This is, of course, a very famous and old matter of dispute and ikhtilaf. Although many of the scholars of Islam declared that music is impermissible, the other opinion is certainly not to be put aside, as such dismissal is nothing but a disservice and injustice to the great `ulama of our tradition who held that opinion. For instance, permitting music is a well-known position attributed to the School of Madinah (i.e. the Maliki madhhab). As for the what the `ulama have mentioned, it being permitted is established from the likes of Qadi Abu Bakr Ibn Al-`Arabi, and implied by others such as Imam Al-Shatibi. This is also an opinion to be found in all of the other madhhabs too. With regard to the ahadith about music, Qadi Abu Bakr Ibn Al-`Arabi says in his book, Al-Ahkam, “None of the ahadith maintaining that singing is prohibited are considered authentic (by the muhaddithun [i.e. scholars of the Science of Hadith]).” The same view is maintained by Al-Ghazali and Ibn Al-Nahwi in Al-`Umdah. Ibn Tahir says, “Not even a single letter from all these ahadith were proved to be authentic.” And Ibn Hazm says, “All the ahadith narrated in this respect were invented and falsified.” It should be made very clear that I do not make this post in order to prove that music is mubah (permissible), and that the other position is to be rejected, but in my experience, people who claim that music is haram simply dismiss the other position which was held by many of the righteous scholars of Islam until today, and they base this upon daleel also. This is a mukhtalafi issue and should be treated as such.