6 – Section Six: The Contentions of Those Who Permit It, and the Reply

After we have disproved, with the authentic hadiths already cited and the weighty positions of the foremost jurists, the view that allows musical instruments, Ibn Ḥazm—and those who have followed him—clung to the basic presumption of permissibility, claiming that no explicit text has come down prohibiting any instrument. For the sake of completeness and benefit, we shall set out the proofs with which he sought to shore up that alleged principle, and then answer them with what the scholars have stated. I say:

Ibn Ḥazm, in his Risālah, pp. 98–99, and in al-Muḥallā, 9/61–62, based his position on two hadiths: one from ʿĀʾishah and the other from Ibn ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with them both).

1 – As for the hadith of ʿĀʾishah, he quoted it solely from the narration of Muslim, even though al-Bukhārī and others also related it; it is listed in Ghāyat al-Marām, no. 399. I myself included it in my Abridgement of Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī under no. 508, placing it at the beginning of the Book of the Two ʿĪds and adding every supplementary wording and benefit scattered through the various chapters of Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī that stem from her narration. Accordingly, I shall now quote its wording from there, omitting the volume and page references of the additions. She said (may Allah be pleased with her):

“The Messenger of Allah ﷺ came in to me while two young girls [from among the Anṣār]—in another narration: two singing-girls—[during the days of Minā, beating small drums] were singing; in one version: chanting the verses the Anṣār had exchanged; in another: reciting what the Anṣār had traded on the Day of Buʿāth—[and they were not…]”