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(Excerpt)
Music
from the Sharia View
Defining
the problem and clarifying the point of contention
In order to
approach the issue of music from the point of view of Sharia (Islamic law), we
first have to define the problem. The issue of listening to music and singing
is a burning question for many of the Muslim youth today. The purpose of
writing this book is to clarify the position of music in Islam and to specify
which types of music and singing are permissible in Islam and which types are
forbidden. In the modem age, with the advent of electronic devices to play and
listen to music, and the advent of computer music, new dimensions have been
added to an already complicated issue.
In Islamic
Sharia, the correct approach to an issue is an essential element in deriving a
ruling. This requires that we understand the Islamic commandments through the
text of the Qur' an and the Sunnah (the practice and collected sayings of
Prophet Muhammad that, together with the Qur' an, forms the basis of Islamic
law). Then we take that understanding and apply it to the issue as it exists in
reality. By combining our understanding from the Qur'an and the Sunnah and
applying it to the issue, we derive the fatwa on the permissibility or impermissibility
of the issue at hand. In doing so, we also look at the harms and the benefits
related to the issue. The approach of the Islamic Sharia is to weigh the
benefits and harms of everything, because the ultimate aim of Sharia is to
benefit the society.
We can
dissect the problem into three parts:
1. Musical instruments such as duffs
(hand drums), pianos, guitars and flutes
2. Lyrics
3. Singers or composers
We will
approach this issue methodologically. First, we will look at the evidence from
the Qur' an and Sunnah regarding listening to music and singing. Then, we will
look at the harms and the benefits related to the issue of listening to music.
Next, we will look at the verdicts of the Companions and Islamic scholars.
Only then
we will be in a position to issue a legal ruling pertaining to music and
singing.
Before we
begin the discussion, it is important for us to understand that the ultimate
authority for Muslims is the Qur' an and the Sunnah. Allah (SWT) says:
It is not
for a believing man or a believing woman, when Allah and His Messenger have
decided a matter, that they should have any choice about their affair.i.a
(Qur'an 33: 36)
In soorat
(chapter) an-Noor (the Light), Allah, the Exalted, the Almighty says:
LSo let
those beware who dissent from the Prophet's order, lest fitnah strike them or a
painful punishment.s (Qur'an 24: 63)
The
above-mentioned verses of the Qur' an tell us that we should follow the
commandments of Allah (SWT) and His Messenger (PBUH).
We are not
allowed to find loopholes in those commandments by propounding our opinions or
by rationalizing our judgments simply because we are not used to seeing those
as the norms in the society. When we look around us, we see that music is
prevalent not only among non-Muslims but also among Muslims. However, the fact
that the majority of people listen to music is not a justification to make
music permissible because, as the Qur' an tells us in one instance:
If you
follow most of those upon the earth, they will mislead you from the way of
Allah. They follow nothing but assumption, and they are not but falsifying.s
(Qur'an 6: 116)
Position of the Qur'an regarding
music and singing
First
verse from the Qur'an
And of the
people are those who purchase idle talk [lahwal hadeethi in order to mislead
[others] from the way of Allah without knowledge, and who throw ridicule upon
it. Those will have a humiliating punishment.a (Qur'an 31: 6)
Abdullah
ibn Mas’ood (RA) said about this verse: "I swear by the One other than
Whom there is no God that it refers to ghind' (singing)," and he repeated
this three times. 1 The great Companion and interpreter of the Qur'an, Ibn 'Abbas
(RA), said that it referred to 'singing and the like,' whereas according to
Jabir ibn Abdullah, it means singing and listening to songs? Ibn Kathir writes
in his tafseer (explanation of the meanings of the Qur'an)
that many
tdbi'oon (those who knew or met any of the Companions and transmitted hadiths
from them) such as Mujahid, Ikrimah, Mak'hool, Sa 'eed ibn Jubayr, and Amr ibn
Shu 'ayb viewed it as a censure of music and song." Ibn Asakir narrates
the
l
1 Qadi
Mohammad ibn Ali Shawkani, Nayl al-Awtdr (Lahore: Dost Associate Publishers,
2000) and at-Tabari, Jdmi' al-Bayan Fi Ta'wil ayi'l Qur'an.
2 Imam Abu
Bakr Ahmad Bayhaqi, Sunan al-Kubrd, ed. Muhammad 'Abdul- Qadir Ata (Beirut: Dar
al-Kutub al-'Ilmiyah, 1423 AH/2003 CE) and I:Iiifidh Abul-Fida Imad ud-Deen Ibn
Kathir, Tafsir lbn Kathir (English translation)
(Jeddah:
Darussalam Publishers, 2000).
3 Ibid.
following
statement of Mak'hool:
If a person
hired a female singer so that she would play music and sing, and that person
stays on that condition until his death, then I will not go to his funeral
prayers because Allah has said in the Qur'an: ~And of the people are those who
purchase idle talk in order to mislead [others] from the way of Allah.s (Qur'an 31: 6) 4
Ibn Jarir
at-Tabari, in his tafseer Jdmi' al-Bayan, mentioned that the meanings of the
term 'lahwal hadeeth' (idle talk) can be formulated into three basic
categories, based on the statements of interpreters of the Qur'an. The first
category defines the term lahwal hadeeth:
(a) singing
and listening to songs,
(b) the
hiring of male or female singers and
(c) the
purchase of instruments of amusement, namely the drum.
The elements
of this category revolve around the reference to the blameworthy usage of
instruments of idle amusement, in short, music and song.i' Similarly, Imam
Qurtubi writes in his tafseer, explaining this verse:
Among all
the explanations of the term lahwal hadeeth, the most appropriate explanation
is ghina', and this is the position of the
Companions of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and their students (tabi 'oon). 6
4 Imam Abu
Muhammad al-Husayn Baghawi, Ma 'alim at-Tanzeel (Egypt: Mat'ba AI-Minar, 1347
AH).
5
at-Tabari, Jiimi' al-Bayan Fi Ta'wil ayi'l Qur'an.
6 Imam Abu
Abdullah Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Ansari Qurtubi, Al-Jami li Ahkam al-Qur'an
(Beirut and Egypt: Darul-Kutub Al-Misriyah, 1953).
It must be
noted here that the orthodox Islamic scholars have deduced four ways of tafseer
of the Qur' an:
1. Tafseer of Qur' an by Qur' an,
2. Tafseer of Qur' an by the Sunnah,
3. Tafseer of Qur'an by sayings of the
Companions, and
4. Tafseer of Qur'an by language."
The
explanations of the Qur' an by the Companions of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)
are extremely important in terms of understanding the Qur' an. Ibn Kathir, one
of the greatest commentators on the Qur' an, wrote in the preface to his
tafseer:
If we are
unable to find a suitable tafseer in the Qur' an or in the Sunnah, we go to the
opinions of the Sahabah [Companions].
