the shaykh—just like his disciple al-Ghazali—either rejects the hadiths that prohibit musical instruments, among them the hadith recorded by al-Bukhari which will appear on page 38; or else he accepts those texts but is unable to apply analogy correctly, for, as the scholars of uṣūl state, no analogy is admissible where an explicit text exists—yet I find this unlikely, seeing that he himself authored a work on uṣūl al-fiqh; or, finally, he is of the rationalist stripe, like his disciple, before whom no foundational rule or subsidiary ruling, no hadith or jurisprudence, can stand—only unbridled whims race on. In spite of all this, al-Zarkali—may Allah have mercy on him—says of him in his book al-Aʿlām: “He was the greatest scholar of Islamic law in his era.”
- He said: “Some of the early Muslims inclined toward listening to music, such as al-Hasan al-Basri, while others did not, such as al-Shaʿbi.”
Thus did the shaykh—may Allah forgive him—reduce the matter of forbidden singing to a purely aesthetic choice, like any lawful food or drink: whoever wishes may partake and whoever wishes may abstain. Not only that, he attributed to the predecessors a disagreement that the sources do not bear out. Al-Hasan al-Basri is free of the view imputed to him, for Ibn Abī al-Dunyā relates in Dhamm al-Malāhī, 62 and 63 (both copies I possess), with two isnāds from him:
“Two sounds are accursed: a flute at a time of blessing, and a lament at a time of calamity.”
This narration has been authentically traced back to the Prophet ﷺ, as will be cited later in this treatise—hadith 2, p. 51, Allah willing.
As for al-Shaʿbi, Ibn Abī al-Dunyā likewise reports, no. 55, with a sound chain, that he disapproved of the earnings of a female singer.