A sore point on the part of some about the response of the Muslim community to Michael Jackson’s rumored conversion:
When a famous person becomes Muslim, it becomes permissible to celebrate their achievements which are haram upon everyone else. Upon the death of Michael Jackson, we are seeing Muslim leaders celebrating his music as if no one has ever said that music is haram. No, that is not true anymore. Those regular people who gave up their musical instruments were imagining things.
This is a fair observation, and in the comments SB catches a few for whom this resonates:
I can understand this post 100%. I was a guitar player before becoming Muslim and was told to ditch it. Now these people are actually promoting people that play music. That stinks.
Also, Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens) is back making music again.
There seems to be a lack of clarity about whether there is a prohibition on music. Here are the sources – one Quranic, one from the hadiths – that are said to fix its ‘haramness’: