Anasheed
Encyclopedia
Anasheed is Islamic vocal music
that is either sung a cappella
or accompanied by percussion instruments such as the daff
. In general, true Islamic anasheed does not contain lamellaphone instruments, string instruments, or wind and brass instruments, although digital remastering—either to mimic percussion instruments or create overtones—is permitted. This is because many Muslim scholars
interpret Islam as prohibiting the use of musical instruments except for some basic percussion.
Anasheeds are popular throughout the Islamic world. The material and lyrics of anasheed usually make reference to Islamic beliefs, history, and religion, as well as current events. Nasheeds are also popular among Sufis.
The use of musical instruments is implicitly prohibited in the Ahadith. The founders of all four of the major madhabs—schools of thought in Islam—as well as many other prominent scholars, have debated the legitimacy and use of musical instruments. One such example of the scholars' opinions is of the famous Muslim
scholar, Abu Hanifa, according to whose madhab, the Hanafi
madhab, if a person is known to listen to such forbidden musical instruments, their testimony is not to be accepted. Another Islamic scholar, Ibn Taymiyyah, once said that music is like alcohol to the soul. Almost all Muslim scholars traditionally have held that music with all its instruments are Haraam
: forbidden by the hadith
, as well as by tradition. The only instrument commonly allowed is the duff, which is a small hand drum, similar in size to a tambourine, but lacking bells.
Some of the closest companions of Muhammad
, namely Abdullah ibn Abbas and Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, state in their Tafsir
s (commentaries on the Qur’an) that “Laghwal Hadith” mentioned in the above verse of Qur’an “.. is singing”. In particular, it is reported that Abd Allah ibn Mas'ud used to "swear by Allah and say that idle talk is singing."
In addition to this basic evidence, both Sunni and Shi'ite scholars cite several other passages from the Qu'ran as evidence for the prohibition of musical instruments.
of Sunni Islam, Muhammad
said that musical instruments are sinful:
“Narrated Abu 'Amir or Abu Malik Al-Ash'ari (a companion of Muhammad
) that he heard the Prophet saying, "From among my followers there will be some people who will consider illegal sexual intercourse, the wearing of silk, the drinking of alcoholic drinks and the use of musical instruments, as lawful…”
have agreed that every type of music and musical instruments is Haraam
. These scholars include the four imams
, namely Imam Abu Hanifa, Imam Malik, Imam Shafi'i and Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal.
However, this remains thoughts of some. While most think singing is not prohibited by Islam, the matter of musical instruments remains an argument.
A lot of new nasheed artist are non-Arabs and sing in different languages, like English or Turkish. Some of the nasheed bands are Native Deen
, Outlandish
and Raihan
. Other well known foreign artists are Yusuf Islam -formerly known as Cat Stevens
-, Sami Yusuf
, Maher Zain
, Mesut Kurtis, Dawud Wharnsby, Zain Bhikha
and many others.
As for Arabic nasheed artists -or Munshids-, some of the well known are Abu Mazen, Abu Rateb, Abu Al joud, Abu Dujanah, Abdulfattah Owainat, and many others. Some of the well known Arabic nasheed bands are Al Rawabi, Al I'atisam, Al Baraa', Al Wa'ad and many others.
Appealing to a significant Muslim crowd and also leading to performance of such artists at Islamic orientated festivals (such as Milad
), conferences, concerts and shows, including ISNA
, Celebrate Eid, and Young Muslims. Other artists and organisations such as Nasheedbay promote an instrument-free stance with nasheeds, differing from the current trends of the increasing usage of instruments in nasheeds.
Vocal music
Vocal music is a genre of music performed by one or more singers, with or without instrumental accompaniment, in which singing provides the main focus of the piece. Music which employs singing but does not feature it prominently is generally considered instrumental music Vocal music is a genre of...
that is either sung a cappella
A cappella
A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...
or accompanied by percussion instruments such as the daff
DAFF
DAFF may refer to:*Danish American Football Federation*Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry , various*Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries...
. In general, true Islamic anasheed does not contain lamellaphone instruments, string instruments, or wind and brass instruments, although digital remastering—either to mimic percussion instruments or create overtones—is permitted. This is because many Muslim scholars
Ulama
-In Islam:* Ulema, also transliterated "ulama", a community of legal scholars of Islam and its laws . See:**Nahdlatul Ulama **Darul-uloom Nadwatul Ulama **Jamiatul Ulama Transvaal**Jamiat ul-Ulama -Other:...
interpret Islam as prohibiting the use of musical instruments except for some basic percussion.
Anasheeds are popular throughout the Islamic world. The material and lyrics of anasheed usually make reference to Islamic beliefs, history, and religion, as well as current events. Nasheeds are also popular among Sufis.
