O muslims know that we are of the blessed Ummah of the habib al Mustafa (Sallahu’ali’hi’wa’sa’lam), the Ummah who will be a witness for the ambiah’s against their own nations when accusations are brought against ruh’ullah Syyidina Isa (alihisalam) the source for his relief of the trouble times will be the Ummah of the beloved. O Muslims know that everyone in this Ummah is blessed with iman and with blessing which other nations have not been given; our iman will be the source of our felicity in the eternal life. On the day when children’s hair will turn grey the arms, faces of the mu’mineen will be glowing with light, due to doing whudu, making others around them dumbfounded, so understand o muslims to be in this blessed Ummah is of no insignificant issue, every second thank the almighty for giving us the opportunity to worship and know him, the correct way as he Azzawajal wants us to know, by not associating partners with him either directly or indirectly. Thank him for the infinite blessings he gives us whether we obey him or not, for the eyes we use to see, for the ears we use to listen, for the mouths we use to eat, for the chance to repent to him and know him, to turn to him as he said to the nearest words “I was a hidden jewel and wanted to be known so I created creation”.
O believers the men and the women, know that for every hardships there is ease. In the words of the almighty; Inna’ma’al yus’riyus’ra with every hardship there is ease.
The issue of music in nasheeds has been under a matter of concern within the scholars of the Ummah for sometime not to mention the scholars of the current age. Increasingly as time sheds mans number of days in this deceptive phase of the test, the Muslim Ummah is undergoing a time where every issue pertaining to the dheen whether they are insignificant to you or I is put to question. Let us now look at, where our roots stand on this controversial issue, namely the Qu’raan and the Sunnah.
Allaah Azzawajal stresses to us
“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, the Verses of the Qur'an) by way of mockery. For such there will be a humiliating torment (in the Hell-Fire)”.
Luqman 31:6
And of the hadith and Sunnah
Hadith - Bukhari 7:494
Narrated Abu 'Amir or Abu Malik Al-Ash'ari that he heard the Prophet 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 (from them), there will be some 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 Allah will transform the rest of them into monkeys and pigs and they will remain so till the Day of Resurrection."
Even though there are numerous verses and Ahadiths, prohibiting the use of music or musical instruments the above two are just an example to keep our mind focused as to where the Qu’raan and the Sunnah stand. However, a new generation of "Nasheed" artists and groups are increasingly using a wide variety of musical instruments in their art. Know o muslims that every act carried out on the face of the world previous nations where of no exception, the acts of the homosexuals is nothing new, the acts of open fornications is nothing new, the cursed previous nations are of the examples. We have come to know from the Qu’raan and the Sunnah, the nation of Lut (alihisalam) the nation of hud (alihisalam) for examples. every whisper which the cursed and outcast devil whispers into the ears of the believers and of mankind in general are the very tricks which are also known to the wise men amongst our Ummah and which were also used for the previous generations, the same sugar coated whispers whispered in to the ears of the masses are of the ones he whispered into the ear of Adam (alihisalam) the father of mankind and then later down the generations to the offspring’s of Adam (alihisalam), one such example which he uses greatly to lead astray mankind is the notion that Allah Azzawajal does not love those who are passing through difficult times, those who at the stressful times don’t seem to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
I have come across many believers who have and are of likeminded. In the word of the almighty which he inspired to the beloved is to the nearest words do you think you can say we believe and not be tested, Nay! Certainly you will be tested as those before you were tested (al Qu’raan).
In a hadith the beloved is said to have said that the believer is tested for three reasons
The first is either it (the tribulation) is a means of his expiation of his/her sins, the second being that to elevate his/her status in the sight of the greatest, to highlight this point further when the beloved went to Ta’aif he (Sallahu’ali’hi’wa’sa’lam) was turned down and to make the situation worse for the beloved he was chased out by children throwing stones for two or three miles the beloved ( may Allah Azzawajal bless him with his infinite blessings and give him the promised station as he has promised!) ran, the stones where thrown to such a degree his blessed body was full with flowing blood his blessed feet was covered in blood due to the excessive bleeding, imagine how the beloved felt, this happened at a time when his closest source of comfort from the dunya terms, his beloved uncle and wife kadhija (radiallahu’anha) passed away, the most disliked person by the disbelievers in his home town Makkah, in despair he turned to Ta’aif but what was their reply we have just seen. One of the events which happened before the throwing of the stones was, he (Sallahu’ali’hi’wa’sa’lam), went to meet the leaders of the town, to do dawah. The three leaders in answer to his (Sallahu’ali’hi’wa’sa’lam) wishes, said words like “if you had any good the first people to benefit from you would have been the people from your own town” the other said “if you are a real prophet then who am I to talk to you and if you are not then you are a lair and I have no time to speak to you”.
Imagine! O muslims what he the greatest and the most closest to Allah Azzawajal must have been going through, BUT understand what was to come after that experience the Is’ra’wal’miraj ( the night ascension), more so immediate help and guidance was given to him when he made the dua under the tree, angels of wrath were sent to him but as he (Sallahu’ali’hi’wa’sa’lam) is a mercy to all the worlds replied “no, maybe later Ta’aif will be from the muslims” to the nearest words, and we see the fruits of it today.
So, understand and remember o Muslims with every hardship/s there will be ease, if not in this world then in the real life of ours in arkhirah InshaAllaah.
Never! Lose hope in the mercy and guidance of Allah Azzawajal as to do so is kufr, simply because you are limiting the help and mercy of Allah Azzawajal.
Returning back to the topic of concern, the use of music of musical instruments in nasheeds is nothing new. The previous nations were again victims of the whispers of the Satan.
