Is listening to music a major sin or a minor sin?

Naṣāʾiḥ of Ibn Muneer - 0006

Q: Fulan, Famagusta TRNC, As Salaamu Alaikum Mufti. Is music a major or minor sin?

A: …Wa-ʿalaykumu s-salāmu wa-raḥmatu llāh…Before we get to it being a major or minor sin, it has to be established that it is a sin, it is a sin. We don’t wanna open up no can of worms, but if someone asked the question, is music Haram? You consider music to be Haram, that’s fine. And if you consider not to be Haram, then that’s a view of some of the ulema of Islam. So that’s first and foremost. We’re not getting into the details of it right now right here. That’s number one. Number two. So no one can say “Mufti says music Halal”, huh? Number two. The ulema of Islam who say that it is Haram, the overwhelming majority, the overwhelming majority who took the view that listening to instruments and things like this, is Haram. Is it a major sin or a minor sin? It’s gonna depend on, one may say, the content of the music. Let’s say, let’s make an example of this. If someone is listening to classical jazz, he’s gonna say that this is Haram, you can’t listen to a saxophone and a piano, this is Haram, regardless. But is he gonna say it’s the same level of sin as someone who’s listening to heavy metal, heavy rock and in which there is devil worship, Satan worship. Groupies, women groupies, offering their bodies, to these rock stars as people make blood sacrifice. Of course it’s like what? Night and day. Even though he’s saying that both are what? Haram. And it may be a major sin to listen to the normal type of jazzy music, but it’s not the same as the content which is clearly foul and clearly unIslamic. Alcohol, fornication, murder all of these things are mentioned in the lyrics and the content of the music, that is a higher level of severity. Everybody clear on this? Everybody understand this or not? طيب؟ And just as a interesting fact, the people they can say whatever they wanna say, it really doesn’t matter. But just as a very important fact, people they talk about violence, and they talk about misogyny, and they about youth being influenced, through certain types of music. And the first finger that is pointed, is towards rap. And hip-hop. They have a t-shirt or a hoodie that says “Gangsta rap made me do it”. “We have to ban NWA, ban these people ban because it’s promoting violence, gang violence, women are being disrespected.” But they never ever point the finger and say anything about, what? Punk rock. Or heavy metal. In which they’re doing all types of heavy drugs. The amount of fornication, zina, devil worship, beer, alcohol being consumed on the stage, violence and just if you look at the nature of instruments that are used in heavy metal. And what it makes you feel like when you hear it, compared to rap or hip-hop. This is another piece of ultimate hypocrisy in the modern world today. “The urban, that stuff is bad. It’s evil. But the rock, it’s fine.” Or other cultures and traditions. You’ll find people that have different music, they’ll listen to music, “it’s culture, it’s art, it’s refined”. But anything urban, coming from the inner city, is automatically what? It’s negative. It’s hypocrisy. Everybody understand this or not? And Allah knows best. This is just a faidah for us to think critically, huh?
 وَٱللَّهُ أَعْلَم

Note: This advice of "Mufti" "Abu Ramlah" Muhammad Ibn Muneer Abdul-Hameed was transcribed from hadithdisciple Live 6/5/18 Q&A - YouTube (30:12) (alternative link)
Video streamed live on Jun 5, 2018

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