Music – Singing or Sinning (write-up by the organiser)

6Mehedi • 13th Jul 2009 • islam, muslim • Arts, Express Yourself, islam, Murtaza Khan, Music, Qardawi, Salafi, Sufi, Usama Hasan, Zakariyya King

Few weeks back I attended this Islamic even in London Muslim Centre, it was regarding the issue of Music. As you know the Prophet Muhammed (Peace be upon him said):

“From among my followers there will be some people who will consider illegal sexual intercourse, the wearing of silk, the drinking of alcoholic drinks and the use of musical instruments…” Al-Bukhari Volume 7, Book 69, Number 494v

So just like all the saying of the Prophet became and becoming true, this one is no exception. There are people (likes of Yusuf Al-Qardawi), who claims music is permissible without providing valid evidences. His view regarding this issue obviously goes against the views of the four greatest Muslim scholars (please read: The Ruling Concerning Music According to the Four Imaams)

Anyways here is the notes from brother Zakariyya King’s facebook account. May Allah reward him immensely.

Zakariyya King’s Notes

This is a very crude version and it will not be the one we post on youtube, but there are some of you who are very eager for this. Please forgive the whispers around the camera, there will be higher quality on the one we release through Soul City Arts:

http://www.media.alwahy.com/action/videolist/videonew/?cid=161&sid=476

Tale of the Tape

It has been a few weeks since the Express Yourself (‘Music – Singing or Sinning’ for some of you) conference finished and I believe it’s about time that I relayed my story as the sole organiser.

Let’s take it waaaaaay back to four or five months ago. Two things happened at roughly the same time, firstly Taybah Centre, which is a mosque in Leicester with a Salafee understanding requested that I put together a fundraising event for them in London because their home town knew them too well and frankly recognised that there are mosques a plenty there; secondly I popped in on Radical Middle Way’s event in Whitechapel just to see wha’ gwaan and was shocked to find sisters dancing on stage in front of a mixed audience.

Instantly I realised that something had to be done about this. Even if we were to convince ourselves that music is permissible when it is used for dawah, this doesn’t mean that every associated act is fine and dandy. Neither RMW nor the participants were going to address this lack of boundaries, in fact they were smiling along torpidly with every sway and hip-swerve.

Once Taybah agreed to stump up the cash I set about making the necessary enquiries. My idea was to stage a debate between a British hip-hop supporting person of knowledge and a salafee scholar. The Arts Council had recently coordinated a debate about music in Islam up in Birmingham, but had failed miserably to make it impartial. Far too frequently were these ‘pat-on-your-pack’ sessions taking place between artists. By the same token salafees or anti-music groups were not interested in listening to the voice of alternate opinion. So I began by messaging participants in the Islamic hip-hop scene and asking for their suggestions. The responses threw up the names of Michael Mumisa, Tim Winters, Yusuf Qaradawi, Hamza Yusuf, Dan Juma and Ahmed Babikir.

Now given my budget Qaradawi and Yusuf were not viable options and Juma was a complete unknown. Babikir according to Ismael South was not interested in arguing. I liked the idea of Mumisa considering his tag as the ‘UK hip-hop Imam’ and therefore immediately tried to get in contact with him. At the Birmingham debate he had the audacity to make the statement that most of the scholars of Islam had conceded that music was halal! I therefore expected a bold, ballsy, secure individual, but what I found was far different. He was making excuses to intermediaries and claiming his calendar was full (without knowing the date) then demanding to investigate the background of the funders. Finally when I got hold of him on the phone he actually told me that he did not really believe music was permissible and that it was just him presenting what some other faqhees had concluded and how they would argue that point! To further illustrate the cacophony of messages floating about I discovered that Mumisa had turned Shia yet was still the advisor for a number of new creative Sunnis. The hip-hop Imam turned out to be a phony.

Within a couple of days I had received an e-mail response from Tim Winters aka Abdul-Hakim Murad. His correspondence shocked me even more. He claimed that he’d never believed in music as halal and in fact was working towards encouraging Muslims to use their voices instead of any instruments. This was certainly not the impression I got from his associates.

Two heavyweights had fallen. Where would I turn? My grey matter stores very little useful information yet it dragged up for me a conversation I’d had with a brother in Cairo where he’d claimed that Usama Hasan, the son of Shaykh Suhaib (my wife’s one-time wali) was an advocate of love songs. I’d spent time with Usama in Masjid al-Tawhid during Itikaf and got on well with him plus his voice always reminded me of how he’d introduce Ali Tamimi lectures. Despite that I was deeply disturbed by his affiliations with Quilliam Foundation and there had been occasions where I had purposely avoided having to give my salaams to him as a consequence. I was getting desperate though and so I forwarded the same e-mail that had been in Mumisa and Winters’ inboxes onto Usama.

