A Word on So-Called “Islamic Nasheeds”

I wish to close this beneficial treatise, God willing, with one last remark concerning what people nowadays call “Islamic” or “religious” nasheeds.

From Chapter Seven it has become clear which kinds of poetry may be sung and which may not. The preceding chapters likewise demonstrated the prohibition of every musical instrument except the frame-drum (duff) when used by women on the two festivals or at a wedding. They also established that one may draw near to Allah only with what He Himself has legislated—so how could He be approached through something He has forbidden? On that basis the scholars deemed Sufi singing unlawful and vehemently condemned those who regard it as permissible. Once the reader keeps these robust principles in mind, it becomes perfectly obvious that, in terms of legal ruling, there is no difference between Sufi singing and the so-called “religious” nasheeds.

Indeed, an additional evil may lurk in these nasheeds: they are often set to the very melodies of licentious songs and performed according to Eastern or Western musical scales that excite the listeners, make them sway, and carry them beyond their bounds. The real aim then becomes melody and entertainment, not the nasheed itself—an altogether new violation, for it is imitation of the unbelievers and the frivolous.

Yet another offence may follow: imitating those same people in turning away from the Quran and abandoning it. Thus they fall under the Prophet’s general complaint about his people, as Allah says: “And the Messenger will say, ‘O my Lord, my people have taken this Quran as something abandoned.’” (25:30)

I recall clearly that when I was in Damascus—two years before I migrated here to Amman—some Muslim youth began chanting nasheeds of sound meaning, intending thereby to counter Sufi songs such as the odes of al-Būsīrī and others. They recorded them on a cassette, but it was not long before they added the beat of the duff. At first they used the tape only in wedding celebrations on the premise that the duff is permissible there, and then