For verily,
they knew the Qur'an better than anyone else due to their knowledge of the
circumstances of its revelation, their complete and accurate understanding of
it, and their righteous deeds.f
Second
verse from the Our/an
Then at
this statement do you wonder? And you laugh and do not weep while you amuse
yourselves [samidoon] in vanities? So prostrate to Allah and worship Him.
(Qur'an 53: 59-62)
7 Dr. Bilal
Philips, Usool at-Tafseer: The Methodology of Quraanic Explanation (Sharjah:
Dar Al Fatah, 1997).
8 Ibn
Kathir, Tafsir Ibn Kathir.
According
to Imam Abu Obaida, in the Yemeni dialect of the Arabic language, the word
sumood means singing. The same position has been taken by Ikrimah."
Furthermore, linguist expert Ibn Manzoor writes in his Lisiinul 'Arab (a
classical Arabic dictionary) about other words that come from the same root as
sumood:
It is
narrated by Ibn 'Abbas that the word sumood means singing. In fact, this word
is from the Yemeni dialect.
Therefore,
Ismadee lana means sing for us, and when it is said to a female singer
Ismadaina then this means 'intoxicate us by singing to us.' 10
Ibn 'Abbas
(RA) also elucidated that the word sdmidoon in this verse refers to the pagan
Arabs' habit of singing and playing music noisily whenever they heard the Qur'
an being recited, in order to drown out the reciter's voice so that others
would not hear it. The other possible meanings of the term sdmidoon from the
lexical point of view include: 'idle play,' 'being indifferent' and 'negligent
in their attitude.' All of these meanings are possible and
are not
contradictory in essence. 11
Third
verse from the Quran
9 Mahmood
ibn Abdullah Aloosi, Rooh al-Ma'iini fee Tafseer al-Qur'iin al- 'Adheem
was-Sab' al-Mathdni (Beirut: Dar al-Fikr, 1983).
10 Allama
Ibn Manzoor (Al-Afriki), Lisiinul 'Arab (Bulaq, Egypt: Mat'ba AI- Muneeria,
1304 AH).
11 Ibn
Kathir, Tafsir Ibn Kathir.
And incite
[to senselessness] whomever you can among them with your voice, and assault
them with your horses and foot soldiers, and become a partner in their wealth
and their children and promise them." But Satan does not promise them
anything except delusion.s (Qur'an 17: 64)
Some of the
tabi 'oon such as Dahhak, Hasan al-Basri and Mujahid interpreted Satan's
inciting humankind with his voice to mean through the use of music, song and
amusement. Dahhak said it was the sound of wind instruments. According to Ibn 'Abbas
(RA), the voice mentioned in the verse refers to every form of in~itation that
calls to the disobedience of Allah (SWT)y Ibn al-Qayyim writes in the
commentary of this verse of Qur' an:
Ibn Abi
Hatim quoted the interpretation of Ibn 'Abbas regarding 'your (Satan's) voice'
in this verse of the Qur'an as
everything
which invites to sin and disobedience of Allah. And it is well known that, of
all the things which invite to sin, music supersedes all of them. It is for
this reason that the voice of Satan is interpreted as singing. 13
It must
also be noted that renowned Shafii scholar and Sufi Shaykh Shahab ud-Deen
Suhrawardi has used the above- mentioned three verses from the Qur' an as the
evidences for the prohibition of music and singing in his book 'Awdri] al-Ma
'drif:
12 At-Tabari,
Jdmi' al-Bayan Fi Ta'wil ayi'l Qur'an.
13 Ibn
al-Qayyim al-Jawziyah, lghiithat ul-Lahfiin min Masd'id ash-Shay tan
(Dar
AI-Bayan, 1993).
Fourth
verse from the Qur'an
In
describing the qualities of believers, Allah (SWT) says:
And those
who do not testify to falsehood [az-zoor] and when they pass near ill speech,
they pass by with dignity.s
(Qur'an 25:
72)
Muhammad
ibn al-Hanafiyah and Mujahid interpreted az-zoor as singing. 14 Imam Ibn
Kathir, in his tafseer, also lists one of the meanings of az-zoor as singing.
IS Imam Abu Bakr al-Jasas states in the interpretation of this verse:
It is
narrated by Imam Abu Haneefah that az-zoor refers to ghina'
.... It is possible that in this verse, az-zoor implies music and singing, as
some scholars have considered it so. It is also possible that it could mean
saying something about which the speaker does not have the knowledge. Anyway,
since the word is general, both meanings could have been meant. 16
Now we will
mention the hadiths of Allah’s Messenger (PBUH) regarding music, which provide
more conclusive proof for the prohibition of music. In fact, these hadiths
establish the prohibition of music beyond any possibility of misunderstanding.
14 Ibn
Hajar al-Haythami al-Makki, Kaff ar-Ra'ii' 'an Muharramdt al-Lahwa was-Soma'
(Prohibiting People from the Forbidden Distractions and Singing) (Egypt:
Shirka' Maktaba wa Mat'ba Mustafa Al-Bfibi al-Halabi wa awladuhu, 1370 AH).
15 Ibn
Kathir, Tafsir Ibn Kathir.
16 Imam Abu
Bakr al-Jasas, Ahktim ul-Qur'an (Egypt: Al-Mat'ba AI-Bahia, 1347 AH).
Position of the Prophet regarding
music and singing
Some
Muslims with weak faith often argue: "If listening to music is prohibited
in Islam, why was this not clearly mentioned in the Qur'an? We only obey the
commandments of the Qur'an."
This
objection is not new, as it has been raised by many apologetic and modernist
Muslims over the whole course of Islamic history.
