Big Business, "Muslim Rap"
By Khalid Baig
POSTED: 16 SAFAR 1424, 27 MARCH 2005
When the pagan Makkan army was marching to Badr in 2 A.H., it included not only
fighting men, weapons, camels, and horses, but also the means of inciting the
fighters: singing-girls and musical instruments. At every rest stop along the
way these cheerleaders plied their craft, spitting venom against the Muslims
and promising their favors in the most enticing ways to those who would destroy
them.
The army had been summoned to protect their trade caravan. When they learnt
that the caravan had escaped and some of them wanted to turn back, Abu Jahl
insisted on continuing: "No, I will not return to Makkah, until we have
refreshed ourselves at Badr, and spent three days in feasting, drinking wine,
and listening to the singing and playing of the singing-girls."
In the end, the unequal war in Badr did not turn out to be the picnic he had
imagined. Abu Jahl was slain, as were many other prominent leaders of Makkah.
The decisive victory at Badr by the ragtag Muslim army remains a constant
source of inspiration and education. It changed the course of history, for if
Muslims had been defeated, the magnificent Islamic civilization would not have
seen the light of day and the jahilyah society would have continued
uninterrupted.
At Badr Muslims drastically lacked the weapons of war. But it was the absence
of a particular weapon of war that symbolizes the moral edge that gave them the
victory. Unlike their adversaries the Muslim army did not include bands of
singing-girls and musical instruments!
There is no doubt that such bands could and did stir up emotions. At Uhud, the
chant of the singing girls was: "Move forward and we will embrace you. Turn
back and we will abandon you." In countless pagan wars before and since, the
promise has been the same. It works for the lowly beasts seeking the sensual
pleasures of this world, fanning the fires of their basest emotions and
bringing out the animal from within them. No wonder battlefields have
historically showcased the worst of human behavior and character.
Islam came to rid the humanity of such decay. It produced soldiers who fought
to establish justice and morality and sought nothing but the pleasure of Allah.
Their weapons were piety, sincerity, fear of Allah, an unshakable commitment to
right the wrong, and an unwavering willingness to sacrifice even their lives
for it. Quite naturally it removed the filth of singing girls and musical
instruments from its side of the war zone.
There were also other uses of music that Islam abolished in its revolutionary
remaking of society.
While in other religions music and singing have been an integral part of
worship, Islam's acts of worship do not require or permit music. What about the
argument that "sacred music" can bring one to a state of ecstasy and union with
God? Well, salat brings one closer to Allah. (There are historical accounts of
earlier Muslims some of whom reached such a state of absorption that they could
not feel even physical pain of surgery during salat.) It is very significant
that this closeness is achieved without any "sacred" music.
Music has also been a means of indoctrination and glorification. Trumpets were
blown to announce the arrival of His Majesty and to make people bow to his pomp
and glory. If this had been a legitimate use, then the person most deserving of
this honor would have been no one other than the Prophet . But to a world used
to the courts of monarchs with musicians always ready to glorify them, he
introduced a drastically different court. No pomp, no musicians, no music.
Historically music has also been associated with magic and superstitions. When
faced with disasters or epidemics, pagan people resorted to dance and music to
get rid of the evil spirits. The legend of the Pied Piper, popular in the West
for centuries, attests to the belief in the magical powers of music. In Arabia
singing girls called dajina (from dajana meaning cloudiness) sang to conjure
rain when clouds gathered. Islam instead taught its followers to turn to Allah
in salatul istasqa to pray for rain.
And of course music has also been used as a distraction and mindless
entertainment. This is what Nadr ibn Harith did to keep people from paying
attention to the Qur'an. He bought a singing girl and used her to "win the
hearts and minds" of anyone who appeared to be leaning to Islam. He was
condemned in Surah Luqman (31:6).
Islam did permit some singing and use of a simple instrument like duf (a small
one-sided drum) for weddings or Eid celebrations. It permitted rajaz singing
for jihad. These were exceptions to the general rule. Thus if we draw a graph
of music activity in the Muslim world against time, we will find it to be at
its lowest during the time of the Prophet and the Khulafa Rashidoon. Its
subsequent rise during the Umayyad and Abbasid Khilafah was a result of
external influences: Sassanid in Baghdad and the Byzantine in Damascus. The
graph went down after the fall of Baghdad and remained low for centuries. Its
latest rise came under the influence of the imperial West and began with the
conquest of Egypt by Napoleon where Khadieve Ismail (ruled 1863-1876),
dedicated to Europeanizing Egypt, built the first opera house in Cairo.
Throughout the Muslim world the colonial rulers used gramophone and then radio
to spread music far and wide. Then came the television and
a plethora of other gadgets, which have made it impossible to find a
music-free space anywhere. Today music playing on cell phones even invades the
sanctity of the most sacred of all places --- the house of Allah. What is more,
many Muslims are convinced they are serving Allah as they try to spread Islam
through music. I was struck the other day by stumbling on the following entry
on BBC's website: "Muslim rap is big business with annual sales in excess of
$1.8bn in America alone." [6 May 2004].
To gain an insight into the colonial project, we can turn to Henry G. Farmer
(1882-1965), the author of many books on Arabian music and the dean of the
music-in-Islam-crusade. Here is one bit of "wisdom" from him: Islamic censure
of listening to music was manufactured by the theologians of the Abbasid era
who were jealous of the inordinate attention paid to music and musicians!
Those who are not convinced by this "scholarly" explanation need to do
something to end the delusion and stop the profane noise.
