59 - Chapter: The Disapproval of Singing and the Flute

4924 - Ahmad ibn 'Ubayd Allah al-Ghudani narrated to us, al-Walid ibn Muslim narrated to us, Sa'id ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz narrated to us, from Sulayman ibn Musa, from Nafi', who said: Ibn 'Umar heard a flute. He said: He placed his two fingers in his ears, turned away from the road, and said to me: "O Nafi', do you hear anything?" He said: I said, "No." He said: Then he removed his two fingers from his ears and said: "I was with the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and he heard something like this, and he did something like this."

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Also recorded by Ahmad in his Musnad (12540), and Ibn Hibban in his Sahih (5870), from the hadith of Anas who said: The Abyssinians were dancing before the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and leaping, saying: "Muhammad is a righteous servant." The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: "What are they saying?" They said: "They are saying: Muhammad is a righteous servant."

Its chain of transmission is sound.

His saying "yazfina" means they were dancing. Al-Nawawi said: The scholars interpreted it as their leaping with their weapons and playing with their spears in a manner close to the form of dancing, because most narrations only mention their playing with their spears, so this wording was interpreted to conform with the rest of the narrations.

(1) A good (hasan) hadith. Al-Walid ibn Muslim, although he practiced tadlis al-taswiyah (concealing weak links in the chain), was followed by others. Sulayman ibn Musa: a jurist, truthful, of good hadith, and he was followed by al-Mut'im ibn al-Miqdam and Maymun ibn Mihran as recorded by the compiler.

It was also recorded by al-Bayhaqi in al-Sunan 10/222 via the compiler's chain of transmission.

It was also recorded by Ibn Sa'd in al-Tabaqat 14/63, Ahmad in his Musnad (4535) and (4965), and Ibn Hibban in his Sahih (693) through multiple routes from al-Walid ibn Muslim.

It was also recorded by Ahmad (4965), Ibn Abi al-Dunya in al-Wara' (79), and al-Tabarani in al-Shamiyyin (322) through multiple routes from Sa'id ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz.

See also what follows it.

We have elaborated on this hadith in al-Musnad at hadith number (4535), so see the full discussion of it there.