Nuh Ha Mim Keller – Music in Islam

About this lecture

In this lecture, scholar Nuh Ha Mim Keller addresses the Islamic ruling on music — both live and recorded — drawing on six sahih hadiths that forbid musical instruments and explaining why exceptions found in classical fiqh literature cannot be generalized to modern contexts. He examines the 1907 fatwa of the Mufti of Hudaida on the Edison gramophone, the analogy between music and smoking in Islamic legal reasoning, and the critical but often overlooked role of tazkiyat an-nafs (purification of the soul) in the issuing of valid fatwas. The lecture makes a clear distinction between the prohibited ma'azif (musical instruments) and the permissible unaccompanied human voice, and warns against the dishonesty of fatwa shopping.