By Maulana I. Suleman

Assalamu Alaikum dear respected brothers, sisters, learned scholars, friends, and colleagues.

In the 20th century, as we approach its end, we have a big fuss being made over the new millennium. In England, we see the fuss in the form of a big dome. We have the fuss over the computer millenium bug. One way or the other, whether we read the papers, listen to the radio, listen to the reports by journalists on sky, the essential argument that is put forward is that the millennium will bring something bad with it and mankind has to do something to fight it otherwise we, as human beings, will be at a loss. If we look at the book, Ghost in the Machine written by Arthur Kestler, he looks at the 20th century and his main argument is that society, in the 20th century, has reached a stage as a direct result of scientific experiementations that people are at a stage that you can program them in whichever way you want. His argument is referred to as behaviourism. The scientists have discovered that if we give mankind a certain amount of training to do something, he will go that way without us doing anything. So, it is as though our minds are programmed to respond in a certain way given the right circumstances. A small example is that you can train a rat to do anything and this is the example Arthur Kestler gives in his book. You can train a rat to go and take the long route for its food. Likewise, in the modern day we have certain traps and tricks of Shaytaan to beguile mankind, not just the Muslims. Mankind is losing the identity that it acquired naturally regardless of what religion he follows.

The concept of behaviourism, programming the mind to behave in a certain way is evident today in Europe and America. The young generation of Muslims growing up in western society has been programmed to ponder upon three or four issues that must be very important to him because these are the things that give him popularity, street credit, worth on the street. It revolves around these four issues. And all these four issues deal with the outside of a person.

In England, 500 million pounds is spent on male cosmetics, not even women cosmetics like lipstick and nail polish, but 500 million pounds is spent only on male cosmetics. Why? Because the argument is put forward that the only reason you are going to get any worth, any status, is by the way you look. Which clothes do you wear? Which designer labels do you have in your closet? Do you wear Armani? Do you wear Ralph Lauren Polo? Do you drive a Mercedes? Your look is a trade worth 500 million pounds. So the brain has been programmed this way: You should have this product and the brain has been programmed to believe that if you dont have this product, you will have no street credit.

The other issue that occurs is which political party or trend to you support. And this does not occur until you enter the doors of a university. This will give you your street credit. Are you to the right? Are you to the left? Or are you in the middle?

The third issue is that what type of sport do you indulge in. This may mean the football team you support because that is going to give you street credit. That is going to make you look cool.

And the fourth issue is the type of music you listen to. And this fourth issue doesnt just affect the youngsters of today, but it affects the adults, the youth, and the old-aged pensioners. It is on a global level that the damage is being done. The music industry, on a global level, is worth one billion dollars. That is the music trade. If you compare those figures to the economic figures of some third world countries, you will find on the one hand, you have one billion dollars of the music industry and on the other hand, countries like Africa, a third world country, does not even generate more than half a billion. In 1997 in England, according to figures published by the corporate intelligence in London, just the music cassettes and records and CDs were worth 1, 767,000,000 pounds. And this is only in England. And they informed us that by the year 2002, you can expect the sales to go up to 2 billion pounds. These figures tell you that the interest in music will increase day by day. The sales on Hi-fi equipment (record players, CD players, stereo systems, etc.) in 1997 was worth 1,492,000,000 pounds and in the year 2002 that number will go up to 1,500,000,000 pounds. From this, we can see that the music industry is never going to go down. And in the same report, it said that the new labour government has established a specific task force to make sure that music and the sale of music increases in England over the next generation period. If a young Muslim is trying to order something over the phone, hes told, Wait a minute, Sir, and you have the top ten hits blowing down your ears. You go to the Supermarket, Costco, Safeway, wherever you go, you have music pumped down your ears. Wherever we go, music is all around us, whether we listen to it or whether we claim not to listen to it, it is around us. And if we look at this issue in the Quranic teachings and Hadith teachings, we will see something different. Allama Qurtubi who belongs to the thirteen century said that in the whole of the Quran, there are three verses that refer to music. Im going to deal with one. The Quran says: And beguile whomsoever of them you can with your voice (17:64).

When Shaytaan was evicted from Paradise, he complained to Allah and a dialogue took place. Mufti Shafi included it in his book, Islam and Music, page 163. On the authority of Allama Ibnul Qayyum Al-Jowzy, a fourteenth century scholar, he narrates a dialogue between Shaytaan and Allah when Shaytaan. When he was evicted from Paradise, he complained to Allah, I have been evicted from Paradise and it is going to be my task to make human life on earth a mission impossible. Im going to make sure that he boards the joy ride to Hell. That is my mission, but I will need some tools for that.

Shaytaan said: Where will I go in the world?
Allah replied: Your place is the public baths i.e., swimming pools, beaches, etc. (places of nudity).

Shaytaan: Where will I sit and spend my time?
Allah: In the town centers, in the market places i.e., malls, shopping centers, street corners.

Shaytaan: What will be my food?
Allah: Every animal that is not slaughtered according to Shariah principle, in the name of Allahthat will be your food i.e., haraam food, and you influence will penetrate into the person who eats such a food. (What do we see in the world today?)

Shaytaan: What will be my drink:
Allah: Every intoxicant will be your drink. (Notice that the word intoxicant is used, which means anything that intoxicates and not only alcohol.)

