MUSLIM SERMON - MUSIC IS EVIL
Summary
1) Happiness is in the religion of Allaah.
2) Listing to music prevailed.
3) Music includes much evil.
4) Evidences for forbidding music.
5) The spread music causes the wrath of Allaah.
6) What does music involve.
7) The bounty of hearing.
8) Propagating music and honoring singers is a crime.
9) The painful reality of the Muslim Ummah.
10) Singing is allowed in weddings (with out musical instruments).
11) Prohebitions that happen in weddings.
All praise is due to Allah. I testify that there is no deity worthy of
worship except Allah, He is One and has no partner. I equally testify
that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger. May peace and blessings be
upon him, his household and companions.
“O You who believe. Keep your duty to Allah and fear Him and speak (Always) the truth.” (Al-Ahzaab: 70).
Brothers in faith! Muslims live, under the shade of this great
religion, a life full of honour and grace. They find that by virtue of
this religion they taste the sweetness of faith, attain true peace of
mind and gratification in their worship.
The teachings of this religion adopt a firm stance against any form of
evil teachings and whimsical desires of corrupt people in order to
protect mankind from his own caprice and lust and to put an end to his
anxieties and sorrows. Who is richer than he who adheres to the
religion of Allah, though he is economically underprivileged, and who
is poorer than he who opposes the religion of Allah though he is
financially prosperous!
Fellow Muslims! One thing that saddens the zealous Muslim is to
see his brothers in faith seeking happiness through means other than
Islam, thereby treating their disease with poison instead of medicine
and deluding themselves into believing that satiating their lustful
desires will cure them of their ailments. An example of this is the
obsession of many people today with listening to music and musical
instruments; they justify this unenviable habit of theirs with baseless
arguments and excuses. This evil deed is only promoted by those who are
already afflicted with the blind following of their lustful desires and
listening to shameless female singers. Our prophet Muhammad told
us about these people when he said, “There will be some people among my
nation who will regard fornication, wearing of silk (for men), drinking
of intoxicants and stringed instruments as lawful.” (Al-Bukhaarie and
others).
Fellow Muslims! It is a great error on the part of anyone who claims to
have knowledge and Eemaan to hold that listening to music with its
instruments is permissible, considering that it contain every
conceivable form of evil.
As a matter of fact, music is a satanic voice that deeply penetrates
the human heart and stimulates in it destructive lustful desires,
wreaks havoc on mans’ body and soul and fills his ears with
obscenities.
Brothers in faith! Let us ask ourselves a question: How can a sane
person plunge his noble self into acts of such shameless immorality;
acts that believing souls disdain and people of sound nature reject and
abhor? Jaabir narrated that the Prophet said, “I did not forbid you
from weeping. I have only forbidden you from making two foolish and
horrible noises: a noise when playing and using the instrument of Satan
and a noise when you are afflicted with a calamity and you beat your
faces, tear your garments and make a satanic wailing.” (Al-Haakim).
Anas narrated that the prophet said, “Two sounds are accursed in this
world and the hereafter: (the sound of) musical instruments in time of
happiness and wailing during calamity.” (Al-Bazzaar).
Brothers in Islam! Music is prohibited and condemned by many Qur’anic
verses. Allah says, “And of mankind is he who purchases idle talks
(i.e. Music, singing etc.) to mislead men from the path of Allah
without knowledge and takes it (the path of Allah, or the verses of the
Qur’an) by way of mockery. For such there will be humiliating torment
(in the Hell-fire).” (Luqmaan: 6).
The Prophet said while commenting on this verse, “It is not permissible
to sell singing girls nor to buy them, nor to trade in them. Their
price is Haraam. This verse was revealed regarding that.”
(At-Tabaraanee).
Abdullah ibn Mas’ood also commented on this verse when he said, “By Him
beside whom no deity is worthy of worship! That (verse refers to)
music,”
Dear Muslims! Music is the voice of Satan with which he instigates
human beings into perpetrating evil deeds and acts of disobedience. It
is therefore imperative upon every Muslim to shun him and keep away
from him. Allah says in this regard, “And befool them gradually those
whom you can among them with your voice (i.e. songs, music, and any
other call for Allah’s disobedience), make assaults on them with your
cavalry and infantry, share with them wealth and children (by tempting
them to earn money by illegal ways – usury, or by committing illegal
sexual intercourse), and make promises to them. But Satan promises them
nothing but deceit.” (Al-Israa’: 64).
Fellow Muslims! Shun music and its instruments for it leads to
promiscuity. It is also the trap of Satan by which he lures men to
immoral acts. Zayd ibn Al-Waleed said, “O Omayyads! Keep away from
music for it reduces modesty, increases lust and destroys man. It acts
in the same way as alcohol and one who is under its influence acts like
one who is drunk.” Umar ibn Abdul-Azeez wrote to his sons’ tutor: “Let
your first lesson for them be the hatred of musical instruments that
come from Satan and end with the wrath of Allah; for it reached me from
trustworthy sources that attending a place where music and its
instruments are played grows hypocrisy in the heart as water makes
plants grow.” He also wrote a letter to Umar ibn Al-Waleed part of
which goes thus, “And your introduction of musical instruments and
flutes is an innovation in Islam and I have decided to send to you
those who will chop off that evil head of yours.”
