Ruling on
    so-called “Islamic” songs with musical instruments
Question

                i would like to know if muslims are allowed
      to lisen to islamic songs with instruments in it. please answer by using the quran and the
      sunnah or ijmaa.
Praise be to Allah.The aayaat of the Quraan and the Ahaadeeth of the
    Prophet 
 (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) indicate that musical instruments are
    condemned, and warn us against them. The Quraan teaches that playing these
    instruments is one of the things that leads people astray and constitutes mockery of the
    Signs of Allaah. Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):
And of mankind is he who purchases idle talk to mislead (men)
    from the Path of Allaah, without knowledge, and takes it (the Path of Allaah, the Verses
    of the Quraan) by way of mockery. For such there will be a humiliating torment (in
    the Hell-fire). [Luqmaan 31:6]
Most of the scholars interpreted lahw al-hadeeth (idle
    talk) as meaning singing and musical instruments, and every voice that diverts
    people from the truth.
Al-Tabari (Jaami al-Bayaan, 15/118-119), Ibn
    Abil-Dunya (Dham al-Malaahi, 33) and Ibn al-Jawzi (Talbees Iblees,
    232) all reported that concerning the aayah (interpretation of the meaning):
[Allaah said to Shaytaan;] And istafziz [literally means
    befool them gradually] those whom you can with your voice, make assaults on them with your
    cavalry and your infantry, mutually share with them wealth and children, and make promises
    to them. But Shaytaan promises them nothing but deceit [al-Isra 17:64]
Mujaahid said, This refers to singing and flutes.

Al-Tabari reported that al-Hasan al-Basri said:
His voice is the tambourine.
Ibn al-Qayyim said in Ighaathat al-Lahfaan (1/252):
The grammatical structure here (idaafah  genitive or
    possessive) is used to make something specific (idaafat al-takhsees), and in all these
    words in the aayah it refers back to the Shaytaan [addressed here as you by
    Allaah, may He be glorified]. Everyone who speaks about anything other than obedience of
    Allaah or plays a reed pipe, flute, tambourine or drum, all of this is the voice of
    Shaytaan.
Al-Tirmidhi reported in his Sunan (no. 1005) from Ibn Abi Layla
    from Ata from Jaabir (may Allaah be pleased with him) who said: The
    Messenger of Allaah 
 (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) went to to al-Nakhl with
    Abd al-Rahmaan ibn Awf, when his son Ibraaheem was dying. He took the child in
    his lap and his eyes filled with tears. Abd al-Rahmaan said, Are you weeping
    when you have forbidden us to weep? He said, 'I do not forbid weeping. What I have
    forbidden is two foolish and evil kinds of voices: voices at times of entertainment and
    play and the flutes of the Shaytaan, and voices at times of calamity and scratching the
    face and rending the garments and screaming.
Al-Tirmidhi said: this is a hasan hadeeth. It was also reported by
    al-Haakim in al-Mustadrak, no. 1683, al-Bayhaqi in al-Sunan al-Kubra (4/69),
    al-Tayaalisi in Musnad (no. 1683) and by al-Tahhaawi in Sharh al-Maaani,
    4/29, and it was classed as hasan by al-Albaani.
Al-Nawawi said: What is meant here is singing and musical
    instruments. See Tuhfat al-Ahwadhi, 4/88.
It was reported in a saheeh hadeeth from the Prophet 
 (peace and
    blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: In my ummah there will be people who allow
    fornication/adultery (zina), silk, wine and musical instruments [maaazif].
    Some people will stay at the side of a mountain, and they will have flocks of sheep. When
    a poor person comes in the evening to ask them for something he needs, they will say.
    Come back to us tomorrow. Then during the night Allaah will destroy them by
    causing the mountain to fall upon them, while He changes others into apes and swine. They
    will remain in such a state until the Day of Resurrection.
(Reported by al-Bukhaari in al-Saheeh muallaqan, 51/10.
    Reported mawsoolan by al-Bayhaqi in al-Sunan al-Kubra, 3/272; al-Tabaraani in al-Mujam
    al-Kabeer, 3/319; and Ibn Hibbaan in al-Saheeh (8/265-266). Classed as saheeh
    by Ibn al-Salaah in Uloom al-Hadeeth (32), Ibn al-Qayyim in Ighaathat
    al-Lahfaan (255) and Tahdheeb al-Sunan (5/270-272), al-Haafiz in al-Fath
    (10/51) and al-Albaani in al-Saheehah (1/140)).
Al-Haafiz said in al-Fath (10/55): Maaazif refers
    to musical instruments. Al-Qurtubi reported from al-Jawhari that maaazif
    meant singing, and what it says in his book al-Sihaah is that it refers to musical
    instruments. It was also said that it is the sound of musical instruments. In a footnote
    by al-Dimyaati it says: maaazif is tambourines and other kinds of drums. The
    word azif is applied to singing and all other kinds of instruments that may
    be played.
Ibn al-Qayyim said in Ighaathat al-Lahfaan (1/256):
The evidence for this is that maaazif refers to all kinds
    of things used for entertainment. There is no dispute among scholars of the Arabic
    language on this point. If they were halaal, he would not have condemned those who
    permitted them, or compared permitting them to permitting wine and zina.
We may understand from the hadeeth that all kinds of musical
    instruments are forbidden. This is clear from the hadeeth for a number of reasons:
The Prophet 
 (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said
         there will be people who allow It is clear that the things listed
        here, including musical instruments, are forbidden in shareeah, but those people
        will allow them.

