Library Ethics Greater Sins Chapter 18 The Sixteenth Greater Sin : Singing What is Singing?
What is Singing?
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What is Singing?
Sayyid Murtadha, in his book, Wasīla writes,
“Singing is HarÄm. It is also HarÄm to listen to a song or to sing for money. However every melodious sound is not a ‘song’. Singing denotes a special way of prolonging the voice and rotating it in the throat. These features are common in sensuous parties. Such type of singing is usually accompanied by music.”
Most of the Shia Mujtahids and the experts of Arabic language opine that ‘singing’ means the turning and rotating of one’s voice in the throat. These types of strains are invariably found in classical music and Qawwalis. A prolonged tune of a-a-a is produced. In the dictionary, ‘Sihah’ it is mentioned that singing is a sound which produces a strange type of sorrow or pleasure in the listener. The other dictionaries almost agree to this definition. In brief, singing or song is a sound that makes a man unusually sad or joyful.
The book ZakhÄ«ratul Ebad says: “Every sound that is produced for entertainment and is capable of exciting passion is known as ‘singing.’ It could be produced by making it emanate from the throat like in classical music or by any other means. In brief whatever is understood by common sense as a song is HarÄm. Consequently it is sinful even to recite the Holy Qur’an, Nauha or Marsiya in the tune of songs. In fact this is more sinful than singing songs for it tantamounts to insulting and degrading the Qur’an and Nauha or Marsiya. It is for this reason that this type of sin deserves double the punishment.