Soorah
Luqman, verse 6, provides a clear proof of the prohibition of music in Islam,
but we must go to the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (SWT) for further
clarification of any commandment of Islam. The Qur' an is general; it does not
go into the fine details of the various commandments but directs us to follow
Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) for guidance. The Qur'an tells us clearly:
... And
whatever the Messenger has given you - take, and whatever he has forbidden you
- refrain from ... ) (Qur'an 59: 7)
Our beloved
Prophet (PBUH) prophesized in his hadiths about the kind of people among
Muslims who would raise such objections against the commandments of Islam. In
one hadith narrated by al- Miqdam ibn Ma'dikarib, Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)
warned us:
«Beware! I
have been given the Qur'an and something like it, yet the time is coming when a
man replete on his couch will say: Keep to the Qur' an; what you find in it to
be permissible, treat as permissible, and what you find in it to be prohibited,
treat as prohibited.» (recorded by Abu Dawood and graded as sound by al-Albani)
Hadith 1
Saheeli
al-Bukhari, the most authentic book of Hadith, further confirms the
unlawfulness of music and singing with this hadith, in which the Prophet (PBUH)
said: «There will be people of my Ummah (nation) who will seek to make these
lawful (yastahilloonat: illegal sexual intercourse, the wearing of silk [by
men], the drinking of alcoholic drinks, and the
use of ma'drif (musical instruments).» (Bukhari)
An analysis
of Bukhari's hadith:
Detailed
analysis of the Arabic word 'ma 'azif' shows beyond any shadow of a doubt that
it refers to musical instruments, the sounds of those musical instruments and
singing with the accompaniment of instruments. Imam Qurtubi narrates that al-
Jowhari (the author of the early dictionary work a~-$ilJalJ) writes about three
words with the same Arabic root, asserting that ma 'azij signifies musical
instruments, al- 'azij indicates one who sings, and the 'az! of the wind is its
voice. Examples of musical instruments include the violin, drum, guitar,
fiddle, flute, piano, string, lute, mandolin, harmonium and others, as well as
the musical sounds of such instruments generated by any other means (such as
digitally-generated or computer-generated sounds).
Closer
analysis of the wordings of this hadith establishes the prohibition of music
for the following reasons:
1. The words 'seek to make lawful' show
that music is not permissible because one can only seek to make lawful that
which is not allowed.
2. If music was not prohibited, then it
would not have been brought within the same context as fornication and wine
drinking.
3. When we
look at these four items, another element appears. They are not only haram but
are mentioned with phrases such as 'an immorality and is evil as a way' (Qur'an
17: 32), 'those will have a humiliating punishment' (Qur'an 31: 6), and
'defilement from the work of Satan' (Qur'an 5: 90). Therefore, it can be
concluded that these sins are not minor sins. After all, what can be assumed about
the grouping of the four together in this hadith? It shows, at the very least,
that enjoying and listening to music is not a minor sin.
4. The Arabic word yastahilloona means,
'they will seek to make lawful.' This means that those people will not only
commit sin but they will also consider it to be permissible in religion. This
is the worst type of rebellion against religion, and it results in an increase
in the intensity of the sin committed.
5. If someone claims that music is only
unlawful when it is in combination with alcohol,
adultery and silk, this is a false claim. The reason is that if this were the
case, then why would music be the only exception? The same could also be
claimed for adultery, alcohol and silk, so one
could then make the case that alcohol or
adultery is also permissible unless it is found in combination with the other
things.
Hadith 2
«Soon there
will be people from my Ummah who will drink wine, calling it by other than its
real name. There will be instruments of music and singing on their heads, and
they will listen to female singers. Allah (SWT) will cleave the earth under
them and turn others into apes and swine.» (recorded by Ibn Majah and graded as
sound by al-Albani)
There are
various hadiths, narrated by at least thirteen different Companions of the Prophet
(PBUH), in which the reason for Allah's punishment is attributed to the
prevalence of musical instruments and singers. Some of those hadiths are
authentic, others are reliable and some are weak. However, when we take a
holistic look at all those hadiths, we reach the conclusion that is aptly
summed up by Ibn al-Qayyim:
It has
often been mentioned in hadiths that punishment will come to this nation, and
in most of these hadiths, this punishment is specifically linked to indulgence
in musical instruments and drinking alcohol. 17
Hadith 3
«Verily, Allah
(SWT) prohibited wine, gambling and the kuba, and every intoxicant is
prohibited. Sufyan said: I asked the narrator, 'Ali ibn Badheemah: What is the
kuba? He answered: It is the drum.» (recorded by Abu Dawood and Ahmad, and
graded as sound by al-Albani)
Hadith 4
«Verily, Allah
(SWT) has prohibited for my Ummah wine, gambling, a drink distilled from com,
the drum and the lute ... » (recorded by Ahmad and graded as sound by
al-Albani)
Hadith 5
«Verily, I
did not prohibit weeping, but rather I forbade two voices which are imbecilic
and sinfully shameless: one a voice [singing] to the accompaniment of musical
amusement (lahwa) and Satan's [wind] instruments; the other, a voice [wailing]
due to
17 Ibn
al-Qayyim, Ighdthat ul-Lahfdn min Masd'id ash-Shay tan.
some
calamity, accompanied by striking the face and tearing the garments. This
[weeping of mine] stems from compassion, and ~ whoever does not show compassion
will not receive it.» (recorded by al-Hakim and graded as reliable by
al-Albani)
Hadith 6
Anas ibn
Malik (~) related that the Prophet (PBUH) said: «Two cursed sounds are that of
the [wind] instrument played on the occasion of joy and grace, and woeful
wailing upon the occurrence of adversity.» (recorded by Al-Haythami, who
considered it sound)
Hadith 7
«Imam Nafi'
narrates that once when Abdullah ibn 'Umar (~) heard the sound of a flute being
played by a shepherd, he immediately put his fingers in his ears and diverted
his riding animal in the other direction. Then he asked his servant Nafi' (who
had not reached adolescence yet): Can the sound still be heard? Nafi' replied:
Yes. Abdullah ibn 'Umar (~) kept on walking until Nafi' told him that the sound
could no longer be heard. Abdullah (~) then removed his fingers from his ears
and told Nafi ' that he had seen Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) doing the same thing
when he (~) heard the sound of a flute being played by a shepherd.» (a sound
hadith recorded by Abu Dawood and Ahmad)
Hadith 8
«Tmran ibn
Husayn (~) narrates that the Messenger of Allah (SWT) said: In my Ummah, there
will be punishments of
earthquakes,
disfigurement of faces and showers of stones. A man from amongst the Muslims
asked: 0 Prophet of Allah! When will that happen? He replied: When singing
women and musical instruments become prevalent and drinking alcohol becomes common.» (a sound hadith recorded by
Tinnidhi)
There are
many more narrations of Prophet Muhammad (blessings and peace be upon him)
regarding prohibition of musical instruments and unlawful singing. Only a few
have been mentioned here. Imam Ibn Hajar al-Haythami (died 974 AHl1567 CE)
gathered all these hadiths, which total approximately forty, in his excellent
work, Kaff ar-Ra 'a' 'an Muharramdt al-Lahwa was- Samd' (Prohibiting People
from the Forbidden Distractions and Singing), and then concluded: "All of
this is explicit and compelling textual evidence that musical instruments of
all types are unlawfuL" 18
An incident
from the life of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) 'Ali ibn Abi Talib (~) said that he
heard the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) say: «I was never attracted to the bad
customs and amusements and entertainments of jdhiliyan (the age of spiritual
darkness before the dawn of Islam) except on two nights, when Allah (SWT)
protected me from any sin and kept me innocent. One night, I was with a few of
my young friends in Makkah, taking care of our herd of goats, when I heard the
sounds of musical instruments and singing. I asked them: What is that? They
told me that a marriage was taking place there. Allah, the Exalted, the
Almighty covered up my sense of hearing, and I went to sleep t
18
Al-Haythami, Kaff ar-Ra'd' 'an Muharramiit al-Lahwa was-Samd'.
