Is it permissible to listen to non-Islamic songs, if the song is merely vocals having no bad words or meanings?

Question Summary

Is it permissible to listen to non-Islamic songs if the song is merely vocals having no bad words or meanings?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate

Listening to a song is permissible if it meets the following conditions:

(1) The words/lyrics do not entail sin nor glorify sinful actions.
(2) The listening does not distract one from their religious obligations.

[Ibn ‘Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar]

Hope this helps
Allah knows best
[Shaykh] Yusuf Weltch

Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Shaykh Yusuf Weltch is a teacher of Arabic, Islamic law, and spirituality. After accepting Islam in 2008, he then completed four years at the Darul Uloom seminary in New York, where he studied Arabic and the traditional sciences. He then traveled to Tarim, Yemen, where he stayed for three years studying in Dar Al-Mustafa under some of the greatest scholars of our time, including Habib Umar Bin Hafiz, Habib Kadhim al-Saqqaf, and Shaykh Umar al-Khatib. In Tarim, Shaykh Yusuf completed the memorization of the Qur’an and studied beliefs, legal methodology, hadith methodology, Qur’anic exegesis, Islamic history, and several texts on spirituality. He joined the SeekersGuidance faculty in the summer of 2019.