Recordings › In Depth: Is Music allowed in Islam? | Mufti Abu Layth · 18 Sep 2019 › Segment 11 of 12
Why is celibacy praised despite a hadith against it while music is condemned without one?
hadeeth ahadith ahaadeeth hadis hadees ahaadith saheeh saheeh hadith sound hadith authentic al-bukhari imam bukhari sahih al-bukhari sahih bukhari saheeh al-bukhari saheeh bukhari imam al-bukhari qadi ayyad qadi iyaad al-qadi iyad imaam imams prayer leader udhiyah qurbani qurbaani udhiya udhiyya kurbani masjid masjed masaajid masajid muftis haraam forbidden mubah mubaah muhaddith muhaddithun muhadith muhaddithin muhaddithoon jahannam jahanam jahannum 'alim aalim ulama ulema ulamaa nikah nikkah nikaah nikah nama nikahnama taqwa taqwaa muttaqi god-consciousness deen al-din ad-deen ad-dinThe celibacy test: a sahih hadith condemns it yet it is praised, while music has none against it
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This segment1:00:02 to 1:06:32 · 6 min 30 sGeneral teaching
What this part covers
machinesummary, machine-writtenA sahih hadith condemns the vow never to marry, yet unmarried scholars are praised in books like Abu Ghudda's, because celibacy fits the picture of religion as self-denial; music, which fits the opposite picture, is condemned although no clear sahih hadith names it. The default law remains that everything is permissible unless proven otherwise.
In more detail
To show the backdrop at work, Mufti Abu Layth takes celibacy as an example, noting that unlike music it even has a sahih text against it: the hadith in which three men vow to pray all night, fast every day and never marry, and the Prophet condemns all three from the minbar, asking what is wrong with people who think this piety, and saying he himself sleeps, breaks his fast and marries. Yet, he says, if someone announced that out of commitment to God he would have nothing to do with marriage, people would hardly condemn him, and this still happens in parts of the world. He cites the book by the hadith scholar Abd al-Fattah Abu Ghudda on the unmarried scholars who preferred knowledge over marriage, listing figures such as al-Nawawi and Ibn Taymiyya, and notes that Qadi Iyad in his biographies also records who chose not to marry; Mufti remarks that refraining from marriage did not always mean refraining from sex, a point few pick up. This choice was hailed and praised and scholars wrote endorsements of the book, with little resistance, despite a clear hadith against it, because it fits the backdrop of suffering, denial of desire and tedium. Music, by contrast, has not a single sahih hadith clearly and unequivocally condemning it: the Bukhari hadith says entertainment, which could mean clubs or many other things, and is only interpreted as music, while the hadith that name music are weak or problematic. So, he says, in his understanding the default law is that everything is permissible unless proven otherwise.
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Position stated
Mufti Abu Layth says celibacy was praised in the tradition despite a sahih hadith condemning it, because it fits people's picture of religion as suffering and self-denial, whereas music, which has no sahih hadith against it, is condemned.
“it ties in with that backdrop of suffering and indulgence anti desires and tedious and its anti Islamic but it doesn't matter because it ties in with this backdrop”
Category: teaching
Kind: general teachingTranscript
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art not a religion just religion they will come out with very similar things like rituals sacrifice suffering anti world indulgence anti desires being you know celibacy things like celibacy tying to being anti desires being so it's the same kind of things they will come up with now once you have that you don't even need texts to make things Hara because II even if there was nothing to say music is haram it already clashes with your understanding of religion right let me give you an example imagine
somebody came up with over let's say they chose something new a new thing which wasn't from Islam but it tied in with one of these how would it be condemned I don't know get anything of an example so
hmm let's say I tell you like let's say right so see it does help to be on drugs doesn't it and I think he would be mad no it doesn't say no to drugs that was a joke bad joke all right so the thing is right there sorry so the point is I was still a joke oh okay let's take celibacy as an example since the quick bright
thinking minds of the future or sitting in front of me in York are so quick to come up with answers right I'll just using the quantum we raised our just erase your answers and I'll just give one as an example right so so let's take let's take celibacy as an example now you see that's actually funny celibacy I mean it's not funny it's actually very boring I'm sure but the point is what's interesting is what makes it fun is we actually have a text with the Prophet condemned syllabus like you all know the hadith where the man comes the Prophet says all three men come and one says I