for so long
that the rays of sun on the next morning woke me up. On the next night, I went
again towards that place and heard the same sounds of music and singing that I
had heard the night before. Again, Allah (SWT) covered up my sense of hearing.
I went to sleep, and only the heat of the sun woke me up the next mdrning.
After that, I neither intended nor was curious for such a thing until Allah
(SWT) granted me prophethood.» (a reliable hadith recorded by Ibn Hajar, Ibn
Is-haq, Bazzar, Bayhaqi, Abu Nu'aym and Ibn Asakir)
Before giving the final ruling on the issue of
the permissibility or impermissibility of listening to music, the harms of
music in the light of modern scientific research will be discussed in the next
few chapters.
Scientific Research about the
Effects of Music on the Body
Music is a
highly complex sound because it not only has the characteristics of a simple
sound but also has the additional element of rhythm. A rhythm means a movement
or variation characterized by the regular recurrence of different sounds. The
rhythm in music is time-dependent. It has effects upon the human body that can
be measured and recorded. When combined with singing, the effects of music upon
its listeners become even more
powerful.
Because people tend to consciously ignore auditory (listening) experiences, or
they consider them insignificant, there is little indication that they are
aware of either the power or the pervasiveness of music.
Several
scientific studies have been done to show that music and singing affect both
our bodies and our brains. Our responses to musical tempo could be due to our
body's own rhythms. Human hearts normally beat at a rhythm of about seventy to
eighty beats every minute, and interestingly, most Western music is paced at
that same tempo. 1
I Anne H.
Rosenfeld, "Music, The Beautiful Disturber," Psychology Today,
December 1985.
According
to musical composer Roger Sessions, music is controlled movement of sound in
time. Elaborating on this definition, Anne H. Rosenfeld, a psychologist and
musician, explains:
The notion
of control in music is important. Music is rarely the spontaneous outpouring of
whatever sounds someone happens _~() be moved to make. It is highly patterned
sound, chosen and shaped, consciously or not, in quite logical ways that often
follow rigid rules.?
Hence,
music is a powerful force that has profound effects on its listeners. It is not
simply an innocent entertainment or a haphazard mixture of sounds. In fact,
music is composed of highly structured and carefully chosen sounds, as psychologist
Rosenfeld pointed out. Therefore, listening to music is not an issue of merely
seeking
entertainment; listening to music has deep consequences on our bodies and our
behaviours. It is for this reason that the matter of listening to music has
been taken seriously in the teachings of the Qur' an and the Sunnah. In this
chapter, we will discuss the effects of music on the human body and brain in
light of modern scientific research.
Scientific relationship between music
and emotions
In the
past, scientists thought that reason and emotions were
completely
separate from each other, but that view has been changing recently. It has been
shown that our emotions are much 2 Rosenfeld. "Music, The Beautiful
Disturber."
faster than
our thought process, and they can hijack the linear reasoning process of the
brain due to their speed." Antonio Damasio, head of neurology at the
University of Iowa and a prominent researcher on human brain function, has
recently challenged the traditional view in his book Descartes' Error:
Emotion,
Reason and the Human Brain. He argues that psychology's conventional idea of a
separation of reason from emotion is wrong, and that emotions actually playa
central role in human decision-making. Damasio shows that rational decisions
are not the result of logic alone but are profoundly affected by emotions and
feelings."
There are
scientific studies which provide evidence that people experience emotions while
listening to music. For example, Pike's analysis of music experience, published
in the Journal of Research in Music Education in 1972, concerned an experiment
carried out on a number of participants with no musical training who were asked
to listen to different pieces of music. The results of that study showed that
96 of participants experienced a feeling of pleasure, 83 experienced a feeling
of oneness with the music, 72 felt transient mood states, and 65 had the
feeling of movement. The findings of this study provided evidence that
listeners do experience emotions in relation to music. 5 Researchers have also
shown evidence of expressive behaviour in responses to music. In 1991, there
were two separate
3 J.T.
Cacioppo and W. L. Gardner, "Emotion," Annual Review of Psychology 50
(1999): 191-214.
4 Antonio
Damasio, Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain (New York: Quill
Publishers, 1994).
5 Alfred
Pike, "A Phenomenological Analysis of Emotional Experience in Music,"
Journal of Research in Music Education 20 (1972): 262-267.
studies,
one by John A. Sloboda of the University of Keele (UK)6 and another by A.
Gabrielsson (a Canadian researcher)," which showed that people cried when
they listened to certain kinds of music. In addition, studies using facial
electromyography (EMG) have demonstrated that facial expressions change while
people listen to expressive music, and the listeners are sometimes not even
aware of this." In the same vein, researchers Nyklicek,
Thayer and
van Doornen have reported evidence that, depending on the type of music (happy,
sad, agitated, or calming), there are cardio-respiratory effects (such as
increasing or slowing down of the heartbeat, breathing, or pulse rate) on
individuals listening to . 9 music.
In
discussing human responses to music, Pennsylvania State University psychologist
Julian Thayer argues that music "may have innate, universal underpinnings
directly related to certain elements of sound, in general, and music, in
particular." lO For instance, the mood of high-pitched music is understood
to be happy and playful, while the mood of low-pitched music is regarded as sad
and serious. All this discussion provides evidence that there is a profound
relationship between music and emotions.
6 John A.
Sloboda, "Music Structure and Emotional Response: Some Empirical
Findings," Psychology of Music 19 (1991): 110-120.
7 A.
Gabrielsson, "Experiencing Music," Canadian Journal of Research in
Music Education 33 (1991): 21-26.
8 Witvliet
and Vrana (1996), quoted in John A. Sloboda and Patrik N. Juslin,
"Psychological Perspectives on Music and Emotion," in Music and
Emotion: Theory and Research, edited by John A. Sloboda and Patrik N. Juslin
(New
York:
Oxford University Press, 2001), 71-104.