It became obvious to me that in London at least there are very, very few knowledgeable Muslims that support ‘Islamic’ music. The UK Muslim hip-hop scene is built around a small number of individuals and were you to take some of their major players out then what they’ve established would crumble instantly.
In the meantime I got a yes from the other side of the debate – Shaykh Haitham al-Haddad, the former Imam of Al-Muntada Al-Islami and student of Ibn Baz who commended my idea. I felt that al-Haddad’s immense banks of ‘ilm would destroy any argument for such matters.

Then I received the e-mail back from Usama and without any hesitation he agreed. It showed that he had the testicular fortitude to back-up his opinions, unlike the aforementioned. This presented a solution with a new problem. As Abid Hussain from the Arts Council made me aware Usama had blown Haitham away in the Islam Channel moonsighting debate plus there was the issue of conflicts of interest. Shaykh Haitham is extremely close to Shaykh Suhaib. To my disappointment when Haitham found out he felt he had to withdraw and suggested Imam Firaz from Tooting as his replacement.
I needed a name though and my own list of possibilities consisted of Wasim Kempson, Murtaza Khan, Jalal ibn Saeed, Abdurrahman Dimashqia, Shakeel Begg, Khalid Fikri and Bilal Philips. I had e-mail and telephone conversations with almost every one of them. Eventually Murtaza stepped forward and exhibited real enthusiasm for the debate. He’d argued Shaykh Haitham down for an hour apparently when seeking his advice.

So it was set. The showdown would take place at the LMC on June 14th.
However I came to the conclusion that it wasn’t sufficient to merely blow the music argument out of the water. I wanted to provide a wider audience for the plethora of permissible artistic forms out there and actively encourage and promote them. Therefore the event became ‘Express Yourself’ and I gathered all of my favourite poets and artists together on the undercard to show that it doesn’t always have to be poor quality when dealing Islamic.

The paradoxical thing was that in order to make up for mistakes at previous events I needed to fill this venue out and that meant playing strongly on the conflict between pro and anti. With a specialist designer of similar thinking at my disposal and Mohammed Ali (Aerosol Arabic) dispensing advice I began to let my ideas that had been building up since ‘The Simpsons Phenomenon’ last year as loose as a steroid-induced hare.

Everybody with an open mind was loving our main poster that incorporated classic boxing marketing elements and I’m so glad we had it. I cannot remember exactly how we got there, it must have been a suggestion I’d made with only hazy directives that Tommy just ran with. In hindsight I think we could have kept that one as our only representative image. I went with alternates in other formats because in some instances the confrontation between the two speakers needed to be toned down.

By going so far as to hint at a boxing match I received a large amount of venomous, opinion-based correspondences from those who couldn’t find anything haram about it or even some relating evidence to cast doubts on my approach. These haters refuse to take off their uniform blinkers manufactured by Saudi Culture (unreasonably) Limited and distributed by scowls from the masjid uncles. I firmly believe that the mindset adopted from the unIslamic homelands of the first generations of immigrants are not workable in London in 2009. The UK Ummah is still wrestling with the honour killings, khat, paan and cigarette addictions, botched female circumcisions, government bowing, alcohol-flowing restaurants, off-licenses and racism that these economic migrants brought with them when they stepped off of those first ships. We cannot innovate in terms of the content of this deen, but we are not restricted in our tools to the extent suggested by my critics. The worldwide web, e-mail, social networking sites, blogs, design software, documentaries, recorded lectures, wheelchair ramps in mosque entrances, open days and adhan through loudspeakers are all the result of innovative minds. I warn you lot – do not attack mine merely because you haven’t got the brainpower to think outside of the box whilst staying within the sharia. I shall continue to search for creative means to improve our situation even though your armchair polemics are disheartening.

In my eagerness to have imagery out in the worldwide web that promoted Express Yourself, I conjured up my own tacky poster, which consisted of elements that Tommy had refused to put in. It generated the buzz I wanted as well as resentment and derision from certain quarters. A revealing observation from the discussion that took place around my intentionally stirring facebook posts was that Muslims were firmly entrenched in their allegiances and that this battle of daleels would do little to budge them from such positions. However I soldiered on, sensing that good would come out of my endeavours regardless.

Murtaza began referring to me as ‘Don’ (King) and he was the ‘Champ’ (Mohammed Ali) coming out as the underdog. Usama and I shared a small amount of light-hearted trans-continental banter too, but Murtaza was more geared up as he went into “training mode”, which meant heavy research. He wanted me to let him go first in the debate and rubbish all of Ibn Suhaib’s arguments before he’d even had the opportunity to present them. I felt reluctance because I was supposed to be bound to impartiality, however I was swayed by the feeling that Usama would annihilate the younger apprentice with his vast experience in examining evidences and by going last it would force a kind of Mortal Combat ‘FINISH HIM!’ using his favourite pen for marking! Murtaza would be opening out of the two, but I was definitely worried for him.

