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Now
that we have come to Jazz, and important finding must be quoted here from The
Reader’s Digest (Vol. 49, No. 565, May, 1969):"Otologists
say that youngsters are going deaf by blasting their ears with electronic pop music."Experts
know that prolonged exposure to a noise level above 85 decibels will eventually result in
a reduction of hearing acuity in the frequency range most important for understanding
human speech. Dr. Charles Lebo, of the Pacific Medical Centre took measuring instruments
into two San Francis co dance halls where the cacophony from amplified instruments caused
sound intensity from 100 to 119 decibels in the low frequency range."Lebo
estimates that under such conditions 80 per cent have their hearing sensitivity
temporarily reduced by 5 to 30 decibels; 10 per cent suffer a temporary 40 decibel
impairment. Some might suffer permanent damage after a year of steady listening. (Time).In
short high bloodpresure, insomnia, emotional instability mania and madness, nervous break
downs, ulcers, heart troubles, diabetes, rheumatisms temporary permanent deafness and
birth of deformed or disabled babies are the effects of music.No
wonder, Islam, being a religion from Allah, has warmed us against this disabling habit.
(5) FROM PHILOSOPHICAL POINT OF VIEW
According
to the philosophy of Islam, man has been endowed with two main faculties: (i) Intellect;
and (ii) Emotions.Emotions
may be divided into two categories: Positive and Negative. We may call them
‘Attraction’ and ‘Repulsion’, or ‘Love’ and
‘Hate’; or ‘Desire’ and ‘Anger’ respectively. Let us call
them here ‘Desire’ and ‘Anger’.Thus,
we have three faculties in all :1)
Intellect: Its function is to think and understand;2)
Desire: Through it man tries to attain things which are beneficial to him or which give
him satisfaction and enjoyment;3)
Anger: By this facility man defends himself against, and repulses the things which he
considers harmful to himself.Of
the above three faculties, the first one, i.e., Intellect, has been designed by Allah to
guide and control the remaining two, i.e., Desire and Anger. If a man wants to remain on
right path, he must ensure that the two perform their functions under the guidance of
Intellect.For
example, the ambition to get rich is the result of Desire. But it is the Intellect which
guides the man that the wealth should be obtained by honest labour, hard work and not by
robbery or fraud.Likewise,
the Anger inspires the man to resist pain. But it is the Intellect that tells him, for
example, to submit to the surgical operation, so that he may avoid greater pain in future.When
the Faculty of Intellect is sufficiently developed and dominates over the other two
faculties, the man advances spiritually and ethically; and surpasses the angels, because
angels have got only the Intellect and do not have to contend with desire and anger.Uncontrolled
desire and anger are dominating factors of animals. If these faculties were to be
nourished by the man beyond the ethical limit, and freed from the control and guidance of
Intellect, he would sink to the abysmal depth of depravity, and would become worse than
animals.After
understanding this principle, it is easy to appreciate the reasons behind laws of Islam
forbidding various actions.It
has been already described that the music is among those things which boost the emotions
and arouse the sensual powers beyond their natural limit; music gives desire or anger an
upper hand, and makes them dominant over the Intellect. As has been shown with a few
examples, this state could reach a stage where Intellect ceases to function altogether;
man becomes the slave of his emotions — desire and anger.A
time comes that he forgets his Creator and does not remember the real aim of his life
(which is to know his Creator and obey Him).The
Love and Fear of Allah promotes virtues and good deeds, and restrain the man from sins and
evils. Islam aims at producing best of the characters in its followers; and therefore, it
has forbidden those things which tend to divert attention from Allah and from man’s
divine duties. Music is one of those things which have toxic effect on human mind.
Therefore, Islam has forbidden not only the playing of music, but also listening to it;
also forbidden is participation in musical programmes whether it be in places like
theaters, night clubs and cinemas or in one’s own home.Incidentally,
the same is the reason behind the law forbidding liquor and gambling.
(6)
FROM ETHICAL POINT OF VIEW
In
the last chapter, I explained the harm which music brings upon the spiritual wellbeing of
a man. Connected with it, is the effect of music on the ethics and morals.Those
intoxicated by the music should try to reply these questions:Why
those engaged in singing and dancing profession almost always sink to the lowest level of
immorality?Why
the film actors and actresses change their wives and husbands with every change of weather
?Why
singing and dancing was considered a ‘Must’ for prostitutes in Indian
subcontinent?Why
marital sanctity and conjugal bliss are words without meaning in the world of singers and
dancers ? Why ? Oh ! Why ?The
following quotations from ‘The Bridal Bed’ (by Joseph Braddock; published by
Corgi books, Ransworld Publishers Ltd., London; 1960) will provide an answer to these
questions :-(Dance)
is the start of culture. Though some of these dances are sensationally erotic, the sexual
element is present in most of the world’s dancing. It is sublimated even in ballet.Many
primitive dances, the world over, serve as preliminaries to mating, being closely
connected with the choice of a marriage partner............A description or two will make
this clear.The
Dinka, a gentle pastoral tribe, live on the east bank of the White Nile. They are
astonishingly tall, sometimes more than six and a half feet high. Blacker than charcoal,
often above a naked body, the hair glistens a longish pale gold mop, when it has been dyed
with cow’s urine....Dinka buy their wives......But first they see the women in dance.Within
a village clearing the drums and gourd rattles are ready. Possibly as many as three
hundred Dinkas have been waiting an hour or more under the yet powerful and declining sun,
the tall girls standing together in a line, by now worked up to a pitch of excitement
bordering on hysteria as they await the moment for the dance to develop. But what is
strange here is that, although the dance will mirror by no means deeply buried sexual
desires, it remains curiously abstract and impersonal.The
magnificent nubile Negresses, with narrow hips and slim limbs, suggest bronze antiquely
proportioned statues Full of shy giggles, they begin to shuffle with their feet, beads and
bracelets jangling on smooth wrist and dusty ankle. A laughing girl retreats, advances,
invites her warrior partner, her arms tapering into the narrow palms of clasped simian
hands stretched out behind her, her pointed breasts trembling. Her bead skirt rattles and
sways, as she jerks her lacquer-like thighs forward and backwards as in love. Her partner
guides her movement with his spear, thrusting his loins forward in a mime of
persuit."In
Siera Leone the ‘Dance of the Susu Bundu girl’s has much more actual colour.
