Thoughts on Music and Dialogue

 

Salam aleikoum, greetings of peace to you all!

Bismillah arhmaan ya raheem, audhu billahi min a shaytaan ir-rajeem,

Thank you so much for all the different reactions and comments to my last post on the topic of music. It is interesting how my very personal description and point of view caused such an emotional debate and provoked some of the readers even to feel attacked and to offer so defensive reactions. Mashallah.

“If Allah had willed, He would have made you one nation, but that He may test you in what He has given you; so compete in good deeds.
The return of you all is to Allah; then He will inform you about that in which you used to differ.” (Qur’an, 5:48) 

Just as God has created all mankind differently, there are also very different opinions on the topic of music, there is no black and white, even amongst Muslims: many who follow the four rightly guided caliphs, like I do inchaallah, and who make it very clear that most kind of music is forbidden; there are others who listen to all kinds of music, others who make music with less or more instruments, others who make a lot of spiritual music, and so on;
even in my Moroccan family and neighbourhood there are very different approaches to the theme – but still we are all Muslims and everyone climbs the ladder of knowledge and faith in different ways.
In the end it is up to God to judge about all mankind and our personal intentions.

Muslims are not against music and melody in general and maybe I should have stated the teachings I follow more eloquently and with the words of Shaykh Yusuf Estes who says: “Music is permissible in Islam – with a lot of limitations.”

In short: music making and listening is limited to the modest playing of a simple hand drum during weddings, new born feasts and other exceptional happenings, it is limited to suitable Islamic lyrics and never exceeding the amount of our reciting of the qur’an.
(More detailed information for example here)

The oldest Islamic folk song and a very beautiful one as well is maybe the one which the people of medina sang when Prophet Mohammed (sas) moved from Mecca to Medina: “Tala al badru alayna” – A song that is a true sign and a meaning of peace and freedom between nations and religions.

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This is my personal blog about my very personal journey towards Islam.
I write here mostly for the purpose of sharing parts of this journey with family, friends and people interested in it.
Not to do missionary work, but to stay in contact, to inform and to allow them to have a look into my new life, into another world (über den Tellerrand schauen gilt ja für beide Seiten).

Because yes, my very own point of view, my values and my whole life changed so much over the last years, subhanallah, that I often feel a gap, incomprehension and also ignorance between me and people of my past life, between me and family or old friends. I think that’s quiet a normal thing if one changes her life and religion and lives in another culture.

But I believe that we can minimize that gap by staying interested one in the other, by explaining, sharing and informing. And this hasn’t anything to do with rating or assessing, nor with decreasing the other way of life.
(Although faith in general and in its very nature is always something that the believer sees as the ultimate and only truth).

Real respect and a peaceful dialogue do not show themselves in levelling down or trying to make others equal, they show themselves in the acceptance of the differences between us, and in learning one from the other, to widen our horizons – both sides.

True education and a fruitful interreligious dialogue show themselves in such interest, respect and politeness.
And that’s what I stand up for. Inchaallah. Salaam aleikoum.

“O mankind! We have created you from a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know one another.” (49:13) 

“Allah is our Lord and your Lord. For us our deeds and for you your deeds. There is no dispute between us and you.” (42:15) 

“Invite mankind, O Muhammad, to the way of your Lord with wisdom and fair preaching and argue with them in the most kindly manner.” (16:125)