In lieu of a hip-hop head who would represent the scene on the panel I scrambled around. Rakin Fetuga would have been perfect because he is considered the Godfather and primary protagonist behind that movement, but he backed out, nor would Mohammed Yahya or Jamie ‘Spitz’ Renwick accept the offer. Ismael had already let me down massively, but rapper Masikah had already agreed to perform. What I conceded to do was to just stick him on stage during the debate for a few minutes in order to explain what music meant to him and get across the understanding that it’s not always the black and white pages of a scholar’s fatwa collection that form the argument. Brother Dash was pro-music too although his article about Muslim entertainment had exposed a lot of inconsistencies and errors in the game, which convinced me that he should play a part in the discussion.

Then less than ten days prior to Express Yourself came a worrying phone call; the London Muslim Centre who were hosting the event stated that they probably wanted Usama Hasan pulled out because of his allegiance to Quilliam Foundation. The objections were coming from a single man who headed an MCB affiliate so I hoped that it was merely one former government pet hating on Brown’s new plaything and ignored it for 48 hours. That didn’t work. The next conversation with them spelled out that Dr. Hasan would not be given the microphone, which I discovered stemmed from labelling of certain trustees as “extremists” by QF spokespeople. I hastily arranged a meeting with the objectioner in question, Dilowar Hussein Khan and subtly requested some clarification from Usama. I had to tread carefully because onlookers were already predicting that he would be a no-show on the day. Over the phone Usama armed me with the unexpected words I needed and sent me rushing to the administrators office at the LMC. I told them “Usama has stepped down from QF as of two months ago… (partly because of) the incorrect statements they had made about East London Mosque’s trustees” and with an e-mail that confirmed that from the man himself plus a comment about how the Imam of ELM had offered Usama the lead in a congregational Salaah just months before we had our show back on. Al-Hamdulillah.

Anyway, the day arrived and would you have guessed it? Everybody involved bar two or three turned up late. It didn’t matter that I’d drummed it constantly into their ears and reading eyes that 12.30 was the cut-off point. In reality they didn’t worry me massively, the fella that had my heart in my mouth was Murtaza Khan who even at 2.10pm was missing and not picking up my repeated calls. We considered giving Usama the chance to argue both points! If that were to have been where we’d gone I’d have had a riot on my hands and seen a number of reputations reach the gutter.
Thankfully Murtaza strolled in minutes before his scheduled appearance and saved me from 900 punters at this gyrating gameshow of an Islamic conference. His excuse? “Boxing psychology!”

I slotted Dash in first and devirginised a good many ‘Masjid Marauders’ with a dose of in-yer-face spoken word. Sometimes one needs to force-feed family members. The claps of applause thereafter were stared down by angry, seemingly bloodthirsty, thobed Islamo-hooligans (many of whom are my friends)!

Next came Abdur-Raheem Green with his naseeha born out of invaluable experience. The message was that not every shahada is one of perfection. Those in the know recognise that cultural and appropriated baggage exists within any one of us and our handling of ourselves around new or returning Muslims should be that of patience and understanding. I pray that listeners took heed. Myself and a couple of others will see that this was a covert attempt to rectify the ills that have led to the creation of an unchecked Islamic music scene in this country. What happens is; Tyrone enters Islam whilst in the middle of putting together a demo tape, he is a reasonably skilled MC, you see. Within hours of his conversion some dopey zealot passionately informs him that listening to music is a terribly evil affair. Confused and torn, Tyrone bumps into a funky crowd of new Muslims who reassure him that the racist Arabs don’t understand him and that everything is the same as before, just without the spirits and swine. They go even further to tell him that he can jump on one of their next albums and carve a niche out of this fresh market. If only they all knew that UK hip-hop itself is crowing its death pangs (nobody makes a real living out of that genre anymore) while they try to develop something groundbreaking out of just 5% of its followers.

I suspect you are waiting for my verdict on the debate itself. Well, considering I spent most of the duration rushing around making sure poets were arriving, sound levels were correct and people on the receiving end of Murtaza’s jibes were not offended I don’t believe I am in a position yet to judge, at least until the recorded footage has been made available.

I do know that already some of my objectives have been achieved, for example Usama Hasan has shown himself to be a little insensitive to his audiences, but he is returning to us, he has departed the Quilliam Foundation, he is clarifying his previous statements and he can walk around somewhere like the LMC without the fear of attack and politely listen to your points. If Murtaza, Abdur-Raheem, Abdul-Qayyum, Umar Abdullah, Alyas Karmani and others can hug him publicly and call him brother then so can we. Seriously Muslims, hold back on the takfir before you’ve had a chance to question him personally. He’ll gladly listen to anything you have to say within reason.

