Friday, March 02, 2007

Logic behind the Prohibition of Music in Islam

Before we delve into the logic of prohibition of music, we must first consider the evidence from Quran and Sunnah which makes music haraam.

Music has been condemned strongly in the Quran and Hadith. In Surah Luqmaan, Allah Taala states, And from mankind are those that purchase futile speech in order to mislead others from the path of Allah. Under the commentary of this verse, ibn Abbaas [Radhiallaahu anhu] states, futile speech refers to music and things related to it. (Durrul Manthoor vol.5 pg.307)

In Surah Bani Israaeel, Allah Taala states, And excite any of whom you can with your voice. Imaam Mujaahid mentions, voice refers to music. (Roohul Maaani)

Prohibition of music is recorded in many authentic Ahadith.

Narrated Abu Malik Al-Ashari: The Messenger (peace be upon him) of Allah said, "Some people of my Ummah will drink wine, calling it by other than its real name, merriment will be made for them through the playing of musical instruments and the singing of lady singers. Allah will cleave the earth under them and turn others into monkeys and swines.” [Ibn Ma'jah Vol.5 Hadith No.4020]

Narrated Abu Amir or Abu Malik Al Ashari that he heard the Prophet (peace be upon him) saying, "From among my followers there will be some people who will consider illegal sexual intercourse, the wearing of silk, the drinking of alcoholic drinks and the use of musical instruments, as lawful. And there will be some people who will stay near the side of a mountain and in the evening their shepherd will come to them with their sheep and ask them for something, but they will say to him, 'Return to us tomorrow.' Allah will destroy them during the night and will let the mountain fall on them, and He will transform the rest of them into monkeys and pigs and they will remain so till the Day of Resurrection." [Sahih Al-Bukhari Vol.7 Hadith No.5590]

Prophet (peace be upon him) further mentions, “Music grows hypocrisy in the heart just as water causes crops to grow.” (Bayhaqi vol.10 pg.222)

However, there are some Ahadith which indicate that it is permissible to beat the ‘daff’ i.e. the tambourine (which is open on one side and covered on the other).

Narrated Urwa on the authority of Aisha “On the days of Mina, (11th, 12th, and 13th of Dhul-Hijjah) Abu Bakr came to her while two young girls were beating the tambourine (daff) and the Prophet (peace be upon him) was lying covered with his clothes. Abu Bakr scolded them. The Prophet uncovered his face and said to Abu Bakr, 'Leave them, for these days are the days of Eid and the days of Mina.' [Sahih Al-Bukhari Vol.2 Hadith No.987]

Narrated Ar Rabi (the daughter of Muawwidh bin Afra): “After the consummation of my marriage, the Prophet came and sat on my bed as far from me as you are sitting now, and our little girls started beating the tambourines (daff) and reciting elegiac verses mourning my father, who had been killed in the battle of Badr. One of them said, ‘Among us is a Prophet (peace be upon him) who knows what will happen tomorrow.’ On that the Prophet (peace be upon him) said, "Leave this (saying) and keep on saying the verses which you had been saying before." [Sahih Al-Bukhari Vol.7 Hadith No.5147]

Therefore from the above evidence it is concluded that the use of musical instruments in general is forbidden in Islam, with the exception of the 'Daff'. Furthermore, singing without music is permissible on condition that the song does not contain anything un-Islamic in it. For example, it must not be a song that is normally played with music, it must not have a tone of a music song. There must not be any immoral contents in the song. Poetry (She’r) and Nazms (songs) are meant to refresh a person’s Imaan and enhance one’s love for Islam, Allah and His Rasul [sallallaahu alayhi wasallam].

Logic
In Islam an individual’s personality is constructed on the basis of principles and not on emotions. Islam is primarily an intellectual and not an emotional proposition. The reason being that emotions, however profound, are far more liable to be swayed by subjective desires and fears than reason. Music inflames emotions and it has an emotional control over a person’s mood: it can make someone happy (if one listens to a few cheerful songs), or sad (if one listens to depressing tunes), or even violent (certain songs have that affect on some people as well in the short and long term). The teachings of Islam are designed to develop a human being whose logic and reason control his emotions, and not the other way around where one’s emotions control one’s logic and reason. In case where a person makes his decisions in life based on emotions, he is more likely to err than a person who has control over his feelings and makes choices based on his reasoning.

