by Asma bint Shameem
ANSWER
Praising the Prophet ﷺ in poetry and listening to Nasheed (naat) is “generally” permissible.
However, we must be very careful when it comes to listening to naats or anaasheed (plural of nasheed).
I say this because nowadays, a LOT of Naats especially from the Indo Pak region contain MANY objectionable things.
For example:
🔺 MANY naats contain words of clear SHIRK!
These naats have words where
they’re making Duaa to the Prophet ﷺ, asking him to fulfill their needs, or asking for his help or stating that he is “haazir naazir”, or he is watching over them or that he knows the unseen, etc.
ALL of that is major shirk!
🍃Allaah says:
“And who is more astray than one who calls (invokes) besides Allaah, such as will not answer him till the Day of Resurrection, and who are (even) unaware of their calls (invocations) to them?
And when mankind are gathered (on the Day of Resurrection), they will become enemies for them and will deny their worshipping.”
(Surah al-Ahqaaf 46:5-6)
🔺The words of the naat exaggerate in the praise of the Prophet ﷺ although he said:
🍃 “Do not exaggerate in praising me as the Christians praised the son of Maryam, for I am only His slave, so say: ‘the slave of Allaah and His Messenger.’” (al-Bukhaari 3261)
🔺The naat and nasheed are accompanied by music and musical instruments. And it is well established that all kinds of music is haraam.
🍃Allaah says:
“And of mankind is he who purchases idle talks to mislead (men) from the path of Allaah…” (Luqmaan 31:6)
🍃 Al-Hasan al-Basri said:
"This aayah was revealed concerning singing and musical instruments.
🔺 Also be careful of those nasheed that are accompanied by acapella.
Acapella is making the “sounds” of music with the mouth without using any ‘actual’ instruments.
That is also haraam in Islaam.
That’s because it produces the same effect as music.
The prohibition is because of the SOUNDS produced and the EFFECTS of those sounds, irrespective of HOW the sounds are produced.
🔺 Here’s what some of the scholars said about listening to naats or anaasheed:
🍃 Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen said:
“I think that Islaamic nasheeds have changed from what they were before.
They were done with voices that were not enchanting, but now they are done with enchanting voices, and they are also accompanied by evil and corrupting tunes and they say that they are accompanied by the duff, but all of this means that one should keep away from these nasheeds.
But if a man comes to us and sings anaasheed that have a sound meaning, and which do not include any nonsense, and uses his voice only with no musical instruments, there is nothing wrong with that. Hassaan ibn Thaabit used to recite poetry in the masjid of the Prophet Sal Allaahu Alayhi wa Sallam.”
(Duroos wa Fataawa al-Haram al-Madani, question 18)
🍃 And Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen also said:
“As for what is found in some books of different formats of salawaat (blessings upon the Prophet) based on rhymed prose and descriptions of the Prophet’s attributes, it may contain descriptions that are applicable only to the Lord of the Worlds.
So you should avoid these things and flee from them as you would flee from a lion, and do not be deceived by what is in them of eloquent prose that could make the eyes weep and the heart melt. You should adhere to the original texts, and shun this which has been written with no guidance or authority."
(Fataawa Noor ‘ala ad-Darb (8/2)
🍃 Shaykh Ibn Baaz said:
“Islaamic nasheeds are like poetry: if it is sound then it is sound and if there is anything objectionable in it then it is objectionable.
The conclusion is that you cannot pass one judgement on all types of nasheed, rather each should be examined on its own merits.
There is nothing wrong with sound nasheeds, but nasheeds which contain anything objectionable or promote anything objectionable are objectionable and evil.“
(Shareet As’ilah wa Ajwabah al-Jaami’ al-Kabeer 90/A).
🔺The conditions for the permissibility of listening to anaasheed are:
1.The words of the nasheed must be free of haraam and foolish words.
2. The nasheed should not be accompanied by musical instruments.
No musical instrument is permitted except the duff for women on certain occasions.
3. It should be free of sound effects that imitate musical instruments, because what counts is what appears to be the case, and imitating haraam instruments is not permissible, especially when the bad effect is the same as that which happens with real instruments.
4. Listening to nasheed should not become a habit which takes up a person’s time and affects his duties and mustahabb actions, such as affecting his reading of Qur’aan and calling others to Allaah.
5. The performer of a nasheed should not be a woman performing in front of men, or a man with an enchanting appearance or voice performing in front of women.
6. One should avoid listening to performers with soft voices who move their bodies in rhythm, because there is fitnah in all of that and it is an imitation of the evildoers.
7. One should avoid the images that are put on the covers of their tapes, and more important than that, one should avoid the video clips that accompany their nasheeds, especially those which contain provocative movements and imitations of immoral singers.
8. The purpose of the nasheed should be the words, not the tune.”
(Islamqa Fatwa # 91142)
🔺Beneficial Alternative
Instead of listening to naats and anaasheed, I would advise you to listen to the recitation of the Qur’aan.
Not only will you enjoy the recitation, and attain tranquility but you would also get rewards for listening to the Words of Allaah Subhaanahu wa Ta’aala.
And Allaah knows best
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