What is the Islamic ruling on listening to music?

Is music haram in Islam is one of the most actively debated questions in contemporary fiqh — there is no single agreed answer across scholars. A significant number of classical and contemporary scholars, including many within the Hanafi, Maliki, and Hanbali traditions and scholars like Ibn Baz and Al-Albani, hold that music involving instruments is impermissible, citing hadith some scholars interpret as referring to musical instruments and singing girls in a corrupting context, along with reports from Sahabah like Ibn Mas'ud and Ibn Abbas.

Other scholars — including some within the Shafi'i school (notably referencing views attributed to Ibn Hazm and, in later times, scholars like Yusuf al-Qaradawi) — hold that music itself is not clearly prohibited by an authentic, unambiguous text, and that permissibility depends on content and context: lyrics promoting immorality, intoxication-linked settings, or excessive distraction from religious duties are the actual problem, not sound and rhythm as such. Given this is a live scholarly disagreement rather than settled consensus, readers should know both positions exist, and many practicing Muslims choose based on which scholarly view they follow (madhab or contemporary teacher) rather than there being one binding answer for all.

Source: for the majority-restrictive view, see Ibn Baz and Al-Albani's rulings as compiled by Abu Khadeejah; for the minority-permissive view, see discussions of Ibn Hazm's position and contemporary scholarship summarized at Islamful and D'amour Muslim. This is a genuinely contested area — consult a scholar you trust for a personal ruling.