Recordings › In Depth: Is Music allowed in Islam? | Mufti Abu Layth · 18 Sep 2019 › Segment 6 of 12
Is it haram to write or sing lyrics about alcohol?
hadeeth ahadith ahaadeeth hadis hadees ahaadith sahih saheeh sahih hadith saheeh hadith sound hadith al-bukhari imam bukhari sahih al-bukhari sahih bukhari saheeh al-bukhari saheeh bukhari imam al-bukhari masjid masjed masaajid masajid muftis haraam forbidden makruh makrooh makruh tahrimi makruh tanzihi kufr kuffar kafir kaafir kufar kaafirun qiyamah qiyama qiyamat yawm al-qiyamah yawm al-qiyama resurrection 'alim aalim ulama ulema ulamaa in sha allah insha'allah in shaa allah insha allah inshaa allahAre lyrics about alcohol haram? Enjoining good is not policing, blind following, and whether God gets sarcasm
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This segment26:09 to 30:08 · 3 min 59 sGeneral teaching
The answer in brief
machinesummary, machine-writtenLyrics about alcohol are not haram, since such poetry was recited in the Prophet's mosque, and declaring something haram because it might lead to bad behaviour is lying on God's behalf. Enjoining good is not policing, scholars need not be followed blindly, and God understands sarcasm as well as we do.
In more detail
An audience member asks whether writing lyrics about alcohol is haram. Mufti Abu Layth says it is not, because such poetry was recited in the Prophet's mosque in front of the Prophet, as recorded in Bukhari. To a question about free will he suggests that it is our understanding of enjoining good and forbidding evil that needs questioning: it is not about going around with a stick, policing people or forcing them. Saying that something leads to bad behaviour and therefore God made it haram is, he says, lying on God's behalf, which he will not do. The classical scholars gave their reasons, such as accepting a hadith he considers weak, but nobody follows all the scholars blindly, so there is no reason to follow them blindly here; not all scholars said music is haram, and many challenged it from the Prophet's time on. He cites al-Shawkani, a hadith master who disliked music himself, as concluding impartially that none of the chains is authentic while still not encouraging people to listen. Mufti says he is not a big fan of music himself and makes a joke about alcohol. When the Day of Judgement is invoked, he says this card is thrown too often: if humans can understand a joke, sarcasm, irony and metaphor, God certainly can, and to suppose otherwise is to infantilise and denigrate Him.
Question as read aloud · questioner not identifiedIs writing lyrics about alcohol haram?
- The question was reconstructed from Mufti Abu Layth's restatement; the questioner's own words are not in the recording
Position stated
Mufti Abu Layth says the scholars who called music haram gave their reasons but need not be followed blindly, since not all scholars said so and many challenged it from the Prophet's time on.
“we don't have to blindly follow them do you blindly follow all the scholars so then why are you blindly following these”
Category: method
Kind: general teachingTranscript
machine26:09 to 30:08 · click a time to seek · dotted terms open the glossary
broadband now to say sorry what's that got to do with music so you're saying okay now there's a question now you see you're asking me is incitement your question is is speaking about alcohol Haram you're asking me this like so it is writing power lyrics about alcohol Haram and the answer is no it isn't because this was being read in the prophet's mosque in front of the Prophet and that's in Sahil Bihari
what happened to free will but maybe it's our understanding of enjoining and forbidding which is needs to be questioned yeah because maybe it's not like go around with the stick and bash people and and try to get forced you know what was the purpose of things yeah but it's not about trying to police but look yeah but you're saying this thought of saying look I think this leads to behavior therefore we should say God made it Haram well why should we say God when he didn't do it like why should I lie where
do I get the audacity from to lie on behalf of Allah like look people say I think this leads people to bad behavior our ago let's just say Allah made it he didn't know I never said like a classical fellas not they actually give their reasons and I told you their reasons are like like like I said their reasons may be that they said oh I accept this hadith whatever okay if it's weak or I accept whatever the end they've given their reasons but we don't have to blindly follow them do you blindly follow all the scholars so then why are you blindly following these but you're just saying look all the scholars
have said this first of all all the scholars haven't said that many challenged it criticized it like right from the time of the Prophet coming down so they didn't all say that secondly yes people may have said that but wait we don't blindly follow duty so let's look at the evidences show kami who is a man of hadith who is a scholar and a legend of hadith and very impartial he doesn't even like music he actually says in the end I don't even like music he says looking at all and he brings all the chains he says all about being fair none of these chains are authentic but he says I still don't I said I still don't encourage people to listen to music I
don't like it myself whatever but he says let's just be honest with the text let's not lie that was his point anyway I mean look if we don't like music don't listen to it I I'm not actually a big fan of music to be fair but we difficult to believe now after I've said all of that it's just I only listen to it when I'm just low on alcohol that's a joke
don't worry about the day of judgement inshallah the thing is you know I think this kind of card that Muslims this you know this kind of card that Muslims kind of throw a lot like you know on the day of judgment well first of all look let me tell you something as a human being can you understand like let's say now I'm having a conversation can you understand this comes I mean you can understand my conversation obviously but you can understand oh look oh this is a joke or this is this you can understand this year so do you think God is incapable handicapped [ __ ] lacks in Tahlequah obviously if we can understand
why can't God understand they say oh he's being sarcastic I was being sarcastic though oh well if you can understand sarcasm what God can't understand sarcasm so you can understand things he caught what God doesn't get irony God doesn't get metaphor I mean what like so we can get oh it's okay oh it's I get what you're talking about but God I don't know you know it's gonna that's a bit that's a very you're looking that denigrating Allah like you're treating him infantilizing you treating him like a little child like oh he doesn't a week ago obviously we're mature we can get this kind of stuff we know you're talking this is humor is funny but God
he couldn't get that of course he can so the thing is I think we need to this is where I said it's evaluating our own concepts it's how we picture you know people say we need to truly understand God I agree with them we need to do because our understanding of God is sometimes a bit it can it can it can up it can be updated this is updates out there so oh I don't know how much cool for our disbelief I brought myself into the know I'll just check if there's a text
Paragraphs overlapping 26:09 to 30:08. Full text on the recording page.
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-S06, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/axxub9lxfoc/s/6/ (accessed 1 November 2026)
- APA 7
Mufti Abu Layth. (2019, September 18). Is it haram to write or sing lyrics about alcohol? [Video, segment 2019-09-18-S06, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/axxub9lxfoc/s/6/
- Chicago author-date
Mufti Abu Layth. 2019. "Is it haram to write or sing lyrics about alcohol?" Video, segment 2019-09-18-S06, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded September 18, 2019. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/axxub9lxfoc/s/6/
- BibTeX
@misc{abulayth-2019-09-18-S06, author = {Mufti Abu Layth}, title = {{Is it haram to write or sing lyrics about alcohol?}}, year = {2019}, month = {9}, date = {2019-09-18}, howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/axxub9lxfoc/s/6/}}, url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/axxub9lxfoc/s/6/}, organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive}, urldate = {2026-11-01}, note = {Segment 2019-09-18-S06, auto-transcribed, may contain errors} }
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