The Ruling of Songs

The unlawfulness of songs is undoubted in jurisprudence and the major argument for its unlawfulness are four groups of hadiths. However, none of these hadiths denote the absolute unlawfulness of songs. Most of them are not absolute and those which appear to be absolute such as the hadiths mentioned in the interpretation of “qawl al-zur”, “lahw al-hadith” and “lagw” (vain talk) as well as the sahih hadith of Ali b. Ja’far denote, based on internal and external evidence, a specific kind of songs which contain the falsehood and diversion which drives the individual out of the path of God.