Is music allowed in Islam?

There are different schools of thought. As you said, some muslims believe there is nothing wrong with it whilst others think it is totally forbidden. The reason for them believing different things is due to their different interpretations of hadith and some lines of the Quran. Majority of Muslims beleive it is forbidden though.

I’d say make your own mind up, seeing as thats what they seem to be doing. If you ask me, I say it is allowed. The islamic call to prayer sounds a lot like music to me, and I can recall plenty of other times when I have seen muslims buying music.

Yes. I’d say for most Muslims, it’s a big yes.

Majority of Muslims beleive it is forbidden though

I think the people of Indonesia, North Africa, Iran, Pakistan and the Arab world (AKA 90% of Muslims) will be surprised to learn they are listening to forbidden sounds.

@jaytkay Let me correct myself.
Majority of Muslims I know and in the UK believe it is forbidden. Whether they act upon those beliefs or not is another matter.

Listening to music, singing or playing musical instruments is considered haraam when you are talking about handasah al sawt, or “the art of sound.” Chants and other types of tawhid are considered a unity with God and are allowed.

This was a good question. Art is another thing about Islam that I find very interesting.

My best friend is a Muslim and he doesn’t listen to music because it spreads “unholy thought”.

Thats so sad. Music is one of the most wonderful things about life. Music can also be extremely spiritual so I dont understand why they’d be against things like that.

It really does depend. In Islam, much of the time the religious “rules” from the Quran are taken up by each society and modified and made into physical laws, called Sharya. So it really depends on where you are in the world and what society you are in as to whether the scholars there have interpreted the Quran as to mean music is unholy or not.

For your project I reckon something that would be really interesting to look at is Cat Steven’s journey to become Yusuf Islam, and how his views on music changed. He had a near death experience and decided there was a higher power and so he investigated and decided that Islam was the way to go. At first he stopped playing and I think rejected all of the music he’d already done as Cat Stevens. Then after a while of being Yusuf Islam his son convinced him to start singing again and that it wasn’t unholy.

The Quran does not mention anything against music, some muslims interpret from hadiths that it isn’t allowed. (Hadiths are narrations reported by muslim scholars and companions and thier validity depends mainly on thier agreement with the Quran)

Whether music is allowed or not in Islam is still considered a topic of debate by the muslims scholars, but I do know that in ancient arabia, music was in practice and had an influence on the Islamic civilization back then.

Islam is so big, it’s hard to generalise. The Sufis for example, definitely have their music; and I know Muslim friends who play instruments.

See also:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_music

Every Muslim country I’ve ever been to, lived in or know about… I’ve seen music being played, I’ve heard music from there and I collect it.
There is pop culture music, there is traditional music (ghazals), there is religious music (quawali), there is Sufi (mystic) music…
there are also religious F&€¥|ng fanatics who interperate everything which is not explictly allowed in Islam to be automatically against it.
I’ve lived in Saudi Arabia and danced (to music) all night with the Beduins under the stars… and I would not be one bit surprised if some crazy Wahabi fuck wouldn’t consider that a sin!
Just because you read something on the Internet it doesn’t make it true…
Majority of Muslims who see nothing wrong with music don’t go around putting up websites stating the obvious… It’s the idiots who are trying to prove otherwise squack the loudest!

@Bagardbilla, would you care to share some of the titles and/or lyrics of the Islamic pop culture music you have collected so @mcsnazzy can research the titles further for the project?

@mcsnazzy & @bkcunningham, I’ll try my best.
One of my favorite Ghazal singers is from Pakistan and his name is Mehdi Hassan. He’s very well respected in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Another Ghazal singer I greatly enjoy is Ghulam Ali, also of Pakistan. One of the more contemporary pop/traditional Oud players from (I believe) Iraq I enjoy is Rabih Abou-Khalil, also Salman Shukur. For Qwali (devotional music) I’d recommend Sabri Brothers and world renowned Nusret Fateh Ali Khan, (he’s worked in collaboration with the likes of Ry Cooter and Michael Brooks). There’s also a Sudanese / Egyptian musician I absolutely adore his name is Hamza Al-Din. For some Sufi Music from Turkey, say flute/reed music one of my all time favorites are these brothers Kudsi & Suleyman Erguner! Highly recommended!!!
For some Indonesian contemporary mystical stuff i really like Shaában Yahya especially his album called ‘Return to Jogja’. For some traditional and contemporary music from central Asia I really like Sevara Nazarkhan. These should give you a sample of music covering everything from Indonesia to Africa, you can find most of these guys on YouTube. Hope it helps, and best of luck to you.

thanks everyone!! :)

@Bagardbilla great answer! Very insightful and interesting to listen to your examples. Thank you so very much.

I live in a city with a high Muslim population and I hear a LOT of Muslim music, so I would say at least here, it’s a very resounding Yes. Visiting a particular part of the city during Eid, every car will have its windows open and the stereo blasting out Muslim music.

I think it’s just western music they dislike, probably because the lyrics are considered too immoral.

@downtide – Many fundamentalist Christians say the same thing about modern music as many fundamentalist Muslims. In their case, only Christian music is permitted.

So the problem isn’t with Muslims specifically, but anyone who’s fundamentalist in their religion…

Yes, it’s allowed, except in fundamentalist forms of Islam. Same applies to masturbation.

Music is NOT forbidden in Islam.
I second @Bagardbilla‘s answer.
This is another misconception of Islam.