Music usually intoxicates a person and takes one away from the path of Allah. Music engages a person’s mind and takes him away from the remembrance of his Creator and from realising and focusing his attention on the purpose of his creation. In musical songs, most of the times the listeners even appreciate illogical, incorrect and blasphemous matter and content. A person will realise this when he starts pondering over the meaning of many Hindi and English songs, lyrics and ghazals. Here we find that it is because of music that the person’s mind is intoxicated and the person deviates from the straight path.

In a society where music is prevalent, immodesty increases many folds. Music encourages the avenues where immodest behaviour is commonplace, such as night clubs and strip clubs. Furthermore, these avenues in turn promote intermingling of sexes which eventually leads to fornication and adultery (to understand what is wrong with fornication and adultery please read my articles "Logic of Hudood in Islam" and "Sexually Transmitted Diseases"). Therefore, if you eliminate music, you also get rid of that party culture where all these vices take place.

We do not have to look far to see evidence of moral decay around us. We can see it and hear it in entertainment like rap music, in songs that glorify violence or suicide or exploitation of others. Rap music also encourages gangster culture (since many rappers belong to different gangs).

Moreover, many heavy metal and rock bands promote certain destructive ideologies through their form of music. For example, some bands are associated with the promotion of Satan worship. Similarly these rock bands encourage, especially teenagers, to be rebellious (one of the reason many teenagers are disobedient to their parents).

Out of all this a very clear, indisputable fact emerges: music leads to social degradation and disintegration. The Quran warns us of this. And the evidence proves this. Some of the lyrics are extremely vulgar and mainly focus on lurid and explicit descriptions of sexual acts and promiscuity. The marketing of these songs is undertaken by screening video performances of the songs. Vulgar scenes are graphically depicted. That is followed by live pop concerts where all this filth and debauchery is performed in front of thousands of young people caught up in a wild, demonic frenzy.

An example of the disgusting behaviour that music can lead to can be seen from the article published by Sunday Independent (on 07/09/1997) and its title was “Ban lifted on Lesbian Rockers”. The first paragraph of the article reads

“Munich – German authorities lifted a ban on Friday on a performance by a British pornographic lesbian rock group. A court ruled that seven-girl group could perform, but that their concert, scheduled for last night, should not include sexual acts or urinating on the audience.”

Certain music is such that merely by listening to it one can fall into a different state of mind and even into a trance. So the music itself is mind-altering. Then an almost inseparable aspect is drugs. The music already puts the person in an altered state of mind. To enhance that condition many at a party or nightclub resort to taking ecstasy or other drugs. At many parties along with music, dancing, drugs and drinking (to understand what is wrong with drinking please read my articles "Logic of Hudood in Islam" and "Logic behind the Prohibition of Alcohol") goes on and that leads to human beings acting like animals. Your mind gets taken over. You are deceived into thinking that you have become free. In fact, you are becoming a slave of drugs and a slave of the barbaric culture.

Moreover, the youth are influenced by singers in the music videos. They try to emulate them as the singers have become their role models. This in turn leads to the moral decay of the youth.

All in all, music is Satan’s handiwork. The disadvantages brought by music to the society far outweigh its advantages. If we want to save ourselves from immorality and immodesty we will have to stay away from this evil.

Islam Spread by Sword?

The material for this article has been taken from the articles of Dr. Zakir Naik, Gush Shalom and Chandra Muzaffar.

For many centuries, the Muslims ruled Greece. Did the Greeks become Muslims? Did anyone even try to Islamise them? On the contrary, Christian Greeks held the highest positions in the Ottoman administration. The Bulgarians, Serbs, Romanians, Hungarians and other European nations lived at one time or another under Ottoman rule and clung to their Christian faith. Nobody compelled them to become Muslims and all of them remained devoutly Christian.

In 1099, the Crusaders conquered Jerusalem and massacred its Muslim and Jewish inhabitants indiscriminately, in the name of the gentle Jesus. At that time, 400 years into the occupation of Palestine by the Muslims, Christians were still the majority in the country. Throughout this long period, no effort was made to impose Islam on them. Only after the expulsion of the Crusaders from the country, did the majority of the inhabitants started to adopt the Arabic language and the Muslim faith - and they were the forefathers of most of today's Palestinians.

