May musical instruments be sold?

The sale of musical instruments is one of the questions for which Ibn Hazm is best known: in the Book of Sales of al-Muhalla he lays down that selling chess sets, pipes, lutes, stringed instruments and tanburs is entirely lawful, that whoever breaks one is liable for it unless it is a figurative image, and that buying and selling singing girls is likewise lawful; he sets out the hadiths and reports cited by those who forbid and answers them, while the editors of his edition record in their notes who authenticated some of those hadiths. ¹

Ibn Hazm argues that God created for us all that is on earth, made sale lawful and set out in detail what He forbade, and that no text forbids selling any of these things; he reports that Abu Hanifa held one who breaks such an instrument liable. ¹ Those who forbid, he says, rely on reports that are not sound, or of which some are sound but prove nothing. ¹

He gives 'Uqba ibn 'Amir's report, "everything a man amuses himself with is futile except a man's shooting with his bow, training his horse and playing with his wife", and rejects it because 'Abd Allah ibn Zayd ibn al-Azraq is unknown, and another chain because Khalid ibn Zayd is unknown in his view; and the report of Jabir ibn 'Abd Allah and an Ansari companion on amusement, saying that the "al-Zuhri" in it is not Ibn Shihab but an unknown man named 'Abd al-Rahim, and that another chain says only that such things are idle and heedless, not forbidden. ^{1 4 5} He rejects 'A'isha's report "God forbade the singing girl, her sale and her price" because of Layth ibn Abi Sulaym and two unknown transmitters; 'Ali's report of fifteen traits, including taking singing girls and instruments, because of unknown transmitters and the abandoned Faraj ibn Fadala; Mu'awiya's report forbidding singing and wailing; and Ibn Mas'ud's report "singing grows hypocrisy in the heart" because it comes from an unnamed shaykh. ^{5 6 7} He judges Anas's report on one who sits with a singing girl to be fabricated, criticises the transmission of Ibn Sha'ban among the Malikis and 'Abd al-Baqi ibn Qani' among the Hanafis, and weakens the chains of Abu Umama's report forbidding the sale of singing girls. ^{8 9 10}

He then cites the report in al-Bukhari, introduced with "Hisham ibn 'Ammar said", through 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Ghanm from Abu 'Amir or Abu Malik al-Ash'ari: "there will be people of my community who make lawful fornication, silk, wine and instruments", and says it is disconnected between al-Bukhari and Sadaqa ibn Khalid, that nothing on this subject is sound, and swears that had any of it come with a connected chain of trustworthy narrators he would not have hesitated to accept it. ² The editors note that Ibn Hajar answered the charge of disconnection in Fath al-Bari, and for another report on this subject cite Ibn al-Qayyim's judgement that its chain is sound, Ibn Taymiyya's that it is good, and al-Albani's that it is sound through its supporting reports. ^{11 2} Ibn Hazm adds that if these reports forbidding their sale were true, one who had intercourse with a singing girl he had bought would have to receive the hadd punishment, and that they do not forbid owning them, since something may be forbidden to sell yet lawful to own. ²

Ibn Hazm relates that Ibn Mas'ud explained "idle talk" in Luqman 6 as singing, swearing to it; that Ibn 'Abbas explained it as singing and buying singing girls, and said that the tambourine, instruments, the pipe and the drum are forbidden; that Ibrahim al-Nakha'i said singing grows hypocrisy in the heart and that his companions used to tear tambourines; and that Mujahid, 'Ikrima and Habib ibn Abi Thabit explained it as singing. ^{12 3} He answers that no one's word below the Prophet ﷺ's is proof, that other Companions and Successors differed from them, and that the verse itself condemns one who buys idle talk to lead people from God's path and to mock it, which is the description of an unbeliever, and never condemns one who buys it to amuse and refresh himself. ³ Whoever deliberately neglects prayer for singing or anything else, even reading the Qur'an or looking after his property, is a sinner, he says, and whoever neglects no obligation is doing well. ³

To the argument "is singing part of the truth or not?" Ibn Hazm answers with the hadith "actions are by intentions": whoever listens to singing as an aid to disobeying God is a sinner, whoever does so to refresh himself and gain strength for obeying God is obedient and doing well, and whoever intends neither is engaged in idle play that is pardoned, like going out to one's garden for pleasure. ¹³ He relates from Nafi' that Ibn 'Umar heard a pipe, put his fingers in his ears and moved off the road, then said he had been with the Prophet when he heard the like and did the same; Ibn Hazm infers that listening is not forbidden, since otherwise the Prophet would not have let Ibn 'Umar hear it nor Ibn 'Umar let Nafi', and that the Prophet avoided it as he avoided many permitted things. ^{14 15} He relates that a man offered slave-girls to 'Abd Allah ibn Ja'far and one of them sang, whereupon Ibn 'Umar said, "Enough of the devil's piping for the rest of the day", and then intervened for the seller when he complained of being cheated in her sale; Ibn Hazm concludes that Ibn 'Umar heard singing and acted in the sale of a singing girl. ¹⁶ He rejects the claim of consensus on the tambourine by noting that Ibn Mas'ud's companions used to tear tambourines, and mentions that Sa'id ibn Jubayr and Ibn Sirin played chess well and that Sa'id ibn 'Abd al-Rahman ibn 'Awf sang with the lute. ¹⁷

The view of those who forbid is given here as Ibn Hazm and his editors present it; the four schools' views from their own books, the works written on listening to music from either side, and modern studies of the question have not yet been added.