Can I Attend a Wedding with Music Playing in the Background?
Answered by Shaykh Yusuf Weltch
Question
We have a small community in the country I live, and weddings are an excellent opportunity to come together and meet (new) people, as everyone lives far away from each other, especially regarding marriage purposes (the potential of finding a suitable partner amongst the crowd). Recently, two people from our community got married after someone had contacted them at a wedding they had both attended (they didn’t know about each other’s existence beforehand).
Weddings with no music rarely ever take place, sadly enough. I’d have to miss out on all of them otherwise. Thus, from this perspective (marriage purposes), would it be permissible to attend a wedding with music playing in the background?
Answer
In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate
Yes. It is permissible to attend a wedding even though they play music in the background.
Background Versus Primary Activity
The ruling here revolves around the central issue, the wedding ceremony. Wedding ceremonies are permissible. The presence of music in the ceremony is a secondary characteristic. This secondary characteristic does not affect the fundamental permissibility of the wedding, according to the following axiom:
“Subsidiaries are subsidiary and are not given their own rulings.” [Ibn Nujaym, al-Ashbah wa al-Naza’ir]
If any impermissible actions become the focal point of the event, such as mixed-gender dancing or the like-continued involvement in the wedding at this point is impermissible. [Ibn ‘Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar]
Commanding the Good
If the music’s content is impermissible, then it is obligatory to advise those in charge of the ceremony to offer an acceptable alternative if there is a hope that your advice will result in change.
This is especially true and important for anyone who is an example or role model. [Nahlawi, al-Durar al-Mubaha]
The Permissible is Plenty
As Muslims, is it of central importance to know what Allah Most High permits and prohibits before taking on any endeavor, such as holding a wedding ceremony. Our plans for the ceremony must be through the lens of that knowledge.
There are many permissible avenues of entertainment that one can use for the wedding. This allows people to enjoy their time, and no one is turning away from the obedience of Allah in the meantime.
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 a number of texts on spirituality. He joined the SeekersGuidance faculty in the summer of 2019.
