All My Music is Haram
Oh the things you can learn on the “internet”. It’s astounding. Today, I learned that pretty much all the music I listen to is Haram. Which is to say that under the Islamic code – Allah ain’t down with it. I got wise to this when researching something on the U.S. Department of State website and jumped on a link called Muslim Rap Music. The fact that such a link would be sitting on the U.S. Department of State website at all was cause for pause. The link introduces a positive muslim rap roll model outfit called Native Deen. In reading about their music I learned that it’s mostly all percussion and voice. Moreover, the rigid rules of the islamic traditional dictate that string and wind instruments are taboo. Now I know diddly-squat about Islamic religion, so I was curious as to why certain instruments, especially those that would add melody and tune to a piece of music, would be considered outside the sacred cache of acceptable noise makers.

Doing some loose research, I failed to find anything that detailed the reasons as to why these instruments were off limits (If anyone knows, please drop me a line and educate), but I did find a rather complete guideline on what music is acceptable to specific islamic settings, as well as strategies for moving your musical tastes towards more Allah-friendly tunes. The best advise being:

…most of the popular music that’s available today is pretty trashy. It’s definitely not going to encourage you towards taqwa and proper Islamic behavior. Why make things more difficult for yourself by listening to what tempts you towards the wrong? Keep your heart pure and make sure that only good sounds come into your ears, if you can help it.

and also…

Learning to give up listening to music is very difficult. It is truly a jihad. You may not be able to go “cold turkey”.

I have to agree that most popular music is ‘pretty trashy’, but ‘learning to give up listening to music’ is a tough pill to swallow. Huge props go out to the Islamic fundamentalists; that’s hardcore sacrifice. No Missy, no Beatles, no Run-DMC, no Dylan, those people, those musical artists, – that’s my worship. Those are my prophets.

I’ve never really been excited about religion, but if I was ever lost in the woods and had to point my spiritual compass somewhere, I would probably point it at a radio tower. For me, a world without music is a world without GOD.