Discourse about music in Islam
Optional readings
Hadith. The definitive collections (e.g. of Bukhari, Muslim, and others) are called Sahih (true).
- Hadith often cited to support pro-music position.
- Hadith often cited to support anti-music position:
Musical metaphors in mystic poetry:
Here the circle is completed in the connections between text and context, poetry and performance; mystical images of music in Sufi poetry refer to the ritual of sama`; when performed in ritual, such poetic symbolism refers to itself...
Music in the sacred ayin ceremony of the so-called whirling dervishes, the Mevlevi Sufi order founded upon poetry and teachings of the mystic Jalal al-Din Rumi (1207-1273], who so loved the sama`...
Listen to the reed flute and its cry of separation...
Jalal al-Din Rumi's musical imagery:
Poetry by Shaykh Abu al-Huda al-Sayyadi (19th c), as sung by Shaykh Yasin al-Tuhami of Egypt.