Previously, the girls will have been circumcised in the Bundu Bush according to the
ancient rites, and instructed in household accomplishments to prepare them for marriage.
They are presumed to be virgins. It is night, but little fires flicker red in a
moon-lightened darkness. Parents and relations of the participants cluster together with
the rest of the village to watch. Monkeys chatter noisily from the trees.As
the girls step forward, they show gleaming teeth and the whites of their eyes. They are
wearing their best finery: lengths of garish flower-patterned cloth are wound about their
thin waists to the ground; high turbans composed of flaring coloured silk scarves decorate
their small vivacious heads. Behind, over their skirts fall black velvet kirtles sewn with
rows of bells. Each girl carries a showy handkerchief in one hand. Naked above the waist,
her breasts, with prominent nipples, are thrust forward. Valleyed between the
shoulder-blades, her upright back shines as though oiled. She dances with a proud,
unspoiled grace of carriage.No
sudden crash of drums heralds the opening of this dance. Instead, a sweet wailing music
from a native instrument, almost bell-like, blends with the controlled drums and the
gentle swish of calabash, as the girls sway like dark columns of smoke, bending, skimming
the earth with the fingers of first one hand, then the other. More instruments join the
rhythmic theme, emphasizing the flowing snake-like movements. On the girls’ now
serious faces appears entranced concentration. The orchestra speeds the tempo; the
sensuous vigour of the Negresses changing to such a vibrating single energy of supple
writhing forms that individually the dancers can hardly be separated. The speed is so
great that the girls appear to be mingled in one florid streak of colour.But
from among the audience the boys have been watching with aroused attention, picking out
the girls they would like for brides. Often at the end of such a dance, a girl will fall
to the ground exhausted. Then, in a flash, a boy will dash out, pick her up in his alms
and carry her into the bush nearby, where, with a sigh, she may thank the darkness for
preserving the myth of her virginity.The
reader should not think that these rites of the primitive tribes have no connection with
the ‘refined’ dances of the so-called civilized world. It has been quoted above
that "the sexual element is present in most of the world’s dancing."European
civilization celebrates a marriage with dancing. The bride is obliged to dance with the
guests. Have you ever stopped to think what is the significance of this custom ?In
early feudal times the bride might have spent her wedding night not with her husband but
with her feudal lord, who had the right to deflower her.For
example:Old writers of the history of Schotland say that King Evenus III — contemporary with
the emperor Augustus — ‘made a law by which he and his successors in the throne
were authorized to lie with every bride, if a woman of quality, before her husband could
approach her; and in consequence of this law the great men of the nation had a power of
the same kind over the brides of their vassals and servants.It
would seem that this law remained effective throughout the kingdom, for more than ten
centuries, until St. Margaret persuaded her husband King Malcom III to have it abolished.
After this, any vassal or servant who wished to redeem the first night of his bride had to
pay a tax in money.In
almost all countries of Christiandom, "sometimes even monks, who were feudal lords,
held the right of sleeping with the bride on her first night as a married woman.Now,
such customs have been diluted, and the dance with the bride has been substituted in place
of sleeping with her on her first night.At
Swedish country weddings it is still usual for the bride to dance with all the men;
elsewhere in Europe, as in parts of Germany, there is tradition that every guest who
dances with the bride must pay her some money !In
Hungary, on the day of marriage, many rites are performed. "At lasts about midnight,
comes the ritual putting bed. First every man present dances with the now almost exhausted
bride, each giving her money for this privilege." Not only in weddings but even in
social dances the erotic factor dominates and survives. You must have seen in Western
countries (and in their blind followers) that when a state guest arrives, the wife of the
host stands with the guest and the wife of the guest stands with the host. And the same
thing happens during the dances given in honour of the guest. Do you know the origin of
this custom ? In ancient times there was a custom which still survives in the Chukchee
tribe of Asiatic Eskimos. It is the system of "Group marriage" which
anthropologists believe to be the most primitive form of marriage.(Dr.
Bogoras) states that marriage among the Chukchee does not deal with one couple only but
extends over an entire group. The men belonging to such a marriage union are called
‘companions in wives’......but takes advantage of his right comparatively
seldom, namely, only when he visits for some reason the camp of one of the
‘companions’. Then the host cedes him his place in the sleeping room.As
the author says, "the custom of loaning wives to strangers or friends, for a fee or
just as an act of hospitality, has been common and widespread over many lands from time
immemorial, and not only among savage tribes."And
this system survives in the form of loaning the wife to the guest in the danceroom, in
place of the bedroom.Now
that we have seen the relation between the dance and music on one hand and sexual
promiscuity on the other, we can easily understand the following tradition of the Holy
Prophet of Islam: Music is the magic of fornication.