The use of musical instruments is implicitly prohibited in the Ahadith. The founders of all four of the major madhabs—schools of thought in Islam—as well as many other prominent scholars, have debated the legitimacy and use of musical instruments. One such example of the scholars' opinions is of the famous Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
scholar, Abu Hanifa, according to whose madhab, the Hanafi
Hanafi
The Hanafi school is one of the four Madhhab in jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. The Hanafi madhhab is named after the Persian scholar Abu Hanifa an-Nu‘man ibn Thābit , a Tabi‘i whose legal views were preserved primarily by his two most important disciples, Abu Yusuf and Muhammad al-Shaybani...
madhab, if a person is known to listen to such forbidden musical instruments, their testimony is not to be accepted. Another Islamic scholar, Ibn Taymiyyah, once said that music is like alcohol to the soul. Almost all Muslim scholars traditionally have held that music with all its instruments are Haraam
Haraam
Haraam is an Arabic term meaning "forbidden", or "sacred". In Islam it is used to refer to anything that is prohibited by the word of Allah in the Qur'an or the Hadith Qudsi. Haraam is the highest status of prohibition given to anything that would result in sin when a Muslim commits it...
: forbidden by the hadith
Hadith
The term Hadīth is used to denote a saying or an act or tacit approval or criticism ascribed either validly or invalidly to the Islamic prophet Muhammad....
, as well as by tradition. The only instrument commonly allowed is the duff, which is a small hand drum, similar in size to a tambourine, but lacking bells.
Prohibition in the Qur’an
It is stated in the Qur'an thatAnd of mankind is he who purchases Laghwal Hadith to mislead (men) from the Path of Allâh without knowledge, and takes it (Verses of the Qur'ân) by way of mockery. For such there will be a humiliating torment (in the Hell-fire).
Some of the closest companions of Muhammad
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
, namely Abdullah ibn Abbas and Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, state in their Tafsir
Tafsir
Tafseer is the Arabic word for exegesis or commentary, usually of the Qur'an. Ta'wīl is a subset of tafsir and refers to esoteric or mystical interpretation. An author of tafsir is a mufassir .- Etymology :...
s (commentaries on the Qur’an) that “Laghwal Hadith” mentioned in the above verse of Qur’an “.. is singing”. In particular, it is reported that Abd Allah ibn Mas'ud used to "swear by Allah and say that idle talk is singing."
In addition to this basic evidence, both Sunni and Shi'ite scholars cite several other passages from the Qu'ran as evidence for the prohibition of musical instruments.
Prohibition in the Hadith
According to the authentic collectionSahih al-Bukhari
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī , as it is commonly referred to, is one of the six canonical hadith collections of Islam. These prophetic traditions, or hadith, were collected by the Persian Muslim scholar Muhammad ibn Ismail al-Bukhari, after being transmitted orally for generations. Muslims view this as one of...
of Sunni Islam, Muhammad
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
said that musical instruments are sinful:
“Narrated Abu 'Amir or Abu Malik Al-Ash'ari (a companion of Muhammad
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
) that he heard the Prophet saying, "From among my followers there will be some people who will consider illegal sexual intercourse, the wearing of silk, the drinking of alcoholic drinks and the use of musical instruments, as lawful…”
Prohibition in Islamic tradition
Apart from the evidence that Sunni scholars draw out from the Qur’an and Hadith, many Islamic scholars throughout Muslim historyMuslim history
Muslim history is the history of Muslim people. In the history of Islam the followers of the religion of Islam have impacted political history, economic history, and military history...
have agreed that every type of music and musical instruments is Haraam
Haraam
Haraam is an Arabic term meaning "forbidden", or "sacred". In Islam it is used to refer to anything that is prohibited by the word of Allah in the Qur'an or the Hadith Qudsi. Haraam is the highest status of prohibition given to anything that would result in sin when a Muslim commits it...
. These scholars include the four imams
Madhhab
is a Muslim school of law or fiqh . In the first 150 years of Islam, there were many such "schools". In fact, several of the Sahābah, or contemporary "companions" of Muhammad, are credited with founding their own...
, namely Imam Abu Hanifa, Imam Malik, Imam Shafi'i and Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal.
However, this remains thoughts of some. While most think singing is not prohibited by Islam, the matter of musical instruments remains an argument.
Modern interpretations
A new generation of nasheed artists use a wide variety of musical instruments in their art.A lot of new nasheed artist are non-Arabs and sing in different languages, like English or Turkish. Some of the nasheed bands are Native Deen
Native Deen
Native Deen is an Islamic musical group from the Washington, D.C. area. Native Deen's music combines a hip-hop style with lyrical themes grounded in Islam.The group uses percussion instruments and synthetic sounds...
, Outlandish
Outlandish
Outlandish is a multi-award–winning hip-hop group based in Denmark. Formed in 1997, it consists of Isam Bachiri , Waqas Ali Qadri , and Lenny Martinez . All three members are religious, with Isam and Waqas being Muslims and Lenny being Catholic...
and Raihan
Raihan
Raihan is a Malaysian nasheed group originally composing of five members that took Malaysia by storm with the release of their debut album Puji-Pujian in October 1996. The group's original lineup comprised Nazrey Johani, Che Amran Idris, Abu Bakar Md Yatim, Amran Ibrahim, and Azhari Ahmad as the...
. Other well known foreign artists are Yusuf Islam -formerly known as Cat Stevens
Cat Stevens
Yusuf Islam , commonly known by his former stage name Cat Stevens, is an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, educator, philanthropist, and prominent convert to Islam....