9 1.
Nyklicek, J.F. Thayer and L.J.P. van Doornen, "Cardiorespiratory
Differentiation of Musically-induced Emotions," Journal of
Psychophysiology 11 (1997): 304-321.
10
Rosenfeld, "Music, The Beautiful Disturber."
This is
because music affects the limbic system, which is the region of the brain that
regulates our emotions, as will be discussed later.
Biological
effects of music on the body A few studies have explored a special kind of
intense biological response of the human body to music, known as 'thrills.'
According to the Oxford English Dictionary (1933), a thrill is defined as 'a
subtle nervous tremor caused by intense emotion or excitement (as pleasure,
fear, etc.), producing a slight
shudder or
tingling through the body .. .'
These
reports suggest that such bodily responses to music are quite common. One such
study was carried out at Stanford University (California) by Avram Goldstein, a
scientist who studied the phenomenon of the spine-tingling chill that often
results in goose bumps, tears, or a lump in the throat. Since music affects our
emotions, Goldstein tested to see if music has the ability to cause thrills in
its listeners. He found (as shown in the table below) that 96 of his subjects
reported such thrills in response to music, as compared to much lower rates for
physical exercise (36), problem solving (57), spectator sports (52) or even
sexual activity (70).11 Moreover, a comparison of the physiological responses
of the individuals indicated that listening to music caused more physical
arousal than being enthralled by a novel or mesmerized by a beautiful picture.
11 Avram
Goldstein, "Thrills in Response to Music and Other Stimuli,"
Physiological Psychology 8, no. 1 (1980): 126-129.
After
analyzing 250 participants in his study, Goldstein found that the most
frequently mentioned thrills occurred in response to music. A typical thrill is
described as a tingling sensation, a shudder or a chill which emanates from the
back of the neck and spreads to the front of the face and over the scalp, as
well as downward along the spine and forward over the chest, thighs and legs.
It may also be accompanied by palpitation, tension of facial muscles and
incipient weeping. Goldstein observed that there was no difference between men
and women in regard to the thrills caused by music.
Goldstein
did another experiment to prove that the thrills caused by music are due to
endorphins (natural painkillers in our body), as is the case with other
emotional responses. One group of people listening to music was injected with
naloxane (a chemical that prevents the occurrence of thrills in our body) while
the other group was injected with only salt water, but the participants were
not told what they had received. The findings clearly demonstrated that thrills
became very weak or did not occur in the listeners who were injected with
naloxane.12 This study provides scientific evidence that something powerful
happens to many people emotionally when they listen to music. It was found that
the most powerful stimulus for evoking thrill-like sensations in the human
subjects was music. Hence, music causes arousal in the subjects; in other
words, it can increase the heart rate, alter the respiratory rate, raise the
pulse rate and dilate the pupils.
12 A vram
Goldstein, "Thrills in Response to Music and Other Stimuli."
Table:
Different types of stimuli that gives us "Thrills"
Item
of people who
experienced
thrills
Musical
passages
Scene in a
movie, play, ballet or book
Great
beauty in nature or art
Physical
contact with another person
Climactic
moments in opera
Sexual
activity
Sudden
insight or solution to a problem
Particular
moments at a sports event
Particular
fragrances
Physical
exercise
96
92
87
78
72
70
57
52
39
36
Summarized
from: "Thrills in Response to Music and Other Stimuli"
Physical
Psychology, (1980) Vol. 8, No.1, pp. 126-129
Electroencephalography
(EEG) is a medical procedure used to measure the brain's electrical activity.
In order to estimate the effects of music on the human brain, scientists have
employed EEG and placed electrodes on the scalps of the subjects while music
was played to them. In one such study by Schmidt and Trainor, it was observed
that while a person is listening to the music, various areas in the brain
become activated (which could be due to changes in blood flow pattern in those
brain areas). They also noted that there was comparatively greater activity in
the left (frontal) portion of the brain when the music expressed joy and
happiness, whereas greater activity was noticed in the right portion of the
brain with music expressing fear and sadness.13
This could
be because the right and left sides of the brain control different emotions.
When singing is accompanied by musical instruments, it becomes extremely
powerful in terms of affecting the emotional responses of the subjects. In a
study published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology in 1972,
researchers Galizio and Hendrick demonstrated that the subjects who listened to
a song became more aroused, were easier to persuade and were more likely to
accept the message of a song when it was accompanied by a guitar, as compared
to the song without a guitar. 14
Biological
effects of music on the brain When music is played, it acts much like an
intoxicant, in that it makes a person forget about his or her surroundings. It
takes the mind into a delusional state. In the realm of the mind, there is
mounting evidence that certain types of music have a negative effect on one's
ability to think and learn, especially at the time he or she is listening to
the music. Studies at two separate universities, for example, have found that
rats have a much more difficult time learning to pass through a maze if they
are subjected to rock music, as noted in an Insight magazine article on April
27,
13 L.
Schmidt and L. Trainor, quoted in Isabelle Peretz, "Listen to the Brain: A
Biological Perspective on Musical Emotions," in Music and Emotion: Theory
and Research, edited by Patrik N. Juslin and John A. Sloboda (New York: Oxford
University Press, 2001), 105-133.
14 M.
Galizio and C. Hendrick, "Effect of Musical Accompaniment on Attitude: The
Guitar as a Prop for Persuasion," Journal of Applied Social Psychology 2
(1972): 350-359.
In other
words, the learning abilities of rats deteriorated temporarily due to the
influence of music. Music blurs the critical judgment abilities of the brain.
The human
brain is the organ of thought, speech and emotions; it acts as the body's
control center. The brain consists of many parts, such as the brain stem (an
extension of the spinal cord), the cerebrum and, above the brain stem, the large
forebrain known as the cerebellum. The cerebellum consists of left and right
brain hemispheres. Deep within the forebrain is the region comprising the
limbic system, which includes structures such as the amygdale, hippocampus and
hypothalamus. The limbic system in our body has the following functions:
.:. control
of emotions
.:.
emotional responses (including sexual response)
.:.
hormonal (chemical) secretions
I
.:. mood
.:. pain
and pleasure sensations
.:.
long-term memory
Emotions
and feelings like aggression, fright, passion, love, hate, joy and sadness all
originate in the limbic system. This system is also responsible for some
aspects of personal identity and for important functions related to memory. If
damage occurs to the limbic area of the brain (due to disease or an accident),
the most commonly observed effects are abnormalities of emotional response,
such as inappropriate crying or laughing, easily provoked rage, anxiety and
depression, and excessive sexual interest. 15
15 Charles
B. Clayman, MD, ed., The American Medical Association Home=
Figure: Music affects the same region of
the brain that is stimulated by the sex hormones, alcohol
and drugs
It seems
that sex, drugs and rock and roll are so strongly connected to one other that
they even stimulate the same region of the human brain, that is, the limbic
system, as shown in the figure.
