Noting that Islamic law forbids musical instruments will bring you swift charges of “ignorance” and “Islamophobia,” but the “militiamen” in Iraq who believe that music is un-Islamic are not ignorant “Islamophobes”:
Hadith Qudsi 19:5: “The Prophet said that Allah commanded him to destroy all the musical instruments, idols, crosses and all the trappings of ignorance.” (The Hadith Qudsi, or holy Hadith, are those in which Muhammad transmits the words of Allah, although those words are not in the Qur’an.)
Muhammad also said:
(1) “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.”
(2) “On the Day of Resurrection, Allah will pour molten lead into the ears of whoever sits listening to a songstress.”
(3) “Song makes hypocrisy grow in the heart as water does herbage.”
(4) “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.”
(5) “There will be peoples of my Community who will hold fornication, silk, wine, and musical instruments to be lawful ….” — ‘Umdat al-Salik r40.0
Sharia Alert from Iraq: “Oud maker labors in secret on Baghdad rooftop,” by Hamza Hendawi for AP, March 28:
BAGHDAD — In a tiny workshop on the roof of his home in a Baghdad slum, Farhan Hassan works in secret, lovingly curving wood and tightening strings to make his ouds — a traditional Arabic instrument.
Only close family and friends know what he is doing, because the militiamen in his neighborhood frown on such frivolities.
The oud’s angst-filled tunes define Iraq’s music, the same way the Tigris and Euphrates rivers define its landscape. But nowadays few in the country play or make the oud, a pear-shaped, deep-voiced cousin of the lute. Hundreds of artists fled Iraq during the violence in recent years — and continued instability and the power of religious hard-liners give them little desire to return.…
Now Hassan is also hoping to leave Iraq. Like many of the estimated 2.5 million Shiites who live in Sadr City, he has had to cope with some of the city’s worst living conditions. Militiamen have closed music stores, prohibited the mixing of the sexes, banned wedding parties, imposed the Islamic hijab on women and murdered gay men — all while making a living as hired guns….
“I could have gone out on the streets carrying an RPG or a machine-gun and people would either take no notice or commend me on my courage,” he mused. “But I would have probably been killed if I had gone out with an oud in my hand,” he said with a laugh tinged with bitterness….