the best of it. And to make us of those who recognize falsehood as clear falsehood and abstain from it.