The Shafi’i Madhab on Music: Mainstream Prohibition & the Ghazali Nuance

The Mainstream Shafi’i Position: Instruments Prohibited, Singing Makruh

The dominant position within the Shafi’i madhab rests on two pillars established by Imam al-Nawawi (631–676 AH) in his authoritative Minhaj al-Talibin:

• Musical instruments are prohibited (haram) — with the sole mainstream exception of the duff (a single-headed frame drum) at weddings, circumcisions, and similar celebrations.
• Unaccompanied singing is makruh (disliked) — a ruling below haram but above mere permissibility, meaning a Muslim should avoid it without it constituting a grave sin.

Al-Nawawi’s instrument list is instructive: the tunbur (mandolin), ʿud (lute), sanj (cymbal), and the Iraqi mizmar (a specific oboe-like wind instrument) are explicitly prohibited. Notably, al-Nawawi does not include the yuraʼ — a plainer type of flute — in his prohibition list. This yuraʼ-vs-mizmar distinction is significant: it suggests the classical Shafi’i analysis turns partly on cultural association and the specific social milieu of an instrument, not merely its physical construction. An instrument notorious in contexts of debauchery carries a different legal weight than one associated with neutral everyday use.

This mainstream position represents the dominant teaching in traditional Shafi’i institutions from Cairo to Southeast Asia, and remains the default reference for contemporary Shafi’i muftis.

Ibn Hajar al-Haytami: The Strictest Voice in the School

Ibn Hajar al-Haytami (909–974 AH), one of the most influential later Shafi’i jurists, represents the strictest voice within the school. In Kaff al-Raʼa (2/270) he compiled approximately forty hadiths bearing on music and concluded:

“All of this is explicit and compelling textual evidence that musical instruments of all types are unlawful.”

Ibn Hajar went further, claiming scholarly consensus (ijmaʼ) on the prohibition of wind and string instruments and classifying music among the grave major sins (kabaʼir). His position leaves no room for instrumental exceptions beyond the duff in its permitted contexts.

It should be noted that the consensus claim itself is historically contested — scholars including al-Shawkani and Ibn al-ʻArabi (Maliki) explicitly disputed it — but within the Shafi’i school, Ibn Hajar’s compilation remains a standard reference for those who take the strictest line.

Reliance of the Traveller: The Cultural-Association Reasoning

The Reliance of the Traveller (Umdat al-Salik, 14th century, section r40.2) codifies the Shafi’i position in the formulation most widely read in the English-speaking world:

“It is unlawful to use musical instruments — such as those which drinkers are known for, like the mandolin, lute, cymbals, and flute — or to listen to them.”

The phrase “which drinkers are known for” is the legal hinge. The Reliance does not prohibit all possible sound-making devices in the abstract; it prohibits instruments that carry a cultural signature of debauchery and drinking gatherings in the society of classical Islamic scholarship. This cultural-association reasoning has two important implications:

1. Historical grounding: The ruling reflects the social reality of 14th-century Islamic lands, where certain instruments were inseparable from wine-drinking culture.
2. Contemporary application debate: Some contemporary scholars argue this reasoning should be applied to modern instruments based on their current social associations, while others hold that any instrument functionally equivalent to the prohibited ones is likewise prohibited regardless of current cultural context.

The translator of the Reliance, Nuh Ha Mim Keller, himself takes a strict line, arguing that six sahih hadiths forbid musical instruments and that recorded music carries the same ruling as live music. However, the cultural-association framing remains a genuine legal criterion within the text, not merely rhetorical decoration.

Al-Ghazali’s Four-Category Framework — and Its True Scope

Imam Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (450–505 AH) is frequently cited as evidence for a more permissive Shafi’i position on music. His Ihyaʼ ʻUlum al-Din (2/272–302) contains one of the most sophisticated analyses of music in classical Islamic literature, proposing that music does not receive a single uniform ruling but falls into four categories depending on context and the listener’s internal state:

1. Haram — for a youth dominated by worldly desires, if the music inflames those desires further.
2. Makruh — for one who spends excessive time on music, making it a habitual distraction.
3. Mubah (permissible) — for anyone enjoying a beautiful voice or melody without negative spiritual effects.
4. Mustahab (recommended) — for one overwhelmed with love of Allah, in whom music provokes only remembrance, longing for the divine, and good spiritual states.

Al-Ghazali also identifies five external factors that can shift music into the haram category regardless of the listener’s state: the singer’s gender (if a woman whose voice might provoke lust in the listener), the instrument’s symbolic association (if it is a symbol of drinking gatherings), lyrical content (if corrupt or contrary to Islamic ethics), the listener’s own condition (a young person prone to excess), and time displacement (if listening prevents obligatory worship).

The Critical Clarification: Samaʼ, Not Entertainment

What is frequently missed in popular citations of al-Ghazali is the audience and context for which this framework was written. The Ihyaʼ is a manual of spiritual wayfaring (suluk), and the music discussion in Book 18 addresses samaʼ — the devotional listening practice of Sufi circles seeking nearness to Allah. Al-Ghazali’s permissive and recommended categories are written for the salik (spiritual traveler) whose heart has been purified to the point where music functions as a catalyst for divine remembrance, not for the general population listening to entertainment music.