Shaytaan: What will be my Quran?
Allah: Your Quran will be music.

Shaytaan: You will have a person who will call towards prayer and success, so who will be my prayer caller?
Allah: Your prayer caller will be the musician.

The Quran tells us music and musicians is this and society tells us music and musicians are something else. Compare the two versions.

Shaytaan further asks: What will be my speech with which my influence will permeate within that person?
Allah replied: Lies.

Shaytaan: What will be my trap with which I can fish the human being into coming towards my way?
Allah: Women.

So music in the modern day is an art and the musician in the modern day, is a celebrity and an artist. The Quran tells us that music is the voice of Shaytaan. The hadith tells us that music is the Quran of Shaytaan. Now we must think about the path we are taking. We have to use the intellect, which Allah has bestowed upon us. There is a verse in the Holy Quran that describes the Jewish community at the time of Madina, the time of the Prophet SAW. Today that verse is befitting upon the Muslim community. It states that their hearts were disunited because they did not use their intelligence. We, Muslims, have to think now and not let others bombard us with useless information. Is our life only going to a corner shop or a gas station or fighting in the mosque everytime we meet? Is that our life? We have to think beyond this. The Muslims were the people who have the world intelligence. Hamilton Gibb was an Oxford lecturer united by the Queen. William Watt was a lecturer at Edinburgh University. Im not quoting Muslims. These are non-Muslim orientalists that studied Islam and said that the Muslims were the people who give Europe its lifestyle and it was the Muslims who gave Europe the intelligence to think with. They gave them the principle, the methodology to think with and now we have taken it over, but we dont want to think.

We are like an alarm clock. It has a start button, a stop button, and a snooze button. We are at the snooze button. We just carry along with no care in the world. People can bombard us with any theory and we just accept it. Why? Because we are not using the Quran. Its there; its full of intelligence. Besides everything else, music is only one issue here.

And in todays world, music has taken a very dangerous turn. A man named Alister Crowley, who died in 1947 put forward a suggestion that people should learn to think backwards, write backwards, speak backwards and this theory of his was a Satanists. He was one who worshipped the devil and todays musicians have picked up on this theory. Musicians like Michael Jackson, Madonna, The Spice Girls, the Beatles, and all modern groups from the 60s to today are using Crowleys idea.

Music is worked out on three different levels. One is backtracking. This is when you play a record forward such as the song everyone seems to know, Another one bites the dust. If you play that record forward, you have the song, Another one bites the dust. But if you play it backwards with certain expensive tools, then the message on this song will be, Its fun to smoke marijuana. The argument put forward is that we cannot listen to the words, Its fun to smoke marijuana. Professor William Yellowed was a head of a company in the USA. He was told to carry out a study on the brain by the Pentagon. He is called over in a court hearing. A consumer committee was dealing with a complaint that an album by Led Zeppelin had backtracked messages and these backtracked messages were having a wrong affect on the mind and brain of a person and the court wanted Professor William Yellowed to confirm it. So he confirmed it and described how it happens. The brain is divided into two main areas. There is a right side and a left side and then there is a Euro-tunnel in the middle. Everything that we understand or tend to understand passes through the right side. If you understand it, then you understand it, but if you dont, then it will pass through this vacuum and go onto the left side and on the back of the left side, there is the sub-conscious memory, which is a very powerful too that Allah has given to human beings. It is called the cerebella. It works like a camera. If you give it a negative image, it will give you a positive message, so if you push through the brain a negative and backward sentence then it will read it frontwards. So, the phrase, Another one bites the dust will be understood as Its fun to smoke marijuana. And this sentence and message will stay there in the brain if you do not sit in the company of pious people. If you are spiritually very low, which is the big vacuum of the modern day society, that message will definitely affect you. What do we see today? This is the backtrack method.

The second level which music has worked out on is known as back masking. Music is written on seven notes. Ill try to make it a simple explanation. The fourth and fifth are the best notes. Another way around Satan: will be written as notes and then everything would be written the other way around and then youll have a new message.

Ninety-nine percent of books that are written on music are in favour of music. One percent of the works in the library are against music and in that you have to look with a microscope to find a sentence which is really against it. You may have heard two years ago about children who were killing their colleagues in school. Who knows that the cause may be the CDs they listen to in private in their bedrooms whilst parents are thinking that theyre doing their homework and at least they are not on the streets causing mischief.

The third level which music has worked out in the modern era is that the so-called artist, so-called celebrity is acting out the message on stage. Michael Jackson is well known for his immorality on stage. The Spice Girls and Madonna are also well known for this.

My brothers, music, drugs, and other activities are forms of drugs. If youre not pushed with the white powder drug then it is the drug of media. If its not the drug of the media then its the drug of music. If its not the drug of music, then its some other form of drug. All this is connected to what Arthur Kestler mentioned in this work, The Ghost in the Machine, which I mentioned in the beginning. It is related to behaviourism. You control people like that. People like Mic Jager of the Rolling Stones; he confirmed the big rows of disco lights and music is a powerful indoctrination tool and this is what youngsters are getting into. Sometimes if you look at a car and you check out the stereo system in it, youll find that the system is worth much more than the car. How can that be justified? The Quran tells us that the people who are expensive spenders are brothers of Shaytaan. And music is one other thing, which comes from the accursed devil. May Allah save our children and us from it!