will you know I stay up all night and I'll pray and another one says all fast and not open my fast and another person says I'll never marry any women and stuff like this and the profit goes to mosque makes and a hot body condemns all three and says what's wrong with people you know my bad well I mean they come to me what's wrong with people they tell me their piety and they think this is pious and he says why don't you go to sleep during the night and if you want to pray just pray a small portion why don't you you know fast and not fast and he says and what's wrong with getting married and so that the point is so we actually have a text which is sahi but let's take this as an example so we've actually looking at it from a it's slightly
handicapped - the thing is right so it's not even a level plane we're looking at it with the fact that we've got existing texts yet do you actually think that people would oppose it if a person said in I'm going to commit myself to God and due to my commitment it bar my commitment the thing is due to my commitment to God I'm not gonna I'm not going to indulge
in any marriage or have anything to do with women how do you think how much do you think people would condemn them do you think they would condemn I mean I know they would say but do you think they would really condemn him I don't think they would this actually happens in several parts of the world even now there was a book written by chef Abdel Fattah Hooda a famous hadith of sure we he wrote Alama al ahzab alladhina Arthur L alice' watch that those Bachelor
Alomar who preferred knowledge over marriage he wrote this book where he lists throughout the centuries people like for example Imam no we've heard of no we never got married entertainment even at emia never got married some of you thinking that boy why's that that's not surprising as a joke right all day I I do appreciate even a team yeah so the thing is but I suppose being he was imprisoned thought that kind of but he didn't get married there were many others many others that didn't get married what's the caveat here though
right people a on it today so it's okay so anyway so he wrote this book saying those called a bachelors fellows who preferred in over marriage you know when you read through the topic art of the ala ma they several like Adi odd has a book Spanish famous legendary Don of Muslim Spain called the vertical yet according up yeah alright good so right so I should blog a few names just to check make up a few names but I've heard of so the thing is so father Yod when he's writing my graffiti of people he'll say or so-and-so and he
chose not to get married do they condemn it no I know the question here is that I suppose people are gonna go into the hole they're not gonna go you guys didn't go into the hole Kong keeping each thing the I suppose he didn't go into that way after Futaba but that doesn't touch up a he speaks of historical figures so although they refrain from marriage does not equate to necessarily refrain from sex but nevertheless a lot of people don't pick up on that point but the point was he presents this as saying marriage compared to knowledge and knowledge was
above marriage for these people and they sacrificed their life for that this was hailed and praised people wrote tapa reeled in praising this book I feel you would have very little resistance yet you have a clear hadith condemned you ever hadith that the Prophet said any comments on a tea yet people would not because it ties in with that backdrop of suffering and indulgence anti desires and tedious and its anti Islamic but it doesn't matter because it ties in with this backdrop
now you take something like music which actually doesn't have a single sahih hadith condemning sorry let me sorry sorry I have to add that caveat in the about sorry it has to be clear unequivocal so the hadith in Bihari that they present says entertainment now they interpret entertainment to me music my entertainment could mean my clubs could mean all kinds of places doesn't have to mean music but they interpret it as music Maha's if it uses the term as if but the point is that
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Cite this segment
Stable id, transcript version and tier are part of the citation. Every change to a transcript is logged.Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 2019-09-18-S11, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/axxub9lxfoc/s/11/ (accessed 1 November 2026)
- APA 7
Mufti Abu Layth. (2019, September 18). Why is celibacy praised despite a hadith against it while music is condemned without one? [Video, segment 2019-09-18-S11, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/axxub9lxfoc/s/11/
- Chicago author-date
Mufti Abu Layth. 2019. "Why is celibacy praised despite a hadith against it while music is condemned without one?" Video, segment 2019-09-18-S11, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded September 18, 2019. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/axxub9lxfoc/s/11/
- BibTeX
@misc{abulayth-2019-09-18-S11, author = {Mufti Abu Layth}, title = {{Why is celibacy praised despite a hadith against it while music is condemned without one?}}, year = {2019}, month = {9}, date = {2019-09-18}, howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/axxub9lxfoc/s/11/}}, url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/axxub9lxfoc/s/11/}, organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive}, urldate = {2026-11-01}, note = {Segment 2019-09-18-S11, auto-transcribed, may contain errors} }
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