Among human
beings, youth is already a period of great stress. In male adolescents, the
production of the male hormone testosterone is increased to twenty times the
normal level, and the production of female hormones increases similarly in
adolescent =Medical Encyclopedia: An A-Z Reference Guide to over 5000 Medical
Terms
(New York:
Random House, 1989).
girls. At
puberty, the limbic system of the brain is stimulated by the surge of these sex
hormones, which may be a significant factor in acts of aggression among the
youth.l"
Teenagers
enjoy the pounding music
that stimulates the limbic system of the brain, which is the same region of the brain that is
activated by sex hormones. Interestingly, alcohol
also acts on the limbic system, stimulating it and causing aggression.t Drugs such as cocaine and crack
also act on the brain's limbic system (especially the hypothalamus) to generate
over-stimulation, aggression, loss of appetite and nervousness. In fact,
many people
take drugs
like cocaine in order to boost their sex drives. It is little wonder that the
incidence of violent crimes is highest among persons between the ages of 15 and
24.18 Similarly, of 130 suicide cases studied at the University of San Diego,
the use of alcohol and other drugs was the major
factor in 66 of those cases.i" Dr. Paul King is assistant professor of
child and adolescent psychiatry at the Medical School of the University of
Tennessee, Memphis. He notes, "Music that speaks directly to young people about sex, violence, and
suicide may be a serious
public health problem.,,2o
In
addition, the hippocampus,
which is part of the brain's limbic system, is involved in the formation of long-term memory
16 B.
Geller and D.E. Greydanus, "Aggression in Adolescents: Aspects of
Pathogenesis," Journal of Adolescent Health Care 1, no. 3 (1981): 236-243.
17 Paul
King, M.D., "Heavy Metal Music and Drug Abuse in Adolescents,"
Postgraduate Medicine 83, no. 5 (April 1988): 295-301, 304.
18 S.B.
Guze, Criminality and Psychiatric Disorders (New York: Oxford University Press,
1976).
19 CL,
Rich, D. Young and RC. Fowler, "San Diego Suicide Study. 1. Young vs. Old
Subjects," Archives of General Psychiatry 43, no. 6 (1986): 577-582.
20 King,
"Heavy Metal Music and Drug Abuse in Adolescents."
Role of music and singing
in arousing sexual feelings
In 1871,
Charles Darwin took note of the role of music in arousing sexual feelings by
proposing that music serves to attract sexual partners" One does not need
to emphasize that whether in the East or the West, the most prevalent theme of music and singing is sex.
The sexual element has always been present in most of the world's dancing
accompanied by music. In many pre literate cultures, music and dancing served as preliminaries to
mating and were closely connected with the choice of a marriage partner.
This is similar to the dancing seen in animals during courtship. For example, a
peacock dances with its beautiful feathers displayed before mating with a
peahen.v' and it even produces sounds while dancing.
The reason
for the widespread prevalence of - and addiction to - music, singing and dancing is their appeal to the
inborn sensual desires of most people. In this context, this statement
of Plato's about music can be easily understood: "Rhythm and melody,
accompanied by dance, are the barbarous expression of
21 Charles
Darwin, The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex (London: John
Murray, 1871).
22 A.
Loyau, M. Saint Jalrne and C. Cagniant, "Multiple Sexual Advertisements
Honestly Reflect Health Status in Peacocks (Pavo cristatus)," Behavioral
Ecology and Sociobiology 58, no. 6 (2005): 552-557.
the
soul." 23 In fact, in his famous book The Republic, Plato demanded strict
censorship over popular music. He feared that citizens "would be tempted
and corrupted by weak and voluptuous airs and led to indulge in demoralizing
emotions." The spirit of music has been better summed up in a very laconic
and precise saying of the early Muslim scholar al-Fudayl ibn Iyad?4 "Ghina'
is a prelude to zind (adultery or fornication).,,25
Accordingly,
we cannot overemphasize the observation that teenagers are even more prone to the pernicious effects
of music than people in other age groups. The relationship between music
and sexuality can also be understood by the observation that when teenagers reach the age of
puberty, they tend to receive inspiration
from the prevalent themes of
music and singing, as noted by Elizabeth Brown and William Hendee:
Music is
important to adolescents in many ways. For example, music plays a large role in
adolescent socialization. As adolescents gain independence, they turn to music as an
information source about sexuality and alternative lifestyles, subjects that
are largely taboo in both home and school.i''
'II,
23 Allan
Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987).
24
Al-Fudayl ibn Iyad was the great Islamic scholar of the science of tazkiyah
(purification of the self). He was regarded as one of the shuyukh as-salaf
(scholars of the early generations) by Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah in his
Majmoo'ul
Fatdwa (vol. 10) under his commentary of 'Abdul-Qadir Jilanis Futooh al-Ghayb.
He died in 187 AH.
25 Shaykh
Shahab ud- Deen Suhrawardi, 'Awdri] al-Ma 'drif (Beirut: Darul Kitab Al-'Arabi,
1966).
26 E.F.
Brown and W.R. Hendee, "Adolescents and their Music: Insights into the
Health of Adolescents," The Journal of the American Medical Association
262 (1989): 1659-1663.
In research
published in 1971, social scientist R. Cole reported that nearly three-fourths of the lyrics of
the top songs of the 1960s used love and sex as their predominant theme.r"
The trend did not change over later years. In more recent research published in
the Journal of Communication in 1986, researchers Sherman and Dominick found
that song lyrics did not become less sexually oriented in the 1970s and
1980s.28 In the same vein, Christenson and DeBenedittis noted in their study
published in 1986 that popular
music lyrics contain references - explicit and metaphorical- to sexual
activity.f" These
results show that much of the popular music focuses on sexual themes.
The
research conducted on the biological effects of music on the human body, which was cited
previously, shows how music has a powerful emotional and physical effect on the
listeners. One can easily understand what the consequences of listening to such
music and singing can be. The results of these scientific studies clearly
suggest that when singing
is accompanied by musical instruments, this increases its power and influence
in persuading
the listeners to the path of
corruption and lewdness.
t
Research on
endorphins and self-delusion Endorphins are natural painkillers in our bodies
that are released in times of massive stress or trauma. This is a natural
27 R. Cole,
"Top Songs in the Sixties," in Mass Communication and Youth: Some
Cultural Perspectives, edited by F. Gerald Kline and P. Clarke (Beverly Hills,
CA: Sage Publications, 1971).