His student Izz al-Din ibn ʻAbd al-Salam (577–660 AH), the “Sultan of Scholars,” expressed the same logic:

“As for the recital that stirs one towards states of purity which remind one of the hereafter: there is nothing wrong with it, rather, it is recommended for lukewarm and dry hearts. However, one who harbors wrong desires is not allowed to attend the samaʼ.”

The samaʼ context is not incidental — it is the entire premise of the permission.

Al-Ghazali’s Fiqh Works: The Other Half of the Record

The picture becomes still clearer when al-Ghazali’s fiqh works are consulted alongside the Ihyaʼ. In al-Wasit (7/350) — a formal Shafi’i legal manual rather than a work of spiritual instruction — al-Ghazali explicitly prohibits mazamir (wind instruments including flutes). The Ihyaʼ itself (2/272) explicitly prohibits awtar (string instruments such as the lute) and tabl al-kuba (double-sided cylindrical drums). Al-Ghazali states that instruments may be broken if heard coming from a house.

In other words, al-Ghazali’s legal position aligns with mainstream Shafi’i prohibition. His four-category framework does not override his fiqh rulings; it operates in a distinct register — the inner science of the heart for advanced spiritual practitioners. Citing the Ihyaʼ framework to justify general entertainment music listening is, according to the source itself, a misapplication of the argument.

The correct summary is:

• Al-Ghazali’s fiqh position: instruments prohibited (duff and basic drums in permitted contexts excepted), in line with the Shafi’i mainstream.
• Al-Ghazali’s mystical theology: a sophisticated four-category listener-centered framework that opens space for samaʼ as a spiritual practice for those of pure intention and advanced station.

Vocal Music Without Instruments: The Makruh Ruling Explained

The Shafi’i school’s treatment of unaccompanied singing is more nuanced than a simple prohibition. Al-Nawawi’s baseline is makruh — disliked — for singing without instruments when the content is otherwise clean. This ruling can shift in either direction:

Shifts to haram through:

• Content violations: lyrics glorifying sin, describing the physical beauty of a non-mahram in a lustful way, praising alcohol, or mocking religion.
• Context violations: preventing obligatory worship, accompanying gatherings involving alcohol or improper gender mixing, or professional entertainment for wages (debated).
• Gender considerations: a woman singing melodiously to non-mahram men, or a man listening to a woman’s voice with lustful intent.

Shifts toward permissible or praiseworthy through:

• Content centered on remembrance of Allah, praise of the Prophet, or beneficial wisdom.
• Absence of any haram lyrical element.
• Not distracting from religious obligations.
• Private context not intended as entertainment for others.

Islamic nasheeds (devotional vocal compositions without instruments) thus occupy a specific place within this framework: their permissibility hinges on content and context rather than on a blanket ruling in either direction.

Practical Summary: What the Shafi’i Madhab Actually Rules

Drawing together the classical sources, a practitioner following mainstream Shafi’i fiqh would observe the following:

For contemporary popular music, mainstream Shafi’i scholars such as Shaykh Irshaad Sedick (SeekersGuidance, 2022) note that most popular music is unlawful under this framework not only because of instrumentation but because it “predominantly contains unlawful lyrics and keeps one away from remembrance of Allah.” Electronic instruments follow the ruling of their acoustic equivalents: an electronic guitar carries the same ruling as an acoustic guitar, a synthesized oud the same as a real oud.

Some contemporary Shafi’i scholars in Southeast Asia (particularly Hadrami Shafi’i tradition) demonstrate somewhat more leniency on electronic sounds and take ʻumum al-balwa (widespread affliction / practical necessity) into account, but this represents a minority contemporary adaptation rather than the classical mainstream.

Where the Shafi’i School Stands Among the Four Madhabs

The Shafi’i position sits between the absolute categorical prohibition of the Hanafi and Hanbali schools on one side, and the documented internal diversity of the Maliki school on the other. Key comparative points:

• Shafi’i vs. Hanafi: Both prohibit instruments, but the Shafi’i yuraʼ/mizmar distinction introduces an instrument-type nuance absent in Hanafi categorical prohibition.
• Shafi’i vs. Hanbali: The Shafi’i school lacks the Hanbali emphasis on music as active spiritual poison (“the wine of the soul”, Ibn Taymiyyah). The Hanbali framing foregrounds spiritual harm; the Shafi’i framing foregrounds cultural association and text-based prohibition.
• Shafi’i vs. Maliki: The Shafi’i school does not share the Maliki school’s internal diversity. There is no Shafi’i equivalent of Ibn al-ʻArabi’s claim that no authentic hadith prohibits singing. The Shafi’i minority opinion (al-Ghazali’s four-category framework) is a spiritual nuance, not a fiqh permission for general music.

For a comparative overview across all four schools, see our guide to Sunni music rulings across the four madhabs, or the broader question answered at Is music halal?

The other Sunni schools

Compare with the other madhabs, or read the full overview:

• The Hanafi madhab on music
• The Maliki madhab on music
• The Hanbali madhab on music
• All four Sunni madhabs compared
• Is music haram in Islam? (overview)

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