Music and the downfall of the nation:

بسم الله والحمد لله والصلاة والسلام على رسول الله ، وبعد

Ibn al-Qayyim رحمه الله said:

“And it is known, to the specific and the people in general, that the Fitnah of listening to music and singing is greater than the Fitnah of lamenting* by a large degree.

And what we have witnessed, we and those other than us, and what we came to know through experience is that: Singing and musical instruments have not appeared in a nation, and it spread among them, and they got busy in them, except that Allaah تعالى allowed the enemies to overpower them and afflicted them with famine, poverty and corrupt rulers.

The person of sound intellect contemplates and sees the state the world is in – and Allaah’s help is sought.”

[Madaarij al-Saalikeen (1/496)]

*Lamenting by wailing loudly, beating the cheeks and tearing the clothes are from the acts of the days of ignorance (Jaahiliyyah). In those days women were hired to wail at the death of someone.