28 B.
Sherman and J. Dominick, "Violence and Sex in Music Videos: TV and Rock
'n' Roll," Journal of Communication 36, no. 1 (1986): 79-93.
29 P.
Christenson and P. DeBenedittis, "Eavesdropping on the FM Band: Children's
Use of Radio." Journal of Communication 36, no. 2 (1986): 27-38.
mechanism
that takes place in our bodies, at the time of an accident or injury, to reduce
the intensity of pain. There is a trade- off, though, in that we lose alertness
and attentiveness, moving into a state of self-delusion where we lose the
sensation of pain. Simply stated, endorphins have pain-relieving properties
similar to drugs such as morphine and codeine, which also cause loss of
attentiveness.
Music has
the same effect in the psychological realm. The limbic system of the brain
plays a major role in the reaction to music. That portion of the brain has
regions called opioid receptors that are highly sensitive to the presence of
endorphins, which blunt the feeling of pain. The fact that music affects the emotions so profoundly could
be due to the involvement of music in the release of endorphins, which cause
the emotional responses that we feel. Due to the lessening of the pain, listening to music may
make a person feel better. However, this is a very short-term effect, which
lasts only while the music is being played. This unfortunately may lead a person to
play music all the time to get that feeling, leading to addiction. This is how
drugs work, too.
People try
to alleviate the anxiety of the self through intermediates that in reality are
shallow. They are like food, which satiates the hunger, but only temporarily.
This is true of the spiritual hunger as well, in that music satiates the soul
only temporarily. In addition, music is not even a pure food; it is what Professor Allan
Bloom calls 'junk food for the soul.,30 Such a food is more like the saltiest water of the
sea; the more a person drinks it, the thirstier he or she gets. Such a food is actually detrimental
to our spiritual health because it grinds down our spiritual strength and puts
us into a state of spiritual self-delusion.
30 Bloom,
The Closing of the American Mind.
Healthful
food is constructive for our physical body; it builds it up. On the other hand,
when junk food enters into
our body, it feels tasty to the tongue, but it is unhealthy for our body.
In the same way, listening
to music is not spiritually beneficial, and it causes spiritual diseases of the
heart in its listener.
The diseases of the heart, according to the great
Muslim scholar Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyah;" can be divided into two major categories: diseases of doubts and diseases
of desires.V
Diseases of doubts creep into the heart when the
level of faith is reduced. This happens when hypocrisy is nurtured in the heart due to listening
to music. There is a profound
link between listening to music and the disease of hypocrisy, as will be
shown in detail later in this book.
Diseases of desires
arise when the heart
succumbs to the lowly desires of the self and wants to go into a state of
self-delusion. Music
ignites sexual passions in its listeners and acts as a drug, as will be
shown in detail in the next chapter of this book.
A diseased heart will bring
about the wrath of Allah (SWT) on the Day of Judgment. Only spiritually sound
hearts, free from spiritual diseases, will be successful on that day, as
mentioned in the Qur' an:
31 Ibn
al-Qayyim al-Jawziyah was one of the greatest Islamic scholars of all times. A
devoted disciple of Ibn Taymiyah, he was a prolific writer who wrote original
and well-researched books on various Islamic subjects including tafseer,
jurisprudence, hadith, music, psychology, and many others. He died in 751 AHI
1350 CE.
32 Ahmad
Farid, comp., The Purification of the Soul (London: AI-Firdous Publications
Ltd., 1989).
The Day when there will not
benefit [anyone] wealth or children but only one who comes to Allah with a
sound heart. (Qur'an 26: 88-89)
The heartbeat rhythms and the musical
rhythms
Rhythm
is a physical force that exists in nature, in the beating of our hearts, our
walking, and our breathing, for example. Our bodies readily respond to strong,
external rhythmic stimuli from drums, pulsating beats, hypnotic lighting
effects and the like. It is little wonder that the most soothing music
usually beats at about seventy to eighty tones per minute, which resembles the
natural rhythm of a heartbeat.
The defining characteristic of
jazz is its pulsating rhythm, and its drumbeat resembles the heartbeat in that
both involve beats of about seventy-two times per minute. Due to the
intoxicating rhythms of music, people can be 'possessed' by music and surrender
themselves to the music in the process. Music can hypnotize people and, hence, capture their
minds. The basic
feature of hypnosis is repetition, just as the main ingredient of any music is
repetition. A repetitive
beat, ideally in the range of seventy-two beats per minute (as we said, close
to the beat of the human heart) is very hypnotic, and prolonged exposure to
such a rhythm can be trance-inducing. The steady, repetitive drumbeat can
generate an altered state of consciousness, and it can place the listener's
mind into a dangerous state of suggestive hypnosis. In such a hypnotic state,
the messages of the songs become imprinted on the minds of their listeners
without any critical analysis; their minds passively absorb what the songs tell
them. Renowned American composer, electric guitarist and record producer
Frank Vincent Zappa wrote in Life magazine on
June 28,
1968: "The ways in
which sound affects the human organism are myriad and subtle... the loud sounds
and bright lights of today are tremendous indoctrination tools."
~usicologist Leonard Meyer, in his famous book Emotion and Meaning in Music,
describes the same rhythmic quality of music.
According
to Meyer, music
is generally arranged in such a way that certain melodies or themes of a song
are presented, repeated and modified with other themes. Then the original
melodies or themes eventually come back in the song, and this gives us a
feeling of comfort and relief. This occurs not only in a classical symphony but
also in folk or pop music, since the chorus and verses in the song alternate,
but the song always ends with a
familiar phrase or
verse.33
Rhythm was the main ingredient
in the prolonged periods of singing, dancing, chanting, and drumming of
primitive peoples.
The purpose of such rhythmic
exercises was to induce altered states of consciousness such as trances.
