Question Summary:
If listening to music is haram in Islam, what can you say about this in light of the Quran and hadith?

Question Detail:

If listening to music is haram in Islam, what can you say about this in light of the Quran and hadith? 

Answer :

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
As-salāmu ‘alaykum wa-rahmatullāhi wa-barakātuh.
Allah Subhana wa Ta’ala says in the Quran[1]
And from among the people, there is he who buys the distracting amusement of things, so that he, being devoid of knowledge , may mislead (people) from the way of Allah and make a mockery of it. Such people are the ones for whom there is a disgraceful punishment. (Lukman 31:6)
The phrase buys the distracting amusement of things refers to the wealthy mushrik Nadr Ibn Harith who bought a singing girl to assist him in deviating the people from the Quran and the Sunnah of Nabi Pak Sallallahu Alaihi wa Salam. He would invite the people to his home to listen to the singing of this slave girl. These  occasions yielded no real benefits. It was just for fun and to past time.  Nadr Ibn Harith told the people to waste time like that was easier than making salat or fasting.
Playing that motivates one to go astray from his religion, or to make others go away from it is kufr (infedility). In the Ayat quoted above it has been declared as an act of grave error and infidelity. The punishment for this is similar to that of Kuffar (disbelief). This is a very painful punishment.
Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi wa Salam says:
When spoils are taken as personal property and trust property as spoils and Zakat as penalty, and religious learning is acquired for worldly objectives, and when man starts obeying his wife and disobeying his mother , and keeps his friends near and his father far, and voices rise in mosques and the chief of the tribe becomes its worse sinner and when the chief of a people becomes their lowest of the low  and wicked people are respected out of fear for them, and when singing girls and musical instruments appear all over and when wines of all sorts are  consumed and when the later of this Ummah starts cursing the former , then, at that time, you wait for a red storm, and earthquake, and the sinking of the earth, and the metamorphosis of figures and faces, and missiles, and the signs of Doomsday following each other, one after the other, like a broken necklace with its beads scattered simultaneously. (Reported by Tirmidi) [2]
As Muslims we should take some time to ponder over this hadith that was narrated to us over fourteen hundred years ago by our beloved Nabi Pak Sallallahu Alaihi wa Salam. These are the times that we are living in.
It is conclusive from the above quoted Ayat and hadith that music is prohibited in Islam.
There are also many more authentic ahadith in which singing and the playing of musical instruments have been declared as unlawful and impermissible.
And Allah Ta’āla Knows Best

Mawlana Saeed Ahmed Golaub
Westmoreland, Jamaica, West Indies
Student Darul Iftaa
 
Checked and Approved
Mufti Ebrahim Desai
daruliftaa.net