Haram & halal.

THE lives of many Muslims are governed (mostly) by what they believe is allowed or forbidden in Islam. There is a wide array of such items: ranging from non-mehram men overhearing voices of women, to women wearing perfume, to the use of certain colours by men. The word forbidden (haram) is used in its most serious meaning: forbidden by God.

Of such things, which many consider haram, one is listening to or playing music. Some young men who have sung and played instruments have given up their musical careers for this reason. Some, such as Yousuf Islam (Cat Stevens) have returned to it and others have continued to avoid it. Many Muslims ban music in their homes and the more extreme ones have broken up musical instruments and cassettes and even destroyed shops that sell them.

The Holy Prophet (PBUH) is believed to have said: 'God is beautiful and loves beauty' (Al-Mujam Al Ausat, 6,902). When the wires or keys of musical instruments are played, sounds of magical beauty are relayed to the human ear. With or without these sounds, the human voice can hum or sing, creating rhythms that can transpose the listener to a world of beauty, emotion and magic.

A similar effect on the human heart is created when one listens to beautiful Quranic recitation (qirah). God has created music, through the voice and instruments, just as He has created nature and beauty of the human form as well as that of other species.

Some scholars say that such beauty cannot be haram; others declare it so. If music gives expression to sublime feelings of the human soul, surely sounds from the sitar, harmonium, violin, piano, and other instruments could not be forbidden? Only if music encourages immoral emotions or prevents Muslims from performing their religious obligations would it be forbidden.

Many Muslims regard music and art as forbidden.

Another form of fine art claimed by many as forbidden is sculpturing or painting and drawing the human form. It is said that only inanimate objects can be drawn. This is based on a hadith in which the Holy Prophet is said to have torn out curtains on which pictures had been painted.

Consider the fact that these ahadith mention pictures in the form of 'these' or 'such' pictures, thus qualifying them: that they may be worshipped or used as idols. In the age when the Holy Quran was revealed, statues or pictures were used as the primary form of idol worship and this polytheism or shirk was the worst attribute of the people of Makkah.

It can be...

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