The Prophet said that
Allah commanded him to destroy all the musical instruments,
idols, crosses and all the trappings of ignorance."
Hadith Qudsi 19:5
"Allah Mighty and Majestic sent me as a guidance and mercy to believers and commanded me to do away with musical instruments, flutes, strings, crucifixes, and the affair of the pre-Islamic period of ignorance."
"Song makes hypocrisy grow in the heart as water does herbage."
"There
will be peoples of my Community who will
hold fornication, silk, wine, and musical
instruments to be lawful ...."
-- 'Umdat
al-Salik r40.0
Music, corrupts the minds of our youth.
There is no difference between music and opium. Both create lethargy in
different ways. If you want your country to be independent, then ban music.
Music is treason to our nation and to our youth.
Ayatollah Khomeini
Qutb was enraged that people were enjoying
music and life, because the purpose of life was death through jihad.
Jamie
Glazov in Frontpage Magazine talking about Muslim Brotherhood member
Sayyid Qutb
There are four schools of law in Sunni Islam one of which is the Shafi school of Islamic jurisprudence. The Umdat al Salik is the Shafi legal manual. In it we find the following about music:
Allah Mighty and Majestic sent me as a guidance and mercy to believers and commanded me to do away with musical instruments, flutes, strings, crucifixes and the affair of the pre-Islamic period of ignorance.
On the day of Resurrection, Allah will pour molten lead into the ears of whoever sits listening to a songstress.
Umdat al-Salik, the Islamic legal manual, quotes Muhammad:
Allah Mighty and Majestic sent me as a guidance and mercy to believers and commanded me to do away with musical instruments, flutes, strings, crucifixes, and the affair of the pre-Islamic period of ignorance.
On the Day of Resurrection, Allah will pour molten lead into the ears of whoever sits listening to a songstress. Song makes hypocrisy grow in the heart as water does herbage.
This Community will experience the swallowing up of some people by the earth, metamorphosis of some into animals, and being rained upon with stones.” Someone asked, “When will this be, O Messenger of Allah?” and he said, “When songstresses and musical instruments appear and wine is held to be lawful.
Jamie Glazov in his book United in Hate wrote:
Throughout Muslim history various branches of Islam have tried to eradicate music. The reforming Mughal emperor Muhyi al Din Aurangzeb (reigned 1658-1707) attempted to purify his land (which included most of the Indian subcontinent, plus part of Afghanistan) by banning music there. In our own day, Laskar Jihad, the extremist Islamic group in Indonesia, considers music "a distraction from God." In the Malaysian state of Kelantan, the government - controlled by Islamic fundamentalists - has banned singing, dancing, and even the ringing of church bells, since these things could lead to "immoral activities." The Taliban illegalized music completely in Afghanistan and Ayatollah Khomeini banned most music from Iranian radio and television... He explained
Allah did not create man so that he could have fun. The aim of creation was for mankind to be put to the test through hardship and prayer. An Islamic regime must be serous in every field. There are no jokes in Islam. There is no humor in Islam. there is no fun in Islam. There can be no fun and joy in whatever is serious.
In Somalia militiamen loyal to the Islamic court cracked down on band music by raiding a wedding party in Mogadishu, confiscating instruments and beating a woman. (Somali Islamist militiamen raid wedding beat woman, wnd.com 7/9/2006) On April 13, 2010 a ban on radio stations playing music went into effect in Somalia. Jamie Glazov wrote:
This order follows the Islamists’ ban on musical ringtones, movies, men without beards, football, women’s beauty salons, and bras. Those not adhering to the new ban risk a grave threat to their physical well-being, which includes getting assassinated or undergoing Sharia-based punishments. Such punishments include having your limbs amputated, your eyes gauged out, your tongue cut out, and your ears cut off...
In order to understand this phenomenon, it is critical to keep in mind that for the totalitarian radical, experiencing any kind of joy means succumbing to the false consciousness that, in the utopian mindset, must be purged from the earth. Earthly joy distracts from the constant vigilance that is necessary to engage in revolutionary battle.
