Ruling on listening to Shi‘i nasheeds if they are free of objectionable content

Nowadays Shi‘i nasheeds are widely available, with beautiful voices. They are not about their beliefs and so on; the words are quite ordinary, but they are Shi‘i nasheeds with their usual style. Many people like this style and listen to it. What is the ruling on that? Please note that they do not contain any musical instruments.

Praise be to Allaah.

Listening to these nasheeds -- even if we assume that they are free of things about which one would have reservations on the basis of sharee‘ah -- involves a number of evils: 

1.They usually generate in the heart love and admiration for the munshid (“singer”), which is contrary to how the believer should be, namely he should hate innovation and those who promote it, and should beware of them and of feeling inclined towards them. 

2.They may introduce him to something that is contrary to sharee‘ah without him realizing it, because he likes the voice and is infatuated with it, so he does not pay attention to the corrupt meaning conveyed by the voice, and it may settle in his heart without him realizing it. It is well known that language is the vessel of thoughts, and people’s language -- let alone their nasheeds and tunes -- may soon instil in him some of their beliefs, customs and ideas, without him noticing it or paying attention. 

3.Listening to these “singers” may encourage others to follow his example and listen to all their nasheeds, without differentiating between those that contain things that are contrary to sharee‘ah and those that are free of such things. 

Hence we should ignore these nasheeds and avoid even speaking of them, and we should not increase the number of people who listen to them or propagate them. 

We have previously discussed the prohibition on listening to the nasheeds of those who follow innovation (bid‘ah) that contain things that are contrary to sharee‘ah, in the answer to question no. 125645. 

We should reduce how much we listen to nasheeds in general, even if they are songs by righteous people, so that this will not distract us from the Qur’aan and listening to scholars. 

And Allah knows best.

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