Shabir Ally On Music

Bismillah,

This is my second post regarding music in Islam. The first one is here.

Quote from Shabir Ally regarding the status of music in Islam. I edited the format of the paragraph for better reading.
The following text were taken from http://www.islaminfo.com/new/qa.asp

Question: I play guitar for almost ten years now im trying to become religious and now i am in a fix whether i have to leave the total music? Or will be a sinner if i continue with music. I have read the whole Quran but didn’t find anything straight about leaving music /haram as it is declared about “WINE”. But in some hadis it is told that music is prohibited but specially for instruments with strings.So Please make my confusion clear if there is any qouts /ayat from QURAN about denying music then please let me know.

Answer: A basic principle in Islam will serve as a background to the answer. Classical scholars, in order to guard matters relating to worship from innovations, have adopted the principle that in this area of Islam nothing is permissible unless proven so in a text from the Quran or the Sunnah. On the other hand, in order to allow for growth and change in other areas, they have also held that things are permissible unless proven otherwise by a clear and authentic text of revelation. Hence if music is to be declared impermissible it must be done so on the basis of a clear and authentic text.

As you noted there is no such in the Quran on this subject. As for the hadith, although some texts have been advanced in this regard, as far as I am aware none of them are authentic. Hence we cannot on this basis declare music to be forbidden. On the other hand, we can look at the content, effects, and associations related to various sorts of music and form an opinion of them on that basis, though such a formulation of opinion will not have the force of a clear textual ruling. Some music have clearly bad content, others clearly good, yet others somewhere in between.

The same may be said of the effects the music has on an individual. Does it propel you towards goodness as nasheeds do, or prompt you towards evil? Or is the effect not clear? I mention effect separately from content only to provide another window of analysis, otherwise there is obviously a close connection between content and effect.

Associations also matter. Some music is associated with people who live very unislamic lifestyles. Others with good people. When one is attracted to good people one also becomes attracted to things associated with them. As a corollary to this, when one is not attracted to unislamic lifestyles, one is not attracted to the music and other paraphernalia associated with those lifestyles. Looking at it from the other angle, one may want to avoid the sort of music which may help foster an attraction for people who live very unislamic lifestyles.

In short, if we are to rule something impermissible then it must be done so on the basis of a clear and authentic text, none of which exists on this subject, and individual judgement aided by scholarly advice must play a greater role. As an illustration of this, consider the eating of bananas. We do not have to prove that eating bananas is halal. But if anyone were to claim that it is haram such a claimant will have to furnish the evidence from a text. Yet individuals will have to judge how much and which types of bananas to consume. Too much is bad for health. Individual tastes will prefer some bananas over others. Some bananas are sweet, as are the sweet figs and honey bananas. Others are sour. More to our point, some bananas are as rotten as are some sorts of music. Let the listener beware. Shabir

END QUOTE

Shabir Ally is one of my favorite scholar in the field of comparative religion. If you’re interested in that field and you want to see some videos of the discussions and debates that he did, just search his name on youtube and you will find plenty. I’m not big on debates but those videos are a rich source of information.

Wassalamu alaikum.

 

Indonesia: Between Islam, Superstition And Black Magic

Bismillah,

Alhamdulillahi rabbil `alamin, washshalatu wassalamu `ala Asyrafil Anbiya wal mursalin, wa ba`du,

Islam in Indonesia

I’m an Indonesian, I grew up and live in Jakarta until now. I love Indonesia, and alhamdulillah, Indonesia even though it’s not a Muslim country, Islam is Indonesia’s dominant religion with approximately 88%, over 200 million (wikipedia), of its population identifying as Muslims, making it the most populous Muslim-majority nation in the world.

The Pancasila [Five Principles] has been Indonesia’s state ideology since independence in 1945. The first principle of the Pancasila promotes belief in the one and unique God, but does not endorse any particular religion.

Islam came to Indonesia through Muslims merchants from Gujarat and Persia in the 13th Century. The merchants established trade links between Indonesia and India and Persia. Along with the trade, they propagated Islam among the people.

Before Islam came, Indonesians were Hindus, Buddhists, and a variety of other spiritual practices that are not recognized as religion but as faith. One of these faiths, Kejawen [literally, "Javaneseness"], is widely practiced. Kejawen refers to the principles for the conduct of life in harmony with society and nature, and is rooted in the pre-Islamic culture of South Central Java. (Mulder 1998)

Black magic and superstition

Indonesians, not all, but many, from modern businessmen to traditional farmers, are very superstitious. Here are some of the local “superstitions” in Indonesia regarding everyday life and the meanings of the omens of Nature:

• Avoid sweeping the house at night as this would make it difficult to attract luck.
• If you have a bad feeling when you are about to leave the house–then don’t! As this is a sign that something disastrous might occur while out.
• Avoid disliking someone intensely while pregnant as this would cause your child to adopt the features of the disliked person.
• Avoid opening umbrellas in the home as this would result in difficulties in life.
• Avoid wearing red or green swimwear at beaches as this would result in the wearer becoming a bride or bridegroom to spirit entities (incubus, succubus).
• It is advisable to keep sacred objects in the home to protect one’s family.

Those mentioned are only a few of them. To add more regarding superstition and black magic. Many Indonesians:

• Believe in praying to the grave of a certain person to get what he or she wants in life. (i.e. money, love, power, etc.)
• Believe in sacred objects can give good luck, charm, protection, and wealth.
• Believe in black magic or “santet” in Indonesian.
• Go to a “dukun” or medicine man for various purposes, from treating illness, hurting a business rival (voodoo style), or even for duplicating money (of course this doesn’t work, not even with strong suggestion and belief but strangely enough today some people still try it.)

