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Originally Posted by Ansar Al-'Adl I used the phrase "lead away from religion" as in they deviate one from the path of God into sin, and lessen their faith, as well as opening gates to many other evils. If the types of music you listed do not leads people to sin and do not have immoral content in them, from an Islamic perspective, then they're are not considered the same as the other types of music. Some scholars would say they are permissable, others discouraged, yet still others would maintain that they are forbidden. But you see, its all dependent on the music, some forms are worse than others. |
So it's not any quality in the music itself that causes it to be forbidden, it's just a question of how it can influence people?
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new music is more obviously haraam than older music. Older forms of music are certainly not as bad.
I think from the above discussion it should be clear that many forms of music would not be considered worse. There are levels of music, some worse than others.
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These statements seem to be contradictory. The first statement, again, is an enormous generalisation.
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I'm not aware of any specific fatawa (religious rulings) that deal with such specific forms of music.
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The point I was trying to get to is about why newer forms of music are seen as necessarily worse than older forms. (If that is indeed what you believe, it's not been perfectly clear). So I contrasted a newer form with an older form in each case, to show that there is no logic to this position. For instance, heavy metal (which I believe would be seen as contrary to Islam) came before ambient music (which I think would be seen as less bad by many Muslims). There is no reason to assume that the newness of a particular form will guarantee that it is worse (from a Muslim point of view) than whatever came before it.
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Maybe, but not always. I was referring to any possible methods other than music actually.
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OK, fair enough. There are certainly many ways of doing this sort of thing. However, the Live Aid and Live 8 projects are undeniably a great contribution in the attempt to relieve world poverty.
I'm having difficulty with these ideas, Ansar. It seems there are many views on the matter within Islam (e.g. some say "haraam is haraam", you say some forms are less bad than others.) To what extent to Muslims tend to agree on this matter?
What is it about a certain piece of music, in your view, that could potentially lead to the undesirable or sinful actions you refer to? The lyrics? The rhythm? Which instruments are used? If there are instruments at all? Is it the tempo that could lead people to lose control? Perhaps it is the emotional tone of the piece (e.g. it could be aggressive, peaceful, lively or sad)?
As you can see, I'm very unclear on what you're saying here. I'm trying to understand what it is, at the heart of
all secular music (whether Islamically it's seen as being very bad, or not so bad), that you see as so dangerous to your traditional values.
The ideas you're presenting are obviously very alien to me, but I must admit I'm absolutely intrigued to find out the reasons for them. Thank you for giving me such a good insight into your world-view.
Peace