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Modern music is sinful:Qatari scholar
Publish Date: Saturday,6 March, 2010, at 12:12 PM Doha Time
By Anwar Elshamy
Sheikh Mohamed
A Qatari Muslim scholar has criticised young Muslims who are obsessed
with listening to music and singing, saying modern-day singing is "sinful and
prohibited" in Islam.
In his sermon yesterday, Sheikh Mohamed Hasan al-Mreikhi said that
singing was one of the worst vice which is on the rise among young Muslims and
which threatens to weaken their faith.
"Listening to music and singing is a sin and cause for the sickening of
the heart. There is a wide ignorance of the Islam ruling on singing among
Muslims. Although it has been prohibited, there are persons who are still
refusing this ruling and trying to find other justifications permitting
singing," Sheikh al-Mreikhi told a congregation at the Omar bin al-Khattab
mosque at Khalifa town.
Sheikh al-Mreikhi slammed other Muslim scholars whom he said, were trying
to find justifications for permitting music and singing.
"Some try to mislead Muslims and say that music is food for the soul.
Others try to promote it as some sort of culture and even established
institutes to teach it. How can today's singing which is always associated with
other sins like the consumption of alcohol be food for the soul? It is not true
that some Islamic scriptures permitted singing," he added.
The scholar also lamented what he called "upside down standards" in the
Muslim communities where singers and musicians have been bestowed with high
degrees of status and social prestige that no other category enjoys."Even
clerics are denied the social status which people into singing enjoy. According
to proper Sharia, singers have no value," he added. "Singing is an evil that
has spread to such an extent that individuals find themselves in situations
where they are forced to listen to it. Young Muslims are now obsessed with
listening to songs and forget about prayer time. You can hardly find a home
that is free from it now," he maintained.
As music has always evoked a heated debate both in the past and the
present, there has been a group of scholars who took a more positive approach
towards music and issued edicts stating that only singing unethical and sensual
themes, as forbidden in Islam.
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