After the Taliban militia took over Afghanistan in September 1996 they issued an edict that forbade music.
In Pakistan music shops were ordered to close down by a radical group and those that didn't were attacked with bombs and other means. (Pakistan: Pro-Taliban strikes against music shops, freemuse.org 8/2005)
In 2009 a delegation of the Taliban showed
up at the home of Mohammad Akbar. Not knowing they were from the Taliban,
he served them tea, played his rubab and sang for them in his living room. They blew up hundreds of music and DVD shops in the troubled North West Frontier
Province (NWFP), calling the practice against the tenets of Islam.
And then they grabbed the instrument and
smashed it...
Shop owners were forced to display the pro-Taliban material which ranged from
tirades against the United States to gruesome clips of beheadings and bomb
attacks.
Tears rolled down Akbar's cheeks as he talked about one of his very close
friends Ahmad Shah, whom he says was executed by Taliban for playing the flute.
"They slit his throat because he ignored their warning," said Akbar.
Younes Matoub was a famous Berber Kabyle singer and mondol player who was a prominent advocate of the Berber cause and secularism in Algeria throughout his life. He is revered as a hero and martyr in Kabylie and the Berber World but reviled by most of the Arab population in Algeria for his atheism and the alleged blasphemy of some songs (like Allahu Akbar) along with his militant advocacy of Berber rights. The Muslims who murdered him told him "You are the enemy of God, you and your songs"
The Associated Press reported on 2/4/2007 that a Saudi Arabian judge sentenced 20 foreigners to receive lashes and spend several months in prison after convicting them of attending a party where alcohol was served and men and women danced, a newspaper reported Sunday. The defendants were among 433 foreigners, including some 240 women, arrested by the kingdom's religious police for attending the party in Jiddah, the state-guided newspaper Okaz said.
Saudi journalist Rabbah Al Quwai'i, who protested in print against Muslim extremists who burn books and musical instruments. He received death threats, his car was smashed, and he was arrested. The grounds for his incarceration were "destructive thoughts."
Judge Saud al-Boushi sentenced the 20 to prison terms of three to four months and ordered them to receive an unspecified number of lashes, the newspaper said. They have the right to appeal, it added.
In a statement, 35 Saudi clergymen called on Abdel Aziz Khoja, who was appointed to the post of information minister by King Abdullah on Feb. 14, 2009 to prohibit the playing of music and music shows on television.
On Jan 14, 2012 the Press Trust of India reported that Pakistani Taliban who had banned the use of TV sets and computers for watching movies and playing music said that people were defying their ban and so confiscated computers, television sets and mobile phones from residents of the largest town of the South Waziristan tribal region and set them on fire at a market.
John Ging the top U.N. aid official in Gaza said that assailants burned tents and vandalized bathrooms at a U.N. run summer camp for children. They left behind three bullets and a note threatening to kill Ging and others unless the UN cancels its activities for some 250,000 Gaza children. The assailants left a statement condemning the teaching of fitness, dancing and immorality to school girls.
Islamic intolerance toward music does not only happen in backwards Islamic countries. Phylis Chesler wrote that:
Childhood for Muslims is being rapidly “Talibanized,” not in Afghanistan but in London where veteran British Muslim journalist, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, describes children who are now being beaten by British parents for engaging in any activity that their imam has described as “anti-Islamic.” This includes singing, listening to music, dancing, drawing, acting—as well as befriending infidel schoolmates.
CTV.ca reported that:
A kindergarten student in Saint-Michel (Montreal) will be allowed to wear a noise-reducing headset in class, because her parents' say their religious beliefs don't allow the five-year-old girl to listen to music. Though music is an integral part of the kindergarten program, the principal of Bienville School decided to grant the accommodation request made by a Muslim family and allow their daughter to block out music at school.