There is no evidence whatsoever of any attempt to impose Islam on the Jews. As is well known, under Muslim rule the Jews of Spain enjoyed a bloom the like of which the Jews did not enjoy anywhere else until almost our time. Poets like Yehuda Halevy wrote in Arabic, as did the great Maimonides. In Muslim Spain, Jews were ministers, poets, scientists. In Muslim Toledo, Christian, Jewish and Muslim scholars worked together and translated the ancient Greek philosophical and scientific texts. That was, indeed, the Golden Age. How would this have been possible, had the Prophet (peace be upon him) decreed the "spreading of the faith by the sword"?

Muslims ruled Spain for about 800 years. The Muslims in Spain never used the sword to force the people to convert. Later the Christian Crusaders came to Spain and wiped out the Muslims. There was not a single Muslim in Spain who could openly give the adhan, that is the call for prayers.

When the Catholics re-conquered Spain from the Muslims, they instituted a reign of religious terror. The Jews and the Muslims were presented with a cruel choice: to become Christians, to be massacred or to leave. And where did the thousands of Jews, who refused to abandon their faith, escape? Almost all of them were received with open arms in the Muslim countries. The Sephardi ("Spanish") Jews settled all over the Muslim world, from Morocco in the west to Iraq in the east, from Bulgaria (then part of the Ottoman Empire) in the north to Sudan in the south. Nowhere were they persecuted. They knew nothing like the tortures of the Inquisition, the flames of the auto-da-fe, the pogroms, the terrible mass-expulsions that took place in almost all Christian countries, up to the Holocaust.

Why? Because Islam expressly prohibited any persecution of the "people of the book". In Islamic society, a special place was reserved for Jews and Christians. They did not enjoy completely equal rights, but almost. They had to pay a special tax, but were exempted from military service - a trade-off that was quite welcomed by many Jews. It has been said that some Muslim rulers frowned upon any attempt to convert Jews to Islam even by gentle persuasion - because it entailed the loss of taxes.

Every honest Jew who knows the history of his people cannot but feel a deep sense of gratitude to Islam, which has protected the Jews for fifty generations, while the Christian world persecuted the Jews and tried many times "by the sword" to get them to abandon their faith.

The story about "spreading the faith by the sword" is an evil legend, one of the myths that grew up in Europe during the great wars against the Muslims - the reconquista of Spain by the Christians, the Crusades and the repulsion of the Turks, who almost conquered Vienna. I suspect that the German Pope, too, honestly believes in these fables. That means that the leader of the Catholic world, who is a Christian theologian in his own right, did not make the effort to study the history of other religions.

In the case of Islam, trade also played an important role in the spread of the faith especially between the 8th and 15th centuries. Traders assumed the mantle of missionaries. Some historians have observed that the honesty and integrity of these traders attracted a lot of people to their religion. In Southeast Asia, as in East and West Africa, trade was perhaps the most effective channel for the propagation of the religion.

Perhaps more than any of these influences, it is the socio-political and socio-economic environment that prevailed in various parts of the world in the centuries immediately after the advent of Islam that explains its rapid and dramatic growth. In settings dominated by hierarchical and often oppressive structures, the egalitarian justice offered by Islam came as a breath of fresh air. As the famous H.G. Wells put it, "Islam prevailed because it was the best social and political order the times could offer. It prevailed because everywhere it found politically apathetic peoples, robbed, oppressed, bullied, uneducated and unorganized and it found selfish and unsound governments out of touch with any people at all. It was the broadest, freshest and cleanest political idea that had yet come into actual activity in the world and it offered better terms than any other to the masses of mankind."

It was partly because of what it offered humankind, that even when Muslims were conquered, their conquerors eventually adopted the religion of the conquered. Thus, the descendants of Hulagu, the Mongol conqueror of Baghdad in the 13th century, chose to embrace Islam. In this regard, it is significant that Islam today is spreading most rapidly in societies where Muslims are in a minority, in North America and Europe—and not in Muslim majority countries where they exercise power.

