Islam and music

The relationship between Islam and music is complex and has been long debated. Some Muslims believe that the Qur'an and Sunnah prohibit music (instruments and singing); however, others believe that some forms of music are permissible. Even so, music flourished in the Islamic world, although it was often confined to palaces and private homes to avoid censure.
In many parts of the Muslim world devotional/religious music and secular music is well developed and popular. In recent decades, "the advent of a whole new generation of Muslim musicians who try to blend their work and faith", has given the issue "extra significance".
Historically, Islamic art and music flourished during the Islamic Golden Age, yet it continued to flourish until the 19th century in the Ottoman, Safavi, and Mughal Empires. Ottoman music in particular developed into a diverse form of art music. It influenced Western composers of the Classical period. Islamic music is also credited with influencing European and Western music; for example, French musicologist Baron Rodolphe d'Erlanger in his assessment of the Abbasid Caliphate in Islamic history credits Abu Nasr Muhammad al-Farabi's Kitabu l'musiqi al-kabir ("The Great Book of Music") with this influence.
The question of whether music is permitted or forbidden in Islam is a matter of debate among scholars. The Qur'an does not specifically refer to music itself. Some scholars, however, have interpreted the phrase "idle talk", which is discouraged, as including music.
Music appears in several hadith in an unfavorable way, with one example being: "Singing sprouts hypocrisy in the heart as rain sprouts plants." But there is disagreement over the reliability of these narrations. Another hadith reads: "There will be among my Ummah people who will regard as permissible adultery, silk, alcohol and musical instruments." But again, the reliability of this hadith has also been questioned, most notably by Ibn Hazm al-Dhahiri.
Among the groups that believe the Quran and Islamic tradition "strictly" prohibit music are the Salafi, Wahhabi, and Deobandi denominations.
In his survey of Islamic scholarship of "enjoined what was good and forbade what was bad" in accordance to Islamic law, modern Orientalist historian Michael Cook found that
Prohibitions of music are rare or non-existent in majority-Muslim states since the coming to power of Muhammad bin Salman in Saudi Arabia, but have often been enforced where Islamist insurgents have gained power – in Afghanistan under Taliban rule; and at least as of January 2013, "across much of the two-thirds of Mali ... controlled by Islamic rebel groups".
According to the grand mufti of the Al-Azhar University, there is nothing in the Islamic reports prohibiting music:
and that music was played by the sahaba and Tabi'un:
There is a fairly wide difference of opinion over what exceptions can be made to the prohibition on music. Examples of what is allowed include: vocals but not instruments; vocals but only if the audience is of the same sex; vocals and drums, or vocals and traditional one sided drum and tambourine, but no other instruments; any kind of music provided it is not passionate, sexually suggestive, or has lyrics in violation of Islamic principles.
Imam al-Ghazali, reported several hadith and came to the conclusion that music in and of itself is permitted, saying: "All these Ahadith are reported by al-Bukhari and singing and playing are not haram." He also references a narration from Khidr, wherein a favorable opinion of music is expressed.
According to Hussein Rashid, "contemporary scholars including Shaykh al-Azhar Mahmud Shaltut, Shaykh Yusuf Qaradawi, and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini have all issued legal rulings that audio arts [including music] that do not encourage people to go against the faith are permitted." Notable people who are regarded as having believed music is halal include Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi, Ibn al-Qaisarani, Ibn Sina, Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi, Rumi, Ibn Rushd, and Ibn Hazm.
Yusuf al-Qaradawi in his book "The Lawful and the Prohibited in Islam", states songs/singing is not haram unless:
Based upon the ahadith, numerous Iranian Grand Ayatollahs; Sadiq Hussaini Shirazi, Mohammad-Reza Golpaygani, Lotfollah Safi Golpaygani, Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi, Ahmad Jannati and others, ruled that all music and instrument playing is haram, no matter the purpose. Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini held a similar religious position, stating on 23 July 1979: "If you want independence for your country, you must suppress music and not fear to be called old‐fashioned. Music is a betrayal of the nation and of youth." During the Iranian Revolution, Khomeini said: "...music is like a drug, whoever acquires the habit can no longer devote himself to important activities. We must completely eliminate it." From 1979 to 1989, all the music on radio and television was banned except occasional "revolutionary songs" that were performed in a strong martial style. After Khomeini's death, reformist Rafsanjani and Khatami administrations gradually lifted the ban on music. The current supreme leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, in 2014 has stated his admiration of Western music, and nowadays music is officially permitted in Iran by the government as long as it is Iranian -- Iranian folk music, classical music, and pop music is allowed.
At least a few sources blame prohibition of music not on rigorous interpretation of scripture but the association of "fashionable" secular music "with erotic dance and drinking" (Jacob M. Landau), or "illicit behavior tied to music, rather than to the music itself" (Hussein Rashid). According to Rashid, the Quran, "contains no direct references to music", and hadith contains "conflicting evidence"; Landau states that scholars antagonistic to music "relied on forced interpretations of a few unclear passages in the Qurʾān" or Hadīth".
Notwithstanding prohibitions on music by certain Islamic scholars, in many parts of the Muslim world devotional/religious music and secular music is well developed and popular. Historically, Islamic art and music flourished during the Islamic Golden Age. Today, secular and folk musical styles in the Muslim Middle East are found in Arabic music, Egyptian music, Iranian music, Turkish classical music; and in North Africa, Algerian, and Moroccan music. South Asia has distinctive style of music – Afghan, Bangladeshi, Maldivian, Pakistani music.
Nasheed is a Muslim devotional recitation music recited in various melodies by some Muslims of today without any musical instruments, or possibly with percussion.
Music for public religious celebrations includes:
At least according to one scholar, Jacob M. Landau, not only is secular and folk music found in regions throughout the Muslim world, but Islam has its own distinctive category of music -- the "Islamic music" or the "classical Islamic music" — that began development "with the advent of Islam about 610 CE" as a "new art". It formed from pre-Islamic Arabian music with "important contributions" from Persians, Byzantines, Turks, Imazighen (Berbers), and Moors. This music "is characterized by a highly subtle organization of melody and rhythm", where "the vocal component predominates over the instrumental", there is no harmony, only "a single line of melody", and the individual musician "is permitted, and indeed encouraged, to improvise". The core area where it is found stretches "from the Nile valley to Persia", and the farther away one travels, "the less one finds undiluted Islamic music."