Miscellaneous Articles

Adopted from the Book : "Music and its Effects" by : "A. H. Sheriff"

Some Traditions on Music

After Ayats of the Qur'an, I mention here some of the traditions of the Holy Prophet of Islam (s.a.w.) and Imams (a.s.) about musical sound, musical instruments, and musical parties.

1. The Holy Prophet (s.a.w.) said: "When my Ummat (followers) will acquire fifteen habits they will be visited by disasters:

1) When the booty will be treated as personal property;
2) and trust will become like a booty of war;
3) and charity will be (disliked) like a loss;
4&5) and man will obey his wife and disobey his mother;
6&7) and will be generous to his friend and tyrant to his father;
8) and voices will be high in the mosques;
9) and a man will be respected as a safeguard against his evil;
10) and the leader of the people will be the worst of them;
11) and men will wear silk;
12) and people will keep singing and dancing girls;
13) and will keep musical instruments;
14) and will drink intoxicants;
15) and fornication will increase;

at that time expect red storms or depression of land-mass or changing your faces like the image of animals and the victory of your enemy upon you; and then you will not be helped (by Allah)."

2. The Holy Prophet of Islam describing the signs of the Day of Judgment said: "Verily amongst the signs of the Hour is that people will neglect prayers (will not pray in the preferred time)! and will follow their desires, and will incline towards their own preferences ... In those days, there will be people who will learn the Qur'an for other than Allah (i.e.; for earning worldly benefits), and will treat the Qur'an as musical instrument (as is happening today in Islamic countries where Qur'an is recited on the radios just to entertain the listeners); and there will be people who will study religion for other than Allah (for earning prestige or wealth as is happening today when the main purpose of study of religion is to be come a good orator, so that higher and higher fees may be demanded from the audience), and number of illegitimate children will increase, and people will sing the Qur'an, ... and will adore musical instruments, and will dislike enjoining the good and forbidding the evil, ... These are the people who will be called unclean and dirty in the kingdom of heaven."

3. Imam Jaffer Sadique (a.s.) said: "Music is the nest of hypocrisy."

4. Also he said: "Music is the worst of the sounds."

5. Imam Jafer Sadique (a.s.) said: The place where music is performed, Allah does not look at its participants (with mercy).

6. Also the Imam (a.s.) said: "Listening to music and vain (sounds) grows hypocrisy as the water grows the plants.

7. Hassan (a companion of Imam Jafer Sadique a.s.) said: There was a man in my neighbourhood who had singing girls; and he always remained immersed in music and dance. When I went to W.C., I used to stay a bit longer (to listen to those sounds). When I want to Imam Jafer Sadique (a.s.), he told me: O Hasan, Verily the ear, and the eye and the heart, all of them will he asked. The ear and what it listened to, the eye and what it looked at and the heart and what it intended."

Hasan says: When I heard that Ayat of the Qur'an, it was as though I had never heard it before. Then I repented (from my sin of listening to music) and made a convent with Allah not to do it again.

The Imam (a.s.) said: "Stand up have bath and pray to Allah as much as you wish. How bad would have been your position if you had died with this habit. Repent before Allah and ask His forgiveness for every evil because Allah does not dislike but evil, leaves evil for evil people; because for every thing are its people.

In a list of major sins which he sent to Caliph Mamun Rashid, Imam Ali Ar-Ridha (a.s.) mentioned the participation in the musical gatherings.