-, Sami Yusuf
Sami Yusuf
Sami Yusuf is a British singer-songwriter, composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist musician of Azeri origin.In 2003 Yusuf released his first album "Al-Mu`allim" at the age of 23, selling over two million copies...
, Maher Zain
Maher Zain
Maher Zain is a Muslim Swedish R&B singer, songwriter and music producer of Lebanese origin. His debut album Thank You Allah, an internationally successful album with strong Muslim religious influences, was released in 2009.-Career:...
, Mesut Kurtis, Dawud Wharnsby, Zain Bhikha
Zain Bhikha
Zain Bhikha is an Indian South African singer-songwriter, who has achieved success as a performer of Islamic nasheed songs. Associated with prominent Muslim personalities, including Yusuf Islam and Dawud Wharnsby, Bhikha has collaborated on albums and also released several solo albums...
and many others.
As for Arabic nasheed artists -or Munshids-, some of the well known are Abu Mazen, Abu Rateb, Abu Al joud, Abu Dujanah, Abdulfattah Owainat, and many others. Some of the well known Arabic nasheed bands are Al Rawabi, Al I'atisam, Al Baraa', Al Wa'ad and many others.
Appealing to a significant Muslim crowd and also leading to performance of such artists at Islamic orientated festivals (such as Milad
Milad
-People:* Milad Akbari, Iranian footballer* Milad Esrafili, French footballer* Milad Fakhreddini, Iranian footballer* Milad Soleiman Fallah, Iranian footballer* Milad Farahani, Iranian footballer* Milad Gharibi, Iranian footballer...
), conferences, concerts and shows, including ISNA
ISNA
ISNA can refer to:Abbreviations/acronyms* Iranian Students' News Agency* Intersex Society of North America* Islamic Society of North America* Indigenous Sovereign Nation Assembly, an assembly of indigenous nations in New Zealand and vicinityPlaces...
, Celebrate Eid, and Young Muslims. Other artists and organisations such as Nasheedbay promote an instrument-free stance with nasheeds, differing from the current trends of the increasing usage of instruments in nasheeds.
See also
- Durood
- HaḍraHadraHadra can be:*Hadra, Poland, a village*Hadra , a genus of snails*Haḍra , rituals performed by Sufi orders...
- HamdHamdA Hamd is a poem or song in praise of Allah. A hamd is usually written in Arabic, Persian, Punjabi, or Urdu. The word "hamd" comes from the Qur'an, which Muslims believe to be Allah's Word; its English translation is "Praise"....
- Madih nabawiMadih nabawiMadih nabawi one of the principal religious genres of Arabic music, is a song form devoted to eulogizing or rather praising the Prophet Muhammad and his family. The genre dates from 632 CE, immediately after the death of Muhammad, but the performers address Muhammad as if he were still alive...
- MawlidMawlidMawlid or sometimes ميلاد , mīlād is a term used to refer to the observance of the birthday of the Islamic prophet Muhammad which occurs in Rabi' al-awwal,...
- MehfilMehfilA mehfil is a gathering or evening of courtly entertainment of poetry or concert of Indian classical music and dance, performed for a small audience in an intimate setting....
- Na'atNaatA Na`at is a poetry that specifically praises the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Many of the famous scholars in the earlier days of Islam wrote Naat. People who recite Naat are known as Naat-Khua'an or Sana'a-Khua'an.-History:...
- Arabic music
- Arabic poetryArabic poetryArabic poetry is the earliest form of Arabic literature. Present knowledge of poetry in Arabic dates from the 6th century, but oral poetry is believed to predate that. Arabic poetry is categorized into two main types, rhymed, or measured, and prose, with the former greatly preceding the latter...
- Islamic musicIslamic musicIslamic music is Muslim religious music, as sung or played in public services or private devotions. The classic heartland of Islam is the Middle East, North Africa, Iran, Central Asia, Horn of Africa and South Asia. Due to Islam being a multi-ethnic religion, the musical expression of its adherents...
- Islamic poetryIslamic poetryIslamic poetry is poetry written by Muslims on the topic of Islam. Islamic poetry has been written in many languages.-Islamic poetry in different languages:* Arabic poetry* Bengali poetry* Persian poetry* Punjabi poetry* Turkish poetry* Urdu poetry...
- Sufi musicSufi musicSufi music is the devotional music of the Sufis, inspired by the works of Sufi poets, like Rumi, Hafiz, Bulleh Shah and Khwaja Ghulam Farid.Qawwali is the most well known form of Sufi music, common in India and Pakistan...
- Sufi poetrySufi poetrySufi poetry has been written in many languages, both for private devotional reading and as lyrics for music played during worship, or dhikr. Themes and styles established in Punjabi Poetry, Sindhi Poetry, Arabic poetry and mostly Persian poetry have had an enormous influence on Sufi poetry...
- Ya MuhammadYa MuhammadYā Muḥammad , like Yā ‘Alī , Yā Hussain , Yā Fātimah , are expressions used by the followers of Islam, which means "Oh Muhammad".-Definition:...