Brothers in faith! Beware of things that lead to Allah’s wrath.
Appearance of music and stringed instruments is a cause of Allah’s
wrath and His chastisement. Aboo Maalik Al-Ash’aree narrated that the
Messenger of Allah said, “There will be a group of people among my
nation who will drink alcohol calling it by other names and upon their
heads stringed instruments will be played and in their presence
songstresses will sing, Allah will cause the earth to swallow them and
He will turn them into monkeys and pigs.”
‘Imraan narrated that the Messenger of Allah said, “In this nation
there will be humiliation, corruption and slander. The companions
asked, “When will that happen O Messenger of Allah?” He said, “When
songstresses and stringed instruments appear and when alcohol is
consumed.” (At-Tirmidhee).
Brothers in Islam! Indeed the essence of music, its causes, goals and
effects all revolve around the songs of corrupt and immoral people, for
music contains commendation of that which Allah detests, boasting about
perpetration of what He dislikes and forbids and maybe even exceeding
this with music which extols sacrilegious ideas.
If you consider the havoc that songs and instruments have wreaked on
the lives of those musicians and their fans you will realise what a
terrible impact it has. It leaves clear visible effects on their faces,
their speech and their conditions.
When Maalik ibn Anas was asked about what some men in his time regarded
as permissible music, he answered, “It is only the sinful people who do
that here.”
Fellow Muslims! Listening to music is one of the greatest traps of
Satan that he sets to divert people’s attention from the Qur’aan.
Ash-Shaafiee said, “I left behind in Baghdad something that heretics
introduced which they called Taghbeer with which they distract people
from the Qur’aan.”
Allahu Akbar! This saying of Ash-Shaafiee was about Taghbeer which is
poetry which encourages an ascetic life, sung by one while he strikes a
rod against a dried skin or something like that, what then will one say
about a type of music that is parallel to intoxicants in its effect?
Music is nothing more than lustful words that give not peace of mind
nor calm the nerves. Glory be to Allah! How easily people get
misled!
Brothers in faith! The sense of hearing is a great trust and a huge
favour from Allah. He has commanded His slaves to preserve this sense
and tells them that they will be held responsible for it. Therefore,
using this sense to listen to music and stringed instruments amounts to
abuse of this favour. Aboo Hurairah narrated that the Prophet said,
“The fornication of the tongue is uttering immoral utterances,
fornication of the hands is touching and fornication of the feet is
walking (unto what is forbidden). The heart desires and wishes but it
is the private parts that confirms or denies them.” (Muslim).
Fellow Muslims! Extolling music and stringed instruments and regarding
musicians as leaders of society means calling people unto error and
driving them away from the book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Prophet.
The Prophet said, “Whoever calls unto an error will have the sin equal
to that of those who follow him without deducting anything of their own
sins.” (Muslim).
Brothers in Islam! It is quite disheartening to see a nation which is
being persecuted, whose people are being killed, whose honour, lands,
and sacred places are being desecrated and who yet still find time to
sing and play music as if nothing had happened! We seek refuge with
Allah from having such dead unfeeling hearts!
Dear Muslims! Clean yourselves and your ears from idle talk and
stringed instruments of Satan and replace them with the Gardens of
Paradise that are to be found in Qur’anic reading and Sunnah study
circles, you will reap the everlasting fruits, have guidance and find a
cure for all diseases of the heart, mind and soul. Be among those whom
Allah describes thus: “And if they pass by some evil play or evil talk,
they pass it by with dignity.” (Al-Furqaan: 72).
Fellow Muslims! Fear Allah and be conscious of Him and obey Him.”
O you who believe! Fear Allah and be among the truthful.” (At Tawbah:
119).
Brothers in faith! Allah allows the beating of tambourines in marriage
ceremonies along with songs that contain no description of women or any
other immoral message. That is in order to make the marriage publicised
and distinguish between lawful and unlawful marriages. The Prophet
said, “The difference between the lawful and unlawful marriage is the
beating of the tambourine and the proclamation of the marriage.”
In Saheeh Al-Bukhaarie, Rubayyia bint Mu’awiyyah said – after her
marriage had been consummated – “Some girls were beating a tambourine
and praising those of their fathers who had been killed during the
Battle of Badr.” Ibn Hajar said, “In the sound Hadeeths there is
permission for women to do that exclusively. Men should not join with
them in that because of the general ruling that forbids men from
imitating women.”
It is therefore pitiful that some overstep the bounds of this
permission by hiring musicians and song stresses who sing immoral songs
and play on their musical instruments. These people who hire them spend
a huge amount of money in doing so, thereby hurting themselves and
disturbing and hurting their neighbours with the noise of that music.
They also commit other atrocities like giving the women an avenue to
imitate those shameless dances, causing the mixing of the two sexes,
wasting time and neglecting prayers among other things.
Brothers and sisters in Islam! Let us therefore shun this type of
gathering. Al-Imaam Al-Awzaa’ee said, “Do not attend a marriage
ceremony in which there is drum beating and stringed instruments.”
Fellow Muslims! Repent and turn back to Allah. Adhere to the manners of
your religion, reform yourselves and hold fast unto the Book of your
Lord and the Sunnah of your Prophet and you will prosper and succeed.