We shall use the example of the Christians, initially their version of so called ‘nasheeds’ were sung in churches in the 17th and the 18th centuries and in some, it is still so. Every Sunday a group will stand up and sing ‘praises of the lord’, then later down the generations this slowly began to move on the world stage, when the invention of the radio was introduced to the societies these Sunday services were broadcasted over the radio stations, then further down, as time passed some Christians started singing ‘praises of the lord’ in different festivals and ceremonies like that of weddings for extra blessings. Then the introduction of CD’s ‘Christian praises of the lord’ started to be recorded in the form of albums, nearer to the current times issues to do with the Christian communities began to be discussed in these ‘praises of the lord’ the rights, women should have in societies for instance because, do remember the Christian brothers did not have this idea of women’s rights until the late 18th centuries or in some societies up until the early 19th century. Then with the introduction of the TV these ‘praises of the lord’ were turned into music (yes musical instruments began to be used) videos that were broadcasted on televisions sets in houses all over the country, soon as with most things the Satan’s plan came to fruition, to songs as we see it of today, songs which have no link to any religions so to speak, but frankly to do with drugs, alcohol etc…Even though there are a few strong Christians pop groups in our times it is also on the decrease.
Now let us turn to the muslims, we all know how the issue of nasheeds came about the from the famous Hassan bin ta’abit used to sing praises of the beloved to him and he (Sallahu’ali’hi’wa’sa’lam) was in favour of it.
The clear Saheeh texts indicate in a number of ways that it is permissible to recite poetry and listen to it. It was narrated in Saheeh reports that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) and his noble Companions (may Allaah be pleased with them) listened to verse, recited it (as Nasheed) and asked others to recite it, both when they were travelling and when they stayed at home, in their gatherings and whilst they were working, individually, as in the case of Hassan ibn Ta’abit, ‘Aamir ibn al-Akwa’ and Anjashah (may Allaah be pleased with them), and in unison, as in the hadith of Anas (may Allaah be pleased with him) which describes the digging of the ditch (al-khandaq). Anas said:
When the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) saw how exhausted and hungry we were, he said (in verse):
“O Allaah, there is no life except the life of the Hereafter, so forgive the Ansaar and the Muhaajireen.”
And they said in response:
“We are the ones who have pledged allegiance to Muhammad, to make jihad for as long as we live.”
(Narrated by al-Bukhari, 3/1043).
Now focusing on the time after the beloved, nasheeds were sung at normal day to day activities of life now and then but more so specials times like that of the milad, eid etc… only the voice was used, bringing the community together.
Now before nasheeds were on the world stage it was initially and strictly stuck to the voice being used and no other means. Before we carry on remember I am not saying nasheeds are haraam, they are allowed, and I would encourage you to listen to them, the real nasheeds in its real form, that is to say the nasheeds which are sung ONLY by the voice! BUT the issue in question here is that of musical nasheeds.
Like the mentioned nation we see these are the same steps the Christians went through, we see now nasheeds which have music being used, issues which do not fall in the definition of Nasheed, are being discussed about in these so called nasheeds. In the words of a prominent scholar “if a song is talking about a woman and how she looks etc, but the word Muslim is included in the song so, that it becomes ‘my muslim woman’ from ‘my woman’ does that now become a Nasheed? Remember nasheeds are either, hamd and praise of Allah Azzawajal and his beloved (Sallahu’ali’hi’wa’sa’lam) not issues concerning the communities. We also see the introduction of Nasheed videos now like the Christians, who knows what stage nasheeds will get to before we realises the steps Satan is taking the Ummah though. As the habib said in one hadith "...there will be people from my Ummah who will copy what ever the non – muslims do near the end of times, even if a non - muslim went to down a lizards hole someone from my Ummah will do the same"... - May Allah (subhan’Allaah’wa’talla) protect us from all this.
Now the vital questions many new generation Muslims tend to ask “well we live in a time when this is the only way to bring back those Muslims who are addicted to music as it has taken captive our brothers, and sisters alike. one answer to this would be, for all our troubles, like I mentioned earlier no situations we are going through that the previous generations whether they were muslims or not have gone through, for this reason for effective dawah methods and how to bring people out of the darkness to light we must turn to out roots once more, music is such an element in human lives that no nation that existed were to an exempt from music, in fact music was a major distraction to people becoming muslim at the time of the beloved. But what did he (Sallahu’ali’hi’wa’sa’lam) do? Did he with his companions think that “wait, since most people are heavily indulged in music we must use this as a means of conveying the dheen” certainly not!
NOW if the most wise and the greatest of creation did not take this route then why o Muslims, why should we. In all our matters we turn to the blessed Mustafa (Sallahu’ali’hi’wa’sa’lam) then why not turn to him in this situation, brothers and sisters who claim to have a point in using music in these times need to take a step back and realise where they are going like that of Yusuf Islam’s new album ‘Another cup Yusuf’ and Dawud warnsby ali’s album ‘A different sound’ two albums which are almost if not the same as the songs of a non – muslim. Did music not exist at the time of the beloved? The answer is clear.
When the Muslims from Yemen went on business trips to places like to Indonesia and Malaysia did they use music? moreover musical instruments to convey the message? No! They implemented the Shariah and the Sunnah by doing Tazkiyah on themselves; only by action did the people see the true light.
May Allaah (subhan’Allaah’wa’talla) forgive the Muslim Ummah and bring them back to the true path Ameen.
Sheikh Muhammad Nazim
Sunday, Dhu’l-Hijjah 17, 1427
Musical Nasheeds, a tool of the devil? you decide
interesting read
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