554. Is It Haraam To Actively Listen To Music

By Asma bint Shameem 

If you’re can avoid going there, that’s best. 

But if you “must” go because it’s your relatives etc, then attend only for a short while and leave as soon as possible. 

If the music is playing in the background and we’re not paying attention to it, then we’re not sinful because we’re not “enjoying” it or deliberately “listening” to it. 

Naafi‘, the freed slave of Ibn ‘Umar radhi Allaahu anhumaa 

said: 

“Ibn ‘Umar heard the sound of a flute and he put his fingers in his ears and turned  his mount away from the road and said to me: 

O Naafi‘, can you hear anything? 

I said: 

Yes. 

And he carried on until I said: 

No. 

Then he took his fingers out of his ears, brought his mount back to the road and said: 

I saw the Messenger of Allaah Sal Allaahu Alaiyhi wa Sallam 

when he heard the sound of a flute and did something like this.”

(Abu Dawood (4924); saheeh by al-Albaani)

Ibn Taymiyah said:

“The prohibition only has to do with “listening”, not “hearing”. 

Hence if a man passes by people who are engaging in some prohibited kind of talk, he is not obliged to block his ears, but he should not listen unnecessarily. 

Hence the Prophet Sal Allaahu Alaiyhi wa Sallam did not instruct Ibn ‘Umar to block his ears when he heard the shepherd’s flute, because he was not listening to it; rather he was merely hearing it.”

[Majmoo‘ al-Fataawa (11/630)]

And he said:

“Commands and prohibitions only have to do with what a person does deliberately; with regard to whatever happens without him choosing to do so, there is no command or prohibition having to do with that.” [Majmoo‘ al-Fataawa (11/566, 567)]

And Allaah knows best