Evidence Concerning Music

Sheikh Kamal El Mekki points out logic, statistics, stories from our time and the time of the Sahabah and evidence from the Quran and Sunnah to explain why music is haram. For instance, as many of us know Halal things are always surrounded by good and righteous things and individuals (such as Prayer, recitation of the Quran, etc) and Haram things are usually accompanied by Haram attributes. Music is known to by surrounded by many haram things such as alcohol, intermingling of the genders, inappropriately dressed females, and night clubs- just to name a few. One cannot fathom music to be played in a righteous setting such as a Masjid. Even the feeling that is gotten from listening to music is a weird type of high, one that deviates the individual from the Quran- one rarely can switch from listening to a music CD to recitation from the Glorious Quran. Umar ibn Abdul-Azeez wrote to the mu’adib his sons’ tutor: “Let your first lesson for them be the hatred of musical instruments that come from (or begin with) Satan and end with the wrath of Allah; for it reached me from the people of knowledge that listening to music and songs grows hypocrisy in the heart as water makes plants grow.” Quran takes the individual in one direction (abandoning ones desires, guarding chastity, etc) while music drags the individual in the other direction, these are two opposing mediums which cannot both reside in the heart of the believer. After all, as was mentioned during the event, it is not scholars, righteous woman or men, or people you’d turn to for serious advice who write the lyrics to songs. If music were a good thing, it would have surely benefited and softened the hearts of the musicians- however we know very well that they lead empty lives of psychological depression and bad behavior.