In His Name, the Most High
Salaams
Sister Tayyaba, I would have to disagree with your sentiments viz-a-vis Music and Islam. However, I will not do so irrationally, but will provide some explanation of what I am saying, insha Allah.
Firstly, it must be understood, that music, like any other Media Source, is a tool, nothing more nothing less, in that respect it is quite valid to compare music with a spanner, or a hammer, or even a car for that matter.
To suggest that Music is not a valid method for propogating Islam, is to close a very powerful door - give to us by Allah - for propogating the Truth.
Firstly, let us get a few things clarified.
While there are many people who go around suggesting to the masses that they do not listen to Music, generally it has been found that such people are the ones who listen to Music more than others, they have to constantly go and say "Music is bad", "Music is haram", simply to present themselves as hyper religious. This is quite sad, simply because it is the first step in hypocricy and allows the way to be paved for many other vices of the soul.
Now comming back to Music, as I mentioned it is a tool. Nothing more nothing less.
Like a car, or a glass, or a hammer, it can be used for good, and it can be used for bad, but as an entity in itself it is benign.
A glass, for example, can be used to drink water and hence quench one's thirst, however, it can also be filled with some alcoholic beverage and thereby intoxicate someone and hence be used negatively.
However, it is important to remember in all of this, that the actual glass is still neutral, to suggest that glass is bad and evil just because some moron chose to put alcohol in it and drink from it is to be unjust, the glass is an inanimate object, and can be used as a container for anything, something good - such as water, or something bad - such as alcohol.
It is important to understand this.
Music is no different, neither are movies. Let me now further elaborate on this.
Music is a tool that has considerable power in motivating people one way or another, it has long been used by various governments as a tool for motivating and promoting their messages to the people and beyond, every country has a national anthem. A national anthem is generally some poetry glorifying the country and asking a diety to keep the country safe, and it has been put to music to give it lasting appeal.
Granted, there are also people who put illicit activities into the form of poetry, and then to music, and create "pop" songs which take people towards negative activities such as illicit relationships, vice and crime - sadly something that play a large part in the lives of many of the youth and elders of our beloved Dar es-Salaam.
Now, my question is this, and it's very simple really. Why is it that people have a tendency to render Music haram at the first chance - but no-one ever says that poetry is haram? Indeed, Music without poetry is instrumental and hence permitted totally - a fact agreed on by almost every Marja' Taqleed - therefore, this by itself leads one to conclude that Music as an entity is benign, and NOT HARAM. It is however, what is done with that Music that causes problems.
For example, one could be watching a television program, and there is background music on that program, rousing music, but within the context of the program which is about - for example - cars or motorbikes (for example).
That is then totally benign, the music serves to provide atmosphere, and give the viewer a good experience about the car and it's capabilities.
However, there is another program, that uses either the same music or very similar music, which shows to people engaged in illicit relations, the music is the same, the context of the music is problematic.
In that case, tell me, does the music become haram, or is it the watching of that program haram because of what it is showing?
The answer is obvious.
Now onto poetry. In the songs that you have taken issue with, there are two sets of lyrics, in my opinion both sets of lyrics are sound, and have no real issue, since both sets of lyrics, both the original lyrics by Eminem, and those by Raef Haggag move people towards a positive mindset, niether of them talk about illicit activities (of any nature), but instead encourage one to not miss chances to do something to further themselves (in other words move towards perfection which is the goal of all humanity).
We, as Muslims, need to start to wise up and stop branding anything we don't understand as "Haram" - we should have musicians, actors (hell we've got enough people in the community who can act perfectly when they need to pull of some con or manipulate a situation), directors, writers, etc.
If one looks at Islamic Iran, or at Hizbullah in Lebanon, or even at the Righteous Islamic Resistance in Iraq, one can see that they have used Music to move forward their message, and given a positive image to Music, however, we still feel it better to wallow in our self-righteousness and consider that Music is haram, EVEN when it is utilizing a theme or tune that is well known, and people will remember to promote a positive trait.
I remember one time in England, there was a brother from our community at home, quite a senior brother, and we were watching TV, I was flicking the channels and came to MTV that was playing Sandstorm by Darude (an excellent instrumental track I might add), I paused on that track for a while, since I quite like it - and the brother immediately starting moaning and groaning and saying "Astaghfirullah" and "Tawba Tawba", etc, etc - even though the video was of wildlife - like animals in the savvanah, there was nothing at all haram about the track, and it was purely instrumental.
I laughed and flicked the channel through to al-Manar TV, which by sheer coincidence, was showing some news bulletins - but only as raw images, but had put Darude's Sandstorm as the backing track.
At this point that brother didn't say anything, since he was seeing Sayyed Khatemi(HA) (President of Iran), and Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah(HA) and various Islamic places - but the backing track was exactly the same.
I waited for that program to finish and asked him why he objected to the music on MTV but said nothing about the same Music on al-Manar.
He gave me an answer which I found so ludicras and stupid that I will never forget it. He said, that well on al-Manar it's allowed cuz it's a Muslim TV Station, and on MTV it's not allowed cuz MTV is haram.
I pressed him to give me more clarity, why was the same thing, the same same thing allowed in one place, and not in another, and he was silent, no real answer.
At that point I understood, that our "rejection" of Music is based on nothing more than ignorance and hypocricy, we listen to the same Music, but we reject it in public.
This was further re-inforced, when I found that one of the famous people in London who was on a campaign against pornography and music, and used to give speeches (probably still does I don't know), against these subjects, had one of the larges collections of pornography and music that I have seen at his own house.
I've even had some insane people in Dar es-Salaam, suggest to me that "Music is haram, I listen to it but it's haram" - very confusing really.
Anyways, this is become far too long, and I'll stop here, but maybe we can have a useful discussion on this.
In the mean while, anyone interested, can take a look at our Media Gallery on
islamicdigest.net, which can be found at:
http://www.islamicdigest.net/v61media/
With Salaams and Dua's
Shabbir