ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Music and Its Effects Forward Nowadays, people are getting more and more involved in Music and for them, it has become a part of their daily life. Their mind has become so saddled with tension, and tempo of life is so fast that they seem to accept high blood pressure and nervous breakdown as the unavoidable side effects of modern civilization. It is a pity that they do not pause to think the adverse effects of music on their physical and mental health.

I have endeavoured to present in this booklet the scientific and spiritual points of views on music and dance etc. These observations have been quoted from various books of Persian, Urdu and English languages. I am very grateful to Maulana Seyyid Saeed Akhtar Rizvi, the Chief Missionary of the Bilal Muslim Mission of Tanzania for editing and scrutinizing this effort of mine. I hope this booklet will help the readers in understanding the philosophy of the rule of Islam which forbids music. A.H.

Sherriff 1/5/1983 1) What is Music? Music, according to the New National Dictionary, means "Art of combining sounds or sequences of notes into harmonious patterns pleasing to the ear and satisfying to the emotions; melody".

According to the Great Encyclopaedic Dictionary, this combining of sounds is "for reproduction by the voice or various kinds of musical instruments in rhythmic, melodious and harmonious form so as to express thought or feeling and affect the emotion;" and the word is also used for the "sound so produced," and for 'written or printed score of musical compositions." Not so technically, it is also used for "pleasant sound, e.g., song of a bird, murmur of a stream, cry of hounds." In Islam music is called Ghina, and in Shia sheriat is counted as one of the 'great sins'.

At first, it may seem unrealistic to ban every "pleasant sound"; but there is no need to be alarmed. The Sheriat has defined 'Ghina' in a different way.

In Islam, vocal music means: "Prolongation and vibration of sound with variation of the pitch to such an extent that people may say that 'he/she is singing'." It is evident from the above definition that the sheriat does not forbid 'pleasant sounds'; but if someone recites any thing with prolongation of sound and variation of pitch so much so that a common man thinks that he/she is singing, then and only then it will be 'Ghina' and sin.

And it makes no difference whether the thing recited was the Qur'an, religious poem or love song.