In addition to that I’m aware that a number of people are now seriously considering giving up music and the Express Yourself conference has had a big impact on their decision.

I helped make learning fun. I know that such a notion is considered blasphemous by some of our brothers and sisters who delude themselves that South-East London is Saudi Arabia and that sitting in a grubby mosque listening to a foreign language lecture without a translator is the Sunnah. In doing so we also brought back a classical manner of settling an issue. This was the way that the scholars of old would debate. Maybe they wouldn’t have gone with my choice of marketing design, but the live-in-a-box brigade (listen to the Dawud Wharnsby nasheed) would have to prove it!
Nearly one thousand people gathered in a halal environment for the sake of Allah with the hope that the truth be made clear. From the post-event reviews I’ve seen over 90% of attendees claim that this was the best event they’d ever been to, which is certainly pleasing.

Sadly the sisters section was more appreciative of the rest of the schedule than their counterparts as most of what remained downstairs took place in front of under a hundred seated visitors. This was a direct result of placing the debate at the beginning. Aggrieved artists – I apologise and must explain that were it up to me Murtaza and Abdur-Raheem would not have needed to escape early for their classes and flights respectively and affect the running order.

At least I finally got Warsan Shire in front of the practicing females because she is without doubt the most talented Muslim poetess in the English language today.

Alyas Karmani as the replacement host done really well and it was obvious that he understood the subject matter. Tommy’s wife gave birth on the day so he couldn’t be there, but let us make dua for baby Safa bint Aimen Evans.

There are still a few more clarifications: like the answer to those who accuse us of focusing on a minor ikhtilaafi issue when the Ummah is being destroyed around us and thousands are leaving the deen or failing to concentrate on fundamentals. Those who have given me the benefit of the doubt will be glad to hear that I am not stupid enough to think that music should be our primary concern. Some may be aware that I am a regular operator of a dawah stall on Edgware Road that has been led by me for three years now. So for maybe 500 hours I and friends have been calling people to correct Tawhid, repairing relationships with our non-Muslim neighbours and stopping lapsed Muslims in the street to remind that the time for Salaah is always upon us. Therefore a very small percentage of my dawah time has been dedicated to this cause. We had forum fanatics frothing at the mouth until foam had spread all over their keyboard (and affected their spelling) because they felt that by putting this together I was stating to the world that they should attend this and forego Islamic knowledge forever. Dozens of scholarly Islamic writers have recommended varying the subjects we study as the brain is prone to becoming less receptive upon overexposure to a single field. I would suggest attending Shaykh Suhaib’s fiqh and tafseer classes that take place twice weekly in Masjid Tawhid or Wasim Kempson’s aqeeda study circles in Al-Muntada/Lewisham way before my events as they are essential to the believer’s understanding. There is space for all of us though, remember that.

Moreover I’ve heard the accusation that such a thing as this is a divisive issue and that it will only fracture our communities further. To that I request people to speak with Usama, Masikah and a few paying guests who will almost certainly correct such preconceptions.

Although there is one group of people who appear to have actively boycotted the day’s happenings – the recording artists who weren’t being paid to turn up. Insiders claim that music-makers have no desire to discover the truth, their vested interest smothering sincerity… we’ll have to wait and see. If they wanted somebody more representative then I’m sorry, but there is nobody, all of their realistic suggestions bottled it. I don’t foresee the entertainers involved to pack up their fruity loops and send their studio musicians home, but I pray that the word ‘Islamic’ will no longer be abused by aspiring Immortal Technique’s.

A dozen or so ‘online activists’ went to great pains to tell me and the world that Usama Hasan had said this and that about evolution, hijab and secularism. Some considered it an unforgivable crime that we were even giving a platform to the man. Yet they would have been just as upset regardless of whosoever else I’d have brought to put forward the pro-music stance. How pathetically backwards would it have been for us to place two ‘acceptable’ faces on stage and have one pretend that he thinks instruments are permitted?

The words ‘I’, ‘me’ and ‘myself’ have been repeated so excessively in this write-up, but it really is just little Zakariyya that knows the whole queer tale.

The most common question post-conference is about the availability of the video. Patience is a virtue so give it until the end of July when we should have it available for free on youtube, insha-Allah.
Dasham, Yvonne, Mohammed x2, Abdur-Raheem x2, Shomul, Sayf, Mia, Jamal, Elhaam, Warsan, Abdullah, Hassan, Alyas, Aimen, Usama, Murtaza, Abid as well as my lovely wife were the best people to have involved for this project and I was just a squirt of glue beneath them. May Allah increase their good deeds and give them fulfilling lives here and in the next chapter. Ameen.

There you have it then. Finally I can sit silently with my new baby son without my mind wandering off into a muse about sign placings! I would still consider doing something like this again for another organisation though because in reality… I bloody loved it!