A group of young, religious men in Sweden act as if they were an Islamic police force and try to prevent Swedish Muslims – basically of Somali origin – from listening to music. This was shown on SVT, the National Swedish TV, on 25 April 2006. Same thing happened in Denmark on October 9 in 2004 where religious fundamentalists obstructed a concert in Nørre Alle Medborgerhus.
According to the Swedish newspaper Sydsvenskan which published a special theme report on “prohibitions in Islam” in the beginning of 2006, there is an increased pressure on Muslim women in Scandinavia to refrain from dancing and playing music, because it is forbidden.
The subject, whether music is allowed or not, is discussed on numerous webpages and debate forums. On the website Sindbad.se which is one of the largest of its kind in Sweden, a school pupil acts on advice that he should “play hookie” from music lessons in school.
But is it true? Is music forbidden according to Islam – or is it not? Can we find the real answer?


Malmös Salafis: “Music is forbidden”

In the Swedish tv documentary, Faik Rustemi, a 23-year-old Muslim based in Sweden’s third largest city Malmö states it very simply: "Music is not allowed in Islam”.
The Swedish TV crew filmed a group of young Salafi men – all with long beards, Arabic jallabiya shirts and trousers which do not cover the ankles – blocking the roads around a concert hall in a suburb of Gothenburg, Sweden’s second largest city. ‘Salafis’ are devoted to a very strict interpretation of Islam and have very tight connections to the Wahabi interpretation of Islam that dominates Saudi Arabia.
With threatening remarks, the Salafi believers attempted to prevent people attending a party organised by young people of Somali background. It wasn't until Swedish police arrived and ordered the men to leave the place, that the young people dared to enter the concert hall.
In Arabic the word “Salaf” means “predecessors” (or ancestors) and refers to the Companions of the Prophet Muhammad, the early Muslims who followed them, and the scholars of the first three generations of Muslims. They are also called Al-Salaf Al-Salih or "the Righteous Predecessors".
The religious ban on music is promoted by Muslim scholars in Saudi Arabia such as Shaykh Munajjid who runs an “Islam Question & Answer” website which declares that music – even ring tones on mobile phones – are totally forbidden according to Islam:
"It is not permissible to use musical tunes for telephones or any other devices, because listening to musical instruments is haram, as is indicated by the evidence of sharee’ah."


Shut the radio off

The SVT team visited the school Al-Salam Skolan in Örebro which receives funds from Saudi Arabia. They interviewed the former head master, Elisabeth Söderling, who said that she thought it was insane that listening to radio was banned – she wasn’t even allowed to listen to a news channel because of its jingles.
The documentary was produced by SVT’s most prestigious documentary team 'Uppdrag granskning'. Reporter Magnus Wennerholm, researcher Per Brinkemo and editor Kenny Adersjö had been working on the documentary since October 2005. After the programme had been broadcast on Swedish television they were chatting and debating with viewers who showed an unusually high interest, sending in around 1,700 questions and comments.
This was “the most important tv programme of the year”, wrote a tv-reviewer at the Swedish daily, Expressen.


Iran and Afghanistan

Conservative interpretations on music regulations are well-known in both Christianity, Judaism and Islam. The Islamic ban on music however is receiving all the attention, in particular because of the developments in countries such as Iran and Afghanistan, where Islamic scholars and priests have condemned the use and production of music, and where fundamentalists have attacked several musicians.
In Iran, a young Iranian woman journalist fell foul of the regime after she reviewed a book on women and music which stated that the Prophet Muhammad enjoyed listening to women’s voices. The article, in a government newspaper, led to demonstrations in Qom (the principal Shi’a centre in Iran) against her as well as against the writer.The book had been cleared by the government censorship board but when a local newspaper wrote an editorial against the review all books were gathered up and destroyed and she was arrested.
This Iranian interpretation stands in contrast to how Islam is practised by the Sufis in Pakistan. Islam in the Indian Subcontinent came with the Sufis who believed in reaching God through cultural expressions such as poetry, music, dance, singing and the use of instruments.


Conference in Beirut

In October 2005, the international organisation Freemuse, which advocates for the freedom of expression among musicians, organised a seminar in Lebanon where religious restrictions on music was discussed.
The participants of the seminar watched a documentary, ‘The Rock Star And the Mullahs’, in which Pakistani clerics invoked a Hadith (a narration about the life of the Prophet or what he approved) which only allows the duff drum to be played. The clerics told that in Islam it was forbidden to cultivate a passion for music.
While there is consensus amongst the scholars that there is no verse in the Qur’an that prohibits music, there is much disagreement when referring to the Hadith.
Without an understanding of Islamic theology it is impossible to understand why music has created such an intense debate throughout the history of Islam.
The Freemuse conference had invited the Swedish reseacher and Islamic scholar Jonas Otterbeck to outline the sources on which the ban on music is based. He works as an assistant professor at Malmö Högskola.

Decisions are based upon the key Islamic sources, the Qur’an, the Hadith (the sayings of the Prophet), the Sunna (the ‘way,’ actions of the Prophet), Sira (the biography of the Prophet) and the Salaf (the stories of the Companions of the Prophet). According to Jonas Otterbeck, no clear conclusion on the subject has been reached. For example, he asks: “Is the ‘Idle talk’ (lahwal hadith) which is mentioned in Sura Luqman, ayat (verse) 6, a reference to singing and listening to songs? The radical religious scholars think that it is, rather than a reference merely to vain and void communication.”
Otterbeck referred to a model constructed by the late expert on Islamic music and art Lamya Al-Faruqi in which she compares religious tonal expressions and Arabic musica. The first includes Qur’anic chant, the call to prayer, pilgrimage chants, eulogy chants, chanted poetry with noble themes, family and celebration music, occupational music, military band music and music related to the pace of the camel, for example.

