Salman Ahmed of Junoon on music at a Pakistani madrassah

From the article "Silence is death - Censorship in the Arab world" by Trevor Mostyn

in The Daily Star [Lebanon]
Monday, October 31, 2005

[At a conference on 'Freedom of Expression in Music' held in Beirut] the Pakistani modern musician Salman Ahmed showed a film in which he tried to persuade traditional clerics in a Pakistani madraseh that his music was not sinful. He even sang verses of the Koran to them, accompanied by his guitar.

"I researched with scholars," he said, "and discovered that no verse in the Koran prohibits music. [The clerics] invoke a hadith which only allows the duff (drum) to be played. However, most of Islamic tradition has come to us through Sufism which believes in cultural expressiveness through poetry, music and dance, attempting to reach God through love. The puritan Taliban view is alien to most people. People who want to ban music are a minority but conservatives have taken power in the media."

In the madraseh he told the clerics that the prophet David had been given the gift of voice. "When he sang the mountains swayed. I told them that there is melody throughout the universe, from our heart-beat to the sound of the azzan. How can there be no room for this in Islam? The leading talib told me that I was going to go to hell. I quoted verses from Iqbal [the Urdu poet]. I argued that Islam is a religion of reason and knowledge and that we must free ourselves from ritual. So I was curiously touched when the talib suddenly said to me, 'Salman, I don't want you to be angry with me.' And then, once the mike was off, he sang verses from the Koran, beautifully. I said 'Why the change? You are singing but for two hours you condemned singing'. He smiled at me."