Shaykh al-Islām—may Allah sanctify his soul—was asked about a group who had joined together in various corrupt practices, each clinging to some justification and relying on an opinion that had been expressed. Among them was someone devoted to attending forbidden musical gatherings featuring frame drums fitted with jingles and the pipes commonly used in our time. Beardless youths and women attend these gatherings. He justifies this by claiming that attending musical gatherings is permissible according to al-Shāfiʿī and other imams.

He replied:

As for musical gatherings involving singing, pipes, and jingling frame drums, the imams of the religion agree that these do not constitute acts of devotion or obedience to Allah. Indeed, even when such gatherings do not take this form, but involve singing, hand-clapping, beating with a stick, dancing, and the like—although these activities include what is permissible, what is disliked, what is prohibited, or what is permissible for women but not for men—the imams of the religion do not dispute that they do not constitute acts of devotion, obedience, or worship. Nor did any of the Companions, the Successors, the imams of the religion, or other religious shaykhs