Is Music Prohibited in Islam??

This is a very important issue (at least for me, as I am very fond of Pakistani pop and latest numbers on the charts). I did a bit research related to this topic and found a very comprehensive answer to my question. This may interest all my friends too:

“Music is an issue that has been hotly debated by scholars of the past and the present. While many of them have been generally inclined to condemn all forms of music, with the singular exception of ad-duff (tambourine) in weddings, quite a few of them have taken a more positive approach of considering only music containing sensual, pagan, or unethical themes or subliminal messages as being categorically forbidden.

The latter view seems to be more consistent with the general nature of Islam, which is undoubtedly a complete way of life that caters to all of the genuine human instincts and needs within permissible limits. Thus, to say that all music is forbidden in Islam does not seem to agree with the balanced approach of Islam to issues of human life and experience.

Traditions often cited by the first group scholars to justify condemnation of all musical instruments and music, according to some scholars, are considered as either spurious, or phrased in such way solely because of their associations with drinking, dancing, and sensuality.

While everyone agrees that all forms of music that contain pagan, sensual themes, or subliminal messages are clearly forbidden, the latter group of scholars considers all forms of music free of such themes and messages as permissible.

As a matter of fact, we know from the authentic traditions that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, not only allowed music in the weddings but also listened to girls singing: While listening to girls singing on such an occasion, he interrupted them only once when they sang the following verse, “In our midst is a prophet who knows what will happen tomorrow”; whence, the Prophet, peace be upon him, told them, “Cut this sentence out, and continue singing what you have been singing earlier.” There is nothing in the sources to indicate that the above permission is limited to the occasion of wedding, as some people tend to think.

In light of these, according to the last mentioned group of scholars, music that is deemed to be free of un-Islamic and unethical themes and messages, the same is true of musical instruments so long as they are not used for the above, have been considered as permissible.

But we have to stress that Islam clearly prohibits mixed dancing of males and females.”

Excerpted, with slight modifications, from: www.islam.ca

Strange Creature

While I am going through an interesting wizardry book these days, I just noticed that novels and stories based on supernatural conceptions are very eminent among the masses all over the world. If we look to this situation from behind a scientific and technologic glass then we all will agree to the fact that vampires and wizard world (having an organized education system, a ministry of its own with proper rules and regulations and stuff like that) don’t actually exist but still these subjects are very well-known now a days. It’s strange that we love to read what that doesn’t exist or is something which can’t be a part of practical experience by a human, I think that’s why human is known to be a strange creature!

SORCERER's STONE

Well, it’s the first time when I am reading any of Harry Potter’s books and after finishing the first of them, now I truly understand why everyone on Earth is crazy about Mr.Potter. Each and every line of the book gripped me more and more and I could not wait to read the second of the series now. All the adventure and the entire story is so soundly handled and there seems to be no flaw in the writing style, at least for me it’s a perfect entertaining book. After reading books like Sorcerer’s Stone and Twilight, I wonder, do wizards and vampires really exist? … God knows the answer better.

Img Source: http://images.google.com.pk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.impawards.com/2001/posters/harry_potter_and_the_sorcerers_stone_ver4.jpg

The ‘LIVING’ Nation

Forwarding text messages between your friends and family is very common these days, be it teenagers or elderly people, everyone seems to be indulged in this activity. A few days back I received a text message from one of my friends about Pakistan, the message stated some very sentimental statements that can easily provoke the patriotic feelings of any emotional individual and of course the last line of the message read ‘Please forward this message as much as you can and if you receive this message back then it proves that we are a strong nation and the spirit of nationhood still lies in us’. I did not noticed that sms much and forgot it after deleting it from the inbox but after a few days I again got that message and suddenly I thought that though I havn’t forwarded this message to anyone but still I have received it back, does this mean that we are a very very strong nation and no one can destroy the bonds of nationhood that are nurturing in our souls. But then, on the same day when I had that ultra patriotic sms in my inbox I also heard about threats of terrorist attacks to schools, bomb blasts in International Islamic University and bombs successfully disposed off somewhere in Peshawar, hearing all this is really sad and I think this is high time when all the citizens of Pakistan should get united to stand against these suicide attacks and prove pragmatically that we are a LIVING nation.

UNDER RIDER AT PAF PUBLIC PARK KARACHI

It was a local news channel where I watched the news of the instalment of a huge under rider (this under rider is a swing that moves heavily to and fro and people sitting inside the swing feel like they are physically going through the journey of the scene which is being played in front of them at a large T.V screen) at some PAF Park in Karachi, the news stated that the instalment cost of this swing was approximately 5 crore rupees and the cost of one cd played in that under rider is about 12000 pounds. This is really pleasant to hear that government is putting efforts to provide quality amusement to the locals but at the same time I was wondering that a country where people are dying of starvation, where people are selling their children just because they can’t afford food for their kids, a country where numerous people passed away while striving to get ‘ration’ for their children and family, a country where hundreds and thousands of people do not even have access to the basic necessities of life, in such a country spending 5 precious crores on mere entertainment and diversion counts under ‘israaf’. I appreciate the step taken by the government but I guess government should first spend energy and money to make plans for providing people with the basic necessities of life because if our stomach is full then only we can think of some activity or leisure and even gold feels like dust if the stomach is empty … Higher authorities please first look into matters like electricity and power outages, water supplies, low-priced but quality education etc etc and when these problems are under control then we can definitely focus on building Disney land in Pakistan too.

