al-Kalam ala Masalat al-Sama
- Author died
- 751 AH
- Editions
- Dār ʿAṭāʾāt al-ʿIlm
al-Kalam ala Masalat al-Sama (Discussion on the Issue of Audition) is a treatise by the Hanbali theologian and jurist Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (691–751 AH / 1292–1350 CE) addressing the Islamic legal and spiritual rulings on music, singing, and Sufi audition rituals (sama').
Background and Titles
The treatise originated as an extensive legal response (fatwa) penned by Ibn al-Qayyim in 740 AH concerning the question of sama'. Ibn al-Qayyim had previously noted in his work Madarij al-Salikin his intention to dedicate an independent monograph to the topic, and he later referred back to the completed work in Ighathat al-Lahfan as his "major book on sama'" (kitabuna al-kabir fi al-sama').
In early bibliographical and biographical literature, the book was recorded under alternative designations: al-Safadi cited it as Kashf al-Ghita' 'an Hukm Sama' al-Ghina' (Lifting the Veil on the Ruling of Listening to Singing), while Katip Celebi (Haji Khalifa) recorded it as Hurmat al-Sama' (The Prohibition of Audition). The title al-Kalam 'ala Mas'alat al-Sama' appears at the opening of the extant manuscript.
Structure and Contents
The work opens with an introduction asserting that disputed matters must be judged strictly according to the Quran and the Sunnah, dividing the inquiry into two primary sections:
- Part One: Examines the legal status of sama', establishing its prohibition in Islamic law and addressing the distinction between listening for mere entertainment and treating audition as an act of worship or spiritual drawing-near (qurba). Ibn al-Qayyim systematically refutes arguments raised by proponents of sama', including reports concerning the singing of young servant girls (al-jariyatan) or singing at weddings and circumcisions. He details the spiritual harms of music and concludes the section with a comparison between the spiritual experience (dhawq) derived from prayer and Quranic recitation versus that derived from musical audition.
- Part Two: Formatted as an imaginary debate between an adherent of the Quran (sahib Quran) and an adherent of singing (sahib ghina'). In this section, Ibn al-Qayyim analyzes and refutes the arguments, traditions, and anecdotes compiled in the chapter on sama' in al-Risala al-Qushayriyya by Abu al-Qasim al-Qushayri. For this critique, he drew extensively from the discussions of his teacher Ibn Taymiyya in Kitab al-Istiqama, abridging and supplementing them with additional commentary.
Transmission and Publication
Due to its inclusion within a compendium of legal responsa and the scarcity of manuscript copies, the work remained little known and rarely cited by later scholars prior to its modern recovery; authors quoting Ibn al-Qayyim on the subject instead relied primarily on Ighathat al-Lahfan. A unique manuscript copy was preserved at the El Escorial Library in Spain (MS 1593).
The text was first edited by Rashid ibn Abd al-Aziz al-Hamad and published in one volume by Dar al-Asima in Riyadh in 1409 AH / 1989 CE. A subsequent critical edition was prepared by Muhammad Uzayr Shams and published jointly by Dar 'Ata'at al-'Ilm and Dar Ibn Hazm.
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