What is controversial for Islamic scholars is instrumental music, serious metered songs, pre-Islamic and non-Islamic music. Depending on the interpretation of the Hadith this ‘controversial’ music can be labelled halal (allowed), makruh (blameworthy) or else haram (forbidden).
The second split is between what is haram (forbidden) and what is halal (allowed), the latter on a sliding scale which includes makruh (blameworthy). In Islam, for example, divorce is ‘blameworthy’ but it is also halal, so certain form of music can fall within grades of halal. Women singing at religious feasts may be either makruh (blameworthy) but still halal, (allowed) or, in other cases, haram, (forbidden).
The question is where does heavy metal, rock, rap, hip-hop, jazz, rai, cha’abi (folk, popular) and pop fit into this pattern? Is a style problematic in itself or is it the contents of the lyrics? And what about highly commercialised and sexualised video clips?
The ultimate premise for a theologian is based upon the Qur’anic command, ‘Never forbid what God has allowed. Never allow what God has forbidden.’ It is an individual’s duty to adhere to the four grades of hisba (Al amr bi’l-ma’ruf wa’l-nahy ‘an al-munkar, ‘the commanding the good and the forbidding of evil’) to prevent fitna (strife), the breakdown of society. He cites the civil war in Algeria, strife in Palestine and the emergence of the Taliban as examples of Islamist movements which have legitimated their aggressions against opponents by claiming they protect society from fitna.

In Iraq a religious scholar even accepted the showing of a film showing young people being brutalised and killed for listening to music and dancing in a public park as legitimate warning to people committing fitna.
Otterbeck encouraged people to go to various sources for further knowledge on this debate: Islam Online and, for example, the home pages of Yusuf Al-Qaradawi and Muhammad Nasir Ad-Din Al-Albani.
Finally, Otterbeck noted that when we look at public actions taken, it is important not to focus entirely on religion.“The discourse in itself is seldom the only motive for action. Other motives might be economical, political, social, protectionist, moral panics, and so on,” he said.


Music – halal or haram?

“There is no ban on music in the Qur’an, and those talking about which music is haram and which music is halal have very weak evidence” Shaikh Ibrahim Ramadan Al-Mardini, from the Beirut Studies and Documentation Centre in Lebanon, told the conference.
He said that “a music culture is necessary for people to develop themselves,” adding that “any limitation on the arts is the opposite of what religion calls for.”
Al-Mardini said that “music doesn’t know male or female,” and that it is not for religious scholars to control people but to guide them. “The individual has to rule his or her own life through their own judgement,” he said, noting that Islamic scholars in the last century often had a very good knowledge of culture and art, and that “culture is something owned by everyone, and not something that a few persons should decide upon.”
The religious scholars interpret the rules and correct people when they go astray. Justifying some forms of music, Al-Mardini quoted the Prophet saying to one of his Companions, “You came with a very good ear.” The mufti (Shari’a judge) is entrusted with disclosing the judgements of God, basing his views on the Qur’an, the Hadith and the Sunna. Music is not banned in Islam; strong counter-evidence exists showing that it is allowed. In Islam reading was traditionally accompanied by music.

Shaikh Al-Mardini questions the sources invoked to ban music. For example, 80 Hadiths were used to prove it unlawful but of these seventy were dhaif (weak) or very weak.
There is no Qur’anic text banning music, he insisted.
In Islam the Sultan only intervenes when humans deviate from God’s judgement; the Sultan and the faqih (Islamic jurist) are symbiotic.
Censorship, Shaikh Al-Mardini noted critically, exists to preserve regimes.
“Censorship has turned into a totalitarian tool which is preserving the existence of regimes – we see this all over the world. Who can impose a just censorship without being biased?” the Shaikh asked.
Shaikh Al-Mardini said that he completely rejects censorship, arguing that it is not the mission of the faqih to condemn things; his job is merely to guide the faithful. A fatwa is no good unless it develops. It must not be static. The faqih has to be flexible. The faqih must be with the times and understand them.
Any constraints on arts is against religion, he said, and concluded that music is a universal discourse; it is the language of this discourse and anyone can express himself, whether he is right or wrong. Those who have said that Islam forbids music are completely false; the evidence is not correct, he said.
From the earliest history in all cultures we have seen people who wanted to ban music but societies have always co-existed with music.


Mentally in former centuries

Jonas Otterbeck wondered how the Shaikh looked upon so-called sensuous music or music using satanic symbols. “Lyrics can be provocative but it is not forbidden – they can be good or bad – but music in itself cannot be banned,” the Shaikh replied.
Concluding the session the Shaikh noted that fundamentalism does not have a region.
“We find this in all societies”, he said, “some religious scholars are living mentally in former centuries and are issuing fatwas according to former times. Fatwas have to be issued according to the changes of society.”
He referred to books indicating that there are issues where faqihs cannot intervene.
“Muslim youth are influenced by Sufi poets such as Rumi who wrote that the spirit of the believer is like the nay; when he is far from his country he is filled with nostalgia. Innovation is the basis of arts; if you ban innovation you stop art. Music is a universal discourse, without nationality, sex, identity or religion. It should be expressed freely whether it is right or wrong.”
Finally the Shaikh noted that music culture is necessary to develop culture. In former centuries the Shaikhs had a very good knowledge of arts, he said.

This article is based on information from www.freemuse.org and from the publication ‘All that is Banned is Desired’ (which is a summary of the Conference on Freedom of Expression in Music in Beirut 2005) which can be downloaded in pdf-format from this website. (See link below)

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working paper:
'Islamic reactions to
the music of today'