Muslims were the lords of Arabia for 1400 years. For a few years the British ruled, and for a few years the French ruled. Overall, the Muslims ruled Arabia for 1400 years. Yet today, there are 14 million Arabs who are Coptic Christians i.e. Christians since generations. If the Muslims had used the sword there would not have been a single Arab who would have remained a Christian.

The Muslims ruled India for about a thousand years. If they wanted, they had the power of converting each and every non-Muslim of India to Islam. Today more than 80% of the population of India are non-Muslims. All these non-Muslim Indians are bearing witness today that Islam was not spread by the sword.

Indonesia is a country that has the maximum number of Muslims in the world. The majority of people in Malaysia are Muslims. May one ask, “Which Muslim army went to Indonesia and Malaysia?”

Similarly, Islam has spread rapidly on the East Coast of Africa. One may again ask, if Islam was spread by the sword, “Which Muslim army went to the East Coast of Africa?”

Why has the lie about the sword and violence persisted for so long? The elites in the West who for the last few centuries have exercised overwhelming influence on the thinking of the rest of humankind have succeeded in transferring their terrible guilt about perpetrating unspeakable violence upon people everywhere through perpetual wars, conquests and persecutions on to their adversaries. Thus, their enemies have become the epitome and the embodiment of their own violence. Islam and Muslims--- the perennial nemesis of the West--- have borne the brunt of this transference of guilt.

There is no better example of this than the crusades blessed by the popes. When the crusaders conquered Jerusalem in 1099, they massacred 30,000 Muslims and Jews. Contrast this with the compassion and magnanimity of the illustrious Salahuddin when he recaptured Jerusalem in 1187. He not only protected the Christian community---along with the Jews--- but also their places of worship.

And yet in medieval Christian literature it was the Muslim who was portrayed as a bloodthirsty warrior eager to embark upon 'holy wars'. The truth is the term 'holy war' does not even belong to Islam. As the Austrian Catholic philosopher, Hans Koechler points out, “Literally, "holy war" is the translation of the Latin term bellum sanctum which was used to describe a " crusade " against the "Saracens" in the Middle Ages; thus, this notion was part of the doctrine of the Roman-Catholic Church over many centuries."

The crusades are but one gory entry in the long and sordid catalogue of violent wars and conquests associated with elites in the West. There was the merciless slaughter of perhaps 30 million indigenous peoples of the Americas and Australasia; there was Western colonialism which claimed at least 40 million lives; there was the slave trade which robbed 25 million souls of their freedom; and there was the cruel violence of Apartheid in South Africa which stripped generations of human beings of their basic dignity. It is sad that in each and every one of these colossal catastrophes the Church had some role or the other. At the same time, however, there were some notable Christian figures who spoke out against the monumental crimes committed in their name.

The best reply to the misconception that Islam was spread by the sword is given by the noted historian De Lacy O’Leary in the book “Islam at the cross road” (Page 8): “History makes it clear however, that the legend of fanatical Muslims sweeping through the world and forcing Islam at the point of the sword upon conquered races is one of the most fantastically absurd myth that historians have ever repeated.”

With which sword was Islam spread? Even if Muslims had it they could not use it to spread Islam because the Qur’an says in the following verse: “Let there be no compulsion in religion: Truth stands out clear from error” [Al-Qur’an 2:256]

It is the sword of intellect. The sword that conquers the hearts and minds of people. The Qur’an says in Surah Nahl, “Invite (all) to the way of thy Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching; and argue with them in ways that are best and most gracious.” [Al-Qur’an 16:125]

An article in Reader’s Digest ‘Almanac’, year book 1986, gave the statistics of the increase of percentage of the major religions of the world in half a century from 1934 to 1984. This article also appeared in ‘The Plain Truth’ magazine. At the top was Islam, which increased by 235%, and Christianity had increased only by 47%. May one ask, which war took place in this century which converted millions of people to Islam?

Today the fastest growing religion in America is Islam. The fastest growing religion in Europe in Islam. Which sword is forcing people in the West to accept Islam in such large numbers?

Dr. Joseph Adam Pearson rightly says, “People who worry that nuclear weaponry will one day fall in the hands of the Arabs, fail to realise that the Islamic bomb has been dropped already, it fell the day MUHAMMAD (peace be upon him) was born”.

