This might have gone unnoticed last week but the newly-minted Islamic Republic of Gambia has banned music, dancing and all forms of celebrations temporarily. Reason? It’s the holy month of Ramadan and all that merrymaking is haram.

According to a statement issued by the country’s Inspector General of Police –

In honor of the holy month of Ramadan, all ceremonies, festivities and programmes that involve drumming, music and dance during the day or night are prohibited.

All those engaged in the practice are therefore warned to desist from such acts, otherwise they will be eventually apprehended and face the full force of law without compromise.

As a Muslimah who writes about music every day, of course I had my reservations. Say Gambia became Nigeria for the next few weeks, am I suddenly supposed to down tools, pack my headphones, shutdown my computer and go on vacation for a month or something? I spoke to Chiagoziem – not about the vacation, because I know I’m not going to get one but – about the Gambia news. He felt he couldn’t form an opinion about it and I understood why, religious issues such as this should be handled with care. However, he did share the video below with me. It’s an interview of a Muslim rapper called AR-AB who was made famous when Drake mentioned him in his Grammy-nominated diss at Meek Mill “Back 2 Back”.

I drove here in the Wraith playin’ AR-AB /

I’m not sure what it was that really made y’all mad /

In it, AR-AB talked about the struggle between Islam, his religion and music, his chosen profession.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=DHHp4lOagrw%3Fautoplay%3D1%26start%3D1333%26end%3D1391%26controls%3D1%26version%3D3

There’s a conflict between my religion and rap and music. Cos I know the further I get in music and the more money I make, the farther I’m slipping off the righteous path. In my religion, we ain’t supposed to rap… music is the voice of the devil.

He raises an important point. Music is a very contentious issue in the Muslim community, a lot of scholars believe both listening to and practicing music is prohibited, however it is not completely unanimous. Those who are opposed to music, quote this Hadith, while there are scholars who believe it is permissible under certain circumstances. That said, there is always a danger in picking one or two Hadiths to build a point up without the proper context. What is however unanimously agreed amongst scholars is that if the music encourages bad behavior, extra-marital affairs etc, it is prohibited.

Anyway, it would be interesting  to see how a government that has so far struggled to limit the circulation of more reprehensible vices such as alcohol and weed would find the additional manpower and willpower to enforce this new directive. But away from public enforcement, perhaps this is another call to Muslims for private reflection. Are we truly doing the will of Allah or are we allowing our own judgment to make decisions for us? We need to continue to look inward in this period of Ramadan and even beyond.

Moreover, we’re supposed to have consideration for people of other faiths at all times, so how considerate is the banning of music during Ramadan then? It is true that in President Yahya Jammeh, the egotistical dictator that has been in charge of Gambia for 22 years, we have an imperfect messenger. However, that’s no reason to through the baby with the bathwater.