ANSWERED: Musical Instruments Question

Salams,

Under sharia, what defines a mazaif (instrument for music)?

For example if one was to record the sounds of animals and then alter the speed of them to make notes and then create a melody, would this define a musical instrument?

What about the recording of a book falling, hands clapping, different vocal sounds, water dropping, a rubber band flinging, cars honking, the wind blowing, and other such noises from nature? If these were recorded and then played back in such a way together would it be considered music?

Now what about the ruling on sounds which are synthetic, created by computers and electronic devices? These sounds from modern technology could resemble the sound of real musical instruments yet are synthetic vibrations. Some of these sounds also do not sound like any physical musical instrument but have a new distinct sound.

Jazakallah wa Khayrun

Actually I got myself an answer from Guiding Helper, (MALIKI)

In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Powerful

Assalamu `Alaykum.

Dear Honest Student,

Sidi, you wrote:

> Insha'Allah I intend to rap a few songs of the Guiding Helper. I
intend to
> make it rhytmic, insha'Allah so I have a few specific questions about
> producing the background of it, I need to have a detailed ruling of
the
> following so as to keep it completely halal, insha'Allah.
>
>Are the following sounds, if sampled, considered musical instruments?
>
> A bird's chirp,

ok and mubah without disagreement.

> the scratch of viynl (without music, just the scratch of viynl),

This is not a natural sound - but is not an instrument either. It is
in a grey area.

> a kicking noise,

ok and mubah without disagreement.

> clapping,

mubah with disagreement.

> shaking up a can of beans, ordinary shakers, hitting a spoon into a
metal
> surface,

mubah.

> someone's voice which make's sounds close to the sound of a musical
> instrument,

Again if it is altered, then the closer it is to a horn/wind/sting
musical
instrument, the closer it comes to being unlawful.

> lazer sounds,

This is not a natural sound - but is not an instrument either. It is
in a grey area.

> a clock ticking,

mubah.

> a drum kick (when a stick hits the actual instrument, the drum)

mubah with disagreement.

> a duff kick (when a stick hits the duff),

mubah without disagreement.

> making a hissing sound with the tounge, making different sounds with
the
> throat,

mubah without disagreement. Whistling is mubah with disagreement.

> hitting a pot or pan with a stick,

mubah with disagreement.

> snapping with the fingers,

mubah without disagreement.

> a crow noise, a pig oink, a monkey noise, a goat noise, an owl noise,
a cat
> noise,

All animal sounds are mubah without disagreement.

> a rubber band flicking noise, water droplet noise.

mubah with disagreement in its resembling a string instrument

> I could the sounds of those which are not considered "musical
instruments" and
> make a halal background tune through modern music production and then
rap the
> Guiding Helper to it. It would be a very creative project actually.

You can use any of the sounds above which are labeled mubah or
mubah with/without disagreement.

...Wassalamu `alaykum wa rahmatullah

Abuqanit Hasani
Main Author
Guiding Helper Foundation

Assalamu alaykum,

A brother once told me about how Habib Zain and Habib Ahmad Mashur al Haddad were debating the issue of music and Habib Ahmad Mashur al Haddad jokingly asked Habib Zain if he thought that he would be sinful were he to twang a string tied one end to another.

Anyways, this is an important question - I await the answer esp. regarding computer generated musical sounds and similar examples.

I doubt you'll get a definitive answer given that you effectively need to use analogy to go from the musical instruments of days past to today's doodas and wotsits, especially as there was disagreement even back then as to what the defnition was..

Well using a 1/2 a cat's meow i've made a melody that sounds pretty nice actually.

<snip>

<snip>

Islam Q&A
Sheikh Muhammed Salih Al-Munajjid (www.*************)

Sister, it would be good if you could link rather than copy and paste large excerpts of text wherever possible. You can do this using the [ url] tags in the reply button.

Funnily enough, that fatwa contradicts itself as it provides evidences which indicate that musical instruments are of certain types only (the definition of ma'aazif not including the ones in Ohossino's post), as well as the evidences which indicate that things we would consider as music are not within their own self-serving definition.

Seeing as you have Hanafi as your madhab, I would recommend not relying overly much on IslamQA as they actively rubbish and misunderstand a variety of the mashur positions within the madhab - saying they are completely invalid, as well as presenting minority opinions from it as part of their "evidences" for their personal ijtihad.

Cor, that was a strongly worded paragraph by me.. Must be dinner time..

Quote:

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Originally Posted by muminah

(continued from above .....)
Islam Q&A
Sheikh Muhammed Salih Al-Munajjid (www.*************)

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...

:salam:

Quote:

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Detailed analysis of the arabic word `ma`aazif ` shows that it refers to musical instruments, the sounds of those musical instruments and singing with the accompaniment of instruments.

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http://www.inter-islam.org/Prohibitions/Mansy_music.htm

I once asked Mufti Yusuf regarding digitally created sounds. He said that if the end result is similar to the sound created by musical instruments, then it would fall under the same ruling as instruments.

For a detailed answer, please contact a fatwa site such as SunniPath or ask-imam.com.

Allah knows best.