Very superstitious, that when the Asian tsunami and Java tsunami strikes Indonesia in 2004, it was interpreted as evidence that the Gods are not happy with the Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Islam, Superstition And Black Magic

Yes we learn about ghaib (the unseen) in Islam, but not in a science fictional sense. Many Indonesian horror movies, or any movie that contain a monster, depicts an Islamic cleric who can fly and throws fireballs at the villain. I know how it sounds, but it happens even today. There’s also a reality show here about an Islamic ghost busters, showing a group of people wearing Islamic attributes like turbans performing martial arts moves to cast away the ghosts. How could all those things be on national television? simply because people buy them. There are also magazines and other prints that put news about how the clerics kill a zombie. And since the media plays a very important role in educating the people, it all adds up to the superstitious-ism.

Qur’anic verses are sacred, yes of course, they are the words of God. But many Muslims here treat them as if they are some kind of magic mantra to cast spells like Harry Potter’s “wingardium leviosa.”

In one of the majlis ta’lim (learning house) I studied, the ustadz (teachers) use some kind of inscents for praying, until the room is full of fragrant smoke. They say it’s a means to make the room aromatic and so the angels will come and stay while we’re praying. The majlis also recommends people to take some rocks from the majlis and spread it around their homes, because the rocks in the majlis area is full of prayers and that it will give protection. I studied many great things in that majlis, and I love my guru there (rest in peace), but if using inscents is good for praying and using rocks as some kind of sacred object, surely our prophet Muhammad (pbuh) would’ve promoted them in the Hadiths.

The good stuff is in the basics

There is a big Islamic association here in Indonesia that focus on the preventing of further accretion and superstition of Islam, but we would touch a political discussion if I write about that.

I hope that in this information era, and that the internet has reached most of the people here or at least the leaders, people will stop exposing Islam in a superstitious perspective, and stop thinking that Islam came from Javanese faiths. And people will learn about Islam in the global view. Because really, Islam is a world religion.

For everyone learning about Islam, every scholars would agree, let’s use the Qur’an and Hadith as our foundation, if anything you learn about is not in there, that’s a big question mark.

 

I Had No Choice But To Become A Muslim

Bismillahirrahmaanirrahiim.

In the name of Allah most gracious, most merciful.

It is very easy, to say “Laa ilaaha illallaah, Muhammadan rrasuulullaah,” which means “there is no God but almighty God, and Muhammad is His messenger.” It is also very easy to do the testimony to Islam or what we call the shahada and that is to say, “Asyhadu anlaa ilaaha illallaah, wa asyhadu ana Muhammadan rrasuulullaah,” translated “I bare witness that there is no God but almighty God, and I bare witness that Muhammad is His messenger.” Anyone can do that, no problem. But what comes with it, now that’s a different story.

Sheikh Yusuf Estes once puts it like this, when other religions say “join us and you will go to heaven, guaranteed” Islam does nothing like that. It is the only religion in the world that guarantees that it’s followers can go to hell. Well, he’s right, but Islam says there is a way, but it won’t be easy.

Muslims pray five times a day, and must do ablution before each prayer, Muslims fast in Ramadhan for the whole month, Muslims must pay zakah to the poor, Muslims don’t drink alcohol, don’t have sex outside of marriage, don’t gamble, don’t eat pork, and must do this and that, yes, it’s not an easy way of life, especially for someone new to Islam.

So in my mind, I wonder…

What if I decided that I want to choose another religion, maybe they have an easier way to worship God. Okay, there are couple of choices that looks promising, but, wait a minute, every time I look closer into that religion, I found no satisfaction. I studied the basics of it, and just through the basics, I knew that there’s something not right in it, either the holy book isn’t in it’s original form, there are contradictions in it, or the system of belief is not personal, you don’t have a direct relationship with God, or you have to pay money, or the concept of multiple Gods, pantheism, etc. I just couldn’t be satisfied, how can I worship the one and only God that way?

I looked and looked and looked, only to find more and more errors and contradictions and I was disappointed.

What happens after that…

Then I got frustrated, started questioning religion, maybe I should just give up religion, stop believing in God, and start to rationalize everything, and think that religion doesn’t make any sense, and think that God is imaginary. Oh it feels good, I feel freedom, for a while.

When life feels empty…

Then I got confused, I got nothing to hold on to. Why am I here? How can the world possibly create itself, by chance? Who created the universe, the sun, the moon, the planets? Who designed our body to work like this, who programmed our brain, who planned our blood flow, can anything in this whole world create itself? ask yourself that question, and honestly, can it possibly?

Those questions are so much stronger and more torturing than asking why God don’t heal amputees? or why prayers sometimes don’t work? or why there are bad things in this world?

I had no choice but to believe in God…

But I still think that Islam is not an easy faith, so I tried to disprove Islam, I looked for mistakes in the Qur’an, yet there are none, I tried looking in the Shari’a, yet everything makes sense, I tried finding bad teachings of Islam and bad teachings of Muhammad (pbuh), yet I just couldn’t find any.

Okay, so I couldn’t fight Islam, I guess I’ll just take a closer look…

I dug deeper into Islam, only to find beauty, and peace. I found beauty in it’s sincere ways of worship, in it’s traditions, in it’s way of life. Suddenly, it becomes easy to do what Muslims do, because you want to do them.

I had no choice, but to become a Muslim. Not an easy way, but a fair and balanced way. Alhamdulillah.