Indeed, certain kinds of drumming may produce these trance-like states by
driving the brain's electrical rhythms, as has been proposed by
psychological anthropologist Ralph G. Locke and experimental psychologist
Edward F. Kelly of the Spring Creek Institute, Durham, North Carolina.
i
Corruption of the heart through the
ears
At the
School of Behavioural Sciences in New South Wales, researcher Roderick Power demonstrated
that sight and sound are
33 Leonard
Meyer, Emotion and Meaning in Music (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1961) quoted in Rosenfeld, "Music, The Beautiful Disturber."
the
major senses in our body, while the senses of taste, touch and smell hold
secondary importance and may depend on cues furnished by those major sensesr'"
All sounds impact us, and they
can nourish or debilitate. For this reason, ears are the major inroad to the
corruption of the heart. Satan knows how to exploit this weakness in human
beings, which is why Allah (SWT) says regarding him:
~"And incite
[to senselessness] whomever you can among them with your voice, and assault
them with your horses and foot soldiers, and become a partner in their wealth
and their children and promise them." But Satan does not promise them
anything except delusion.' (Qur'an 17: 64)
Satan leads human beings astray by
his voice - that is, by music and singing.
Music is
part of his grand plan to lead human beings to the path of disobedience to Allah
(SWT). Satan corrupts the human heart (which is both the physical and
spiritual organ of cognition in human beings)35 through the ears. It is true
that it is hard to protect our ears, more so even than our eyes. That is why, in the Qur' an, the
sense of hearing is mentioned before the sense of sight. For example, Allah
(SWT) says:
34 Roderick Power, "The Dominance of Touch by Vision:
Occurs with Familiar Objects," Perception 10 (1981): 29-33.
35 Gohar Mushtaq, PhD, The Intelligent Heart, The Pure
Heart: An Insightinto the Heart based on Qur'on, Sunnah and Modern Science
(London: Ta-HaPublishers, 2006).
.. .Indeed the
hearing, the sight, and the heart - about all those [one] will be questioned
[by Allah]) (Qur'an 17: 36)
At the time of birth, the newborn's
sense of hearing is fully functional, whereas a baby cannot see or
recognize objects beyond a certain distance. It takes infants a few weeks
before they can recognize the faces of different people. In the Qur' an, Allah
(SWT) tells us in different places:
And Allah has
extracted you from the wombs of your mothers not knowing a thing, and He made
for you hearing and vision and hearts that perhaps you would be grateful.a
(Qur'an 16: 78)
Say: It is He who has
produced you and made for you hearing and vision and hearts; little are you
grateful.s (Qur'an 67: 23)
Hence, in
the Qur' an, the reference to the sense of hearing is made first, and then the
sense of sight is mentioned. This is because the sense of hearing is developed first in the child (a fact
that has been only recently discovered by scientists). Also, it is a
common observation that children listen for a long time before they begin to
speak.
Moreover, Prophet
Muhammad (PBUH) used to make the following supplication to Allah (SWT) in
the morning and in the evening, in which he mentioned the sense of hearing
before the sense of seeing: O Allah, grant my body health, O Allah, grant my hearing
health, O Allah, grant my sight health. None has the right to be worshipped
except You.» (Bukhari, Abu Dawood and Nisa'i)
The
importance of the sense of hearing can also be understood by the fact that
this sense has been mentioned along with intellect in the Qur' an:
And they will say: If
only we had been listening or reasoning, we would not be among the companions
of the blaze.s (Qur'an 67: JO)
Similarly,
at another place in the Qur' an, the sense of hearing is associated with
understanding:
Our Lord, indeed we have
heard a caller [Muhammad] calling to faith: Believe in your Lord; and we have
believed ... ~ (Qur'an 3: 193)
Also, the relationship
of the heart and the ears is described in the Qur'an as follows:
Indeed, in that is
indeed a reminder for whoever has a heart or who listens while he is present
[in mind].' (Qur'an 50: 37)
If we look
at the sense of hearing, it is circular, in contrast to the sense of sight,
which is linear. In other words, we can hear from all directions, but we
can see only what is in front of us. In fact, psychoacoustician Reinier
Plomp has argued that the "most striking property of the hearing system is
its ability to analyze the world of superimposed sounds and to separate them
according to their various sources. ,,36
If there is an act of disobedience to
Allah (SWT) happening in front of us, we can close our eyes or turn our faces
away very easily, but to protect our ears, we have to physically leave that
place.
Furthermore,
the sense of hearing can work in the dark as well as in the light, whereas
eyes cannot see in the dark; they can only see in the presence of light.
Similarly,
the sense of hearing stays active even when we are asleep, whereas the sense
of seeing stops operating when a person goes to sleep.37 A loud sound can
wake a sleeping person. For this reason, smoke detectors produce a loud sound,
not a bright light, because if there is a fire while people are sleeping, they
can be awakened by hearing a loud sound.
In the
story of the cave dwellers, Allah (SWT) tells us that He covered their sense of
hearing so that their sleep would not be disturbed:
~So We
cast [a cover of sleep] over their ears within the cave for a number of years.'
(Qur'an 18: 11)
36 Reinier
Plornp, The Intelligent Ear: On the Nature of Sound Perception (Mahwah, New
Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2002).
37 Ibid.
Hence, it
is harder to protect the ears from sins than it is to protect the eyes. Music
destroys our spiritual heart through the ears. The fact that our ears are
the easiest inroad to the corruption of the heart can be understood by the scientific
findings indicating that auditory nerves are some of the predominant nerves in
the body. This is why our ears are very sensitive, and there is
plenty of evidence for this.
Our brains
comprise left and right hemispheres, which perform different functions.
Consequently, our left and right ears have different ways of processing
information obtained from music and singing. In other words, one ear processes
the emotional tone of the singer, and the actual content of the song,
differently from the other ear. British neurologist John Hughlings Jackson
was the first to notice that difference between the two ears.38 Later on,
'dichotic listening' experiments were done in this area. In dichotic studies,
different sounds or sound patterns (in this case, music and songs) are
presented to the two ears through earphones. By studying which ear's signals
are better discriminated, researchers can tell which ear processes which
type of music.
For
example, in 1982, Ley and Bryden discovered, by conducting dichotic studies
with normal adults, that the left
ear is better at recognizing the emotional tone of the singer's voice,
while the right ear does a
better job of recognizing the actual content of the words in the same sentences
of a song?9 It seems that our ears are very sensitive to the type of
information entered
38 John H.
Jackson, "On Affections of Speech from Disease of the Brain," Brain 1
(1878): 304-330.
39 P.
Bryden, R. Ley and J. Sugerman, "A Left-ear Advantage for Identifying the
Emotional Quality of Tonal Sequences," Neuropsychologia 20 (1982): 83- 87.
because
that information will eventually have effects on our actions. It is a fact,
as we have seen in the evidence from the Qur' an, from the traditions of
Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), from his Companions and from the scholars of Islam,
that singing and music go together. It is no wonder that by combining singing and music,
Satan exploits both the left and the right ear in order to cause sickening of
the spiritual heart.
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