He compared musical instruments to things that are definitely known to
        be haraam, namely zina and alcohol. If instruments were not haraam, he would not have made
        this comparison. The evidence of this hadeeth that singing is haraam is definitive. Even
        if no other hadeeth or aayah spoke about musical instruments, this hadeeth would be
        sufficient to prove that they are haraam, especially the kind of singing that is known
        among people nowadays, the essence of which is obscenity and foul talk, based on all kinds
        of musical instruments such as guitars, drums, flutes, ouds, zithers, organs, pianos,
        violins and other things that make it more enticing, such as the voices of these
        effeminate singers and whores.(See Hukm al-Maaazif by al-Albaani, Tas-heeh
    al-Ahkta wal-Awhaam al-Waaqiah fi Ahaadeeth al-Nabi
    alayhil-salaam by Raaid Sabri, 1/176).
Shaykh Ibn Baaz said in Majmoo al-Fataawa,
    3/423-424):
Maaazif refers to singing and musical instruments.
    The Prophet 
 (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) told us that at the end of time
    there will come a people who will allow these things just as they will allow alcohol, zina
    and silk. This is one of the signs of his Prophethood, for all of this has happened. The
    hadeeth indicates that [musical instruments] are haraam, and condemns those who say they
    are halaal, just as it condemns those who say that alcohol and zina are allowed. The
    aayaat and ahaadeeth that warn against singing and musical instruments are many indeed.
    Whoever claims that Allaah has allowed singing and musical instruments is lying and is
    committing a great evil. We ask Allaah to keep us from obeying our desires and the
    Shaytaan. Even worse and more seriously sinful than that are those who say it is
    mustahabb. Undoubtedly this stems from ignorance about Allaah and His Religion; it is
    insolent blasphemy against Allaah and lying about His Laws. What is mustahabb is to beat
    on the daff [simple hand drum] at weddings. This is mustahabb for women only, in order to
    announce the wedding and to distinguish it from fornication. There is nothing wrong with
    women singing amongst themselves, accompanied by the daff, so long as the songs contain no
    words that encourage evil or distract people from their duties. It is also a condition
    that this should take place among women only, and there should be no mixing with men. It
    should also not cause any annoyance or disturbance to neighbours. What some people do, of
    amplifying such singing with loudspeakers is evil, because of the disturbance it causes to
    other Muslims, neighbours and others. It is not permissible for women, in weddings or on
    other occasions, to use any instrument other than the daff, such as the oud, violin, rebab
    (stringed instrument) and so on. This is evil, and the only concession that women are
    given is that they may use the daff.
As for men, it is not permissible for them to play any kind of musical
    instrument, whether at weddings or on any other occasion. What Allaah has prescribed for
    men is training in the use of instruments of war, such as target practice or learning to
    ride horses and competing in that, using spears, shields, tanks, airplanes and other
    things such as cannons, machine guns, bombs and anything else that may help jihaad for the
    sake of Allaah.
Shaykh al-Islam said in al-Fataawa (11/569):
I know that in the golden age, the first and best
    three centuries, in the Hijaaz, in Syria, in the Yemen, in Egypt, in the Maghreb, in Iraq,
    in Khorasan, none of the religious and righteous people, the ascetics and those who
    worshipped Allaah much, would gather to listen to this whistling and clapping and
    drum-beating and so on. This was innovated after that at the end of the second century,
    and whenever the imaams saw it, they denounced it.
As for these anaasheed which are described as Islamic but
    are accompanied with musical instruments, giving them this name lends them some measure of
    legitimacy, but in fact they are singing and music, so calling them Islamic nasheeds is
    falsehood and deception. They cannot be a substitute for singing, as an evil thing cannot
    be substituted for another evil thing. We should replace something evil with something
    good. Listening to it on the grounds that it is Islamic and an act of worship is
    bidah, and Allaah does not allow this. We ask Allaah to keep us safe and sound.
For more information, see:
Talbees Iblees (237) and al-Madkhil by Ibn al-Haaj
    (3/109); al-Amr bil-Ittibaa wal-Nahy an al-Ibtidaa by
    al-Suyooti (99 ff); Dham al-Malaahi by Ibn Abil-Dunya; al-Ilaam
    bi-anna al-Azif haraam by Abu Bakr al-Jazaairi; Tanzeeh
    al-Shareeah an al-Aghaani al-Khaleeah wa Tahreem Aalaat al-Tarab by
    al-Albaani.