WE ARE RUDE!

A few days ago I was reading an article in a newspaper about the citizens of Pakistan and the focus of that article was ‘We are a RUDE nation’ , while reading that article I realized that this fact is so true, if we notice the masses around ourselves we will come to know that each and every category of our society is engaged in this impoliteness, our beggars are rude, salesmen in the markets are rude, our servants (the massis in our houses) are rude, the sabziwals and fruitwalas roaming around in streets are rude, bosses in the offices are rude, employees are rude to their colleagues, the nurses and doctors in the hospitals are rude to the patients, we are rude to the waiters serving us in restaurants, we hardly say thank you to the waiters when they serve us in restaurants and saying ‘sorry’ to someone is synonymous to climbing up mount Everest for us, even if it is our own fault and so hard it is for seniors to praise and say a few words of appreciation to their juniors at workplaces. The ‘best’ examples of rude behaviour can be seen on the roads where people are simply on the edge of killing each other for very minor mistakes while driving. I went to a restaurant with my family during this eid and there a very interesting scene happened, a man was sitting with three women (I guess one was his wife and the rest were his sisters) when the waiter served him with his order, he suddenly started shouting , the reason was that the food was not sizzling, the manager immediately came in and his order was replaced straight away but the boorish attitude of that person was so gloomy for me because he looked a decent man by his appearance and the way he was talking with his fellows was also quite upright but the moment he started shouting and ranting over the waiter he seemed none but a mad man. Its just one example, every day around us we can count on hundred of examples of our rude and ill-mannered behaviour. If we compare our attitude with that of some other country people, we can a lot and obvious difference, I am not saying this because I am also fond of degrading our own country and am addicted to praise other countries (and especially countries like U.S and U.K) but I am saying this because I have experience the urbane behaviour of people in other countries. I don’t know what’s the reason behind this attitude, may be the instability of our economy or the insecurities of life or the worst water, electricity and health, hygiene problems have made us treat others in such a way, whatever be the reason but my personal opinion is that being impolite to anyone is not justified in any situation, society or religion.

CHANGES ARE NEVER WELCOME

Changes are never welcome. This particular sentence may come across many of us but nobody notices it watchfully because there seems to be nothing worth noticing in this one sentence but this small sentence suddenly becomes important when we actually go through a ‘change’ in our life. I understood the importance of this sentence when I had to switch my job from one private limited company to the other one.
I had serious issues with the management of the company where I was employed previously and it was wholly solely my decision to leave the place and seek my career somewhere else, I remember very clearly those job hunt days, looking for a position at some renown place, appearing in employment tests, being interviewed every other day and finally when I got successful in seeking a position in a high profile private limited company, it became really difficult for me to adopt the situation. I took a break of about 15 days when I switched from the former organization to the new one and during those holidays I was very excited about new workplace, new job responsibilities and new colleagues.
But, the time when I actually joined the new company became really very hard for me and I truly went into serious depression, all the time I used to hate my previous managers for making the circumstances so very difficult for me and forcing me to leave the job. I had switched into a better career position, a better environment and a better salary package but still I was in a very infuriating situation and it took me weeks to get over with the situation and finally I was able to cope up with the new environment and new tracks of my life. It was all because of my will power that I got beyond those difficult times of the ‘change’ process and thank Almighty Allah for giving me the strength and acquaintance to comprehend the condition.
The above mentioned situation is though not something very huge but has taught me a very essential lesson which is ‘changes are never welcome’.

SECTORS OF OUR RELIGION

I have never been a very profound Muslim and have never practiced Islam very strictly, be it offering prayers five times a day or be it about wearing a hijab. But I have set certain lines and have promised myself that I would never ever move about those specific lines, one thing which is very prominent in those lines is to orate bravely if someone abuses my religion verbally or through his/her actions.

One thing that I have experienced these days is that various sectors of Islam are widespread around us, in old days we barely see a Shiya or Ismaili person in our vicinity, at least I had no friends in either my school or college following a different Fiqqah of Islam but now I have many of my friends who belong to different sectors of Islam and the point which is worth mentioning over here is that people are so perfectly bound to their specific Imams and sectors that they can even badmouth about our beloved Prophet and our respectful holy book Quran (Na-auzubillah), and one more thing which I have noticed and have practically gone through is that people belonging to different sectors are very perfectly geared up with their particular teachings of Islam and can easily make you shut your mouth when it comes to arguing with them on basic principles of Islam.

Something that bothers me more and is really alarming for all of us is that we are afraid of defending or speaking loudly for our religion, there can be many reasons for this may be we want to show that we, the Muslims are calm and peaceful people and do not belong to any of the terrorist camps (this is quiet extreme clarification I guess) or we don’t want to lamp sparks and create a feeling of aggression among our friends and associates, whatever be the reason I think that at least we should not be afraid of speaking for our religion and if we are afraid of being a Muslim then we should not be a Muslim.

Anyways, people have their own mind set and I can’t judge that who should remain a Muslim and who should not but one thing which is in my mind is that we should strongly focus on understanding the meanings of Quran i-e Tafseer so that at least those of us who have the courage to speak for their religion can defend it properly and are able to do away with the wrong understandings of others about Islam. Mothers should understand their responsibility and should teach the basic lessons concerning to the religion to their children from childhood as kids pick up readily and remember the lessons learnt in early childhood for all their lives.