Plan of Action for Muslims

If Muslims can change their direction (i.e. the way they think and act) a big change can take place in a few decades. In this article, I just want to relay some of the points the scholars of Islam have been making for some time, but unfortunately the majority of Muslims have no intention of acting upon them.

One thing which amazes me is the careless attitude of the Muslims. You may be surprised to know that a few years ago the number of full time Christian missionaries was sixty thousand. These missionaries have devoted their whole lives in spreading Christianity all over the world. There are a lot more working part time as well.

The claim of the missionaries in the sub-continent is that they have converted more Muslims to Christianity after the independence in 1947 of Pakistan and Bangladesh, than the whole time British ruled over India. They also claim that they are now especially targeting Kashmir, and they have already converted ten thousand Muslims to Christians.

Furthermore, the Christians have translated Bible into over two thousand languages. They believe that they have only reached 80% of the world population with this effort. On the contrary, Quran has been translated in less than two hundred languages (you can imagine how much of the world population we have reached with this).

Islam is supposed to be a missionary religion, as Prophet (peace be upon him) said in a narration which, more or less, means that even if we know one verse of the Quran we must convey it to others. But the situation is opposite: we have probably less than five hundred full time missionaries who are working on an international level to spread Islam. Most of the Muslims have not even read the translation of the Quran, let alone the tafseer (exegesis). Muslims live a life which is carefree when it comes to the matters of religion. Whatever of the religion suits them, they implement it in their lives, but the rest of it (perhaps 90%) is discarded by them.

Why is all this happening? The scholars tell us that this did not happen overnight. For the last three hundred years, more or less, Muslims have gradually left Quran and the teachings of Prophet (peace be upon him), and this in turn has led to the dismal situation we are facing today. Muslims have no say in the world issues. The interest based economic system has engulfed the world. If someone wants to attack a Muslim nation, Muslims cannot do much about it.

How can we undo the damage which has been done in the last three hundred years? Well my friends there is no quick fix. Neither suicide bombings nor cursing the Jews and Christians is going to solve the issues. It will require years of planning and relentless hard work.

One of the things which we can do is that those families among us who are well off should at least make one of their children an Islamic scholar. The current situation is that majority of Muslims who study Islam are from poor families, and when they become learned they have no means to support themselves. That is why many of them are afraid to tell the truth. If a person is from a prosperous family, he will speak what is right and will not be worried that the committee of the mosque will fire him.

Moreover, the scholars we need must be the cream of the Muslims and not the other way around. The reality is that majority of those who study religion are not very bright. Most of the intelligent youth have chosen different fields for themselves: business, law, IT, Science, Medicine etc. The end result is that many who cannot even pass high school are send to study Islam. If the raw material has defects, the end product will have deficiencies. The result is in front of us to see. If we start sending the finest of Muslims to learn Islam then Abu Hanifa, Shaafi, Malik, Razi and Ghazali (may Allah have mercy on them all) will be born again. When the elite will study Islam they will understand the logics and wisdom of the religion, and they will guide the whole nation towards the right path. Muslims can regain their lost ground within a hundred years if the leaders of Islam are the best amongst us.

Another thing which needs to be done is that we need to make institutions, especially the religious ones, of international standards. Currently twenty students in a madrassah sleep in one room. So how can you expect a scholar to be born in these circumstances. We need the best of facilities in these institutions: modern libraries, computers and the latest research equipment available to each and every student.

All this will have to be achieved by the private sector. Do not for a second think that our governments will help us. It is the general public who must work on these projects.

The problem among the Muslim societies is that billions of dollars every year are spend on marriage ceremonies, funerals and other unnecessary functions. Muslims will have to adopt a simpler lifestyle, and the savings achieved (in billions) will need to be spent on the projects like schools, universities etc.

To produce scholars who, at an international level, can answer the objections raised by the critics and spread Islam among the masses, we need to make changes in our lives and spend our wealth in the path of Allah.

If we implement the above mentioned strategies, we will start to see a big change among the Islamic community. If we do not act (and repeat the mistakes of the past three hundred years) the Muslims as a whole will continue to live a life of misery.