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’:

In the Quran, this ayah from Surah Luqman is said to condemn music:

“And of mankind is he who purchases idle talks to mislead (men) from the Path of Allah without knowledge, and takes it (the Path of Allah, the Verses of the Quran) by way of mockery. For such there will be a humiliating torment (in the Hell-Fire)”. (Surah Luqman 31:6)

“Idle talk” is interpreted to mean singing.

And this hadith from Bukhari:

“From among my followers there will be some people who will consider illegal sexual intercourse, the wearing of silk, the drinking of alcohol, and the use of musical instruments as lawful. Allah will destroy them during the night…and will change the rest of them to monkeys and pigs and they will remain so until the Day of Resurrection”.

Also here’s Yusuf Estes, whose entire pre-conversion career was in the music industry, on how haram is music.

From the pro-music side, here’s Cat Stevens explaining how he came back around to his music career many years after converting:

Yusuf explained that while there had been no real guidelines about instruments in the Qur’an, and no reference about the business of music, it had been Muslim travellers who first brought the guitar to Moorish Spain. He noted that Muhammad was fond of celebrations, as in the case of the birth of a child, or a traveller arriving after a long journey. Thus, Yusuf concluded that healthy entertainment was acceptable within limitations, and that he now felt that it was no sin to perform with the guitar. Music, he now felt, is uplifting to the soul; something sorely needed in troubled times.

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