:salam2:
The guidelines and conditions of permissible nasheeds:
By studying the words of the scholars and trustworthy Shaykhs we may compile a list of guidelines and shar’i conditions which must be fulfilled for the nasheed to be permissible. That includes:
1. The words of the nasheed must be free of haraam and foolish words.
2. The nasheed should not be accompanied by musical instruments. No musical instrument is permitted except the duff for women on certain occasions. See the answer to question no. 20406.
3. It should be free of sound effects that imitate musical instruments, because what counts is what appears to be the case, and imitating haraam instruments is not permissible, especially when the bad effect is the same as that which happens with real instruments.
4. Listening to nasheed should not become a habit which takes up a person’s time and affects his duties and mustahabb actions, such as affecting his reading of Qur’aan and calling others to Allaah.
5. The performer of a nasheed should not be a woman performing in front of men, or a man with an enchanting appearance or voice performing in front of women.
6. One should avoid listening to performers with soft voices who move their bodies in rhythm, because there is fitnah in all of that and it is an imitation of the evildoers.
7. One should avoid the images that are put on the covers of their tapes, and more important than that, one should avoid the video clips that accompany their nasheeds, especially those which contain provocative movements and imitations of immoral singers.
8. The purpose of the nasheed should be the words, not the tune.
There follow some of the comments of the scholars which include the guidelines and conditions mentioned above.
1. Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah (may Allaah have mercy on him) said:
To sum up, what is well known in the Islamic religion is that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) did not prescribe for the righteous, devoted worshippers and ascetics of his ummah to gather to listen to poetic verses recited to the accompaniment of clapping or the beating of a duff. It is not permissible for anyone to deviate from following him and following that which he brought of the Book and wisdom, whether that has to do with inward or outward matters, either for an ordinary man or a member of the elite. But the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) granted concessions allowing some kinds of entertainment in weddings and the like, and he allowed women to beat the duff during weddings and other celebrations.
As for the men of his era, not one of them used to beat the duff or clap, rather it is proven in al-Saheeh that he said: “Clapping is for women, and tasbeeh is for men” and he cursed the women who imitate men and the men who imitate women.
Because singing, beating the duff and clapping are things that women do, the salaf used to call a man who did those things effeminate, and they called men who sang effeminate, and this is well known among their sayings. End quote.
Majmoo’ al-Fataawa (11/565, 566).
2. Shaykh ‘Abd al-‘Azeez ibn Baaz (may Allaah have mercy on him) said:
Islamic anasheed vary. If they are sound and contain nothing but calling people to what is good, and reminding them of what is good, and obedience to Allaah and His Messenger, and calling people to defend their homelands against the plots of the enemy, and preparing to face the enemy and so on, there is nothing wrong with that. But if they are something other than that, and they promote sin and and are performed before mixed audiences of men and women, or audiences in which women are uncovered in the presence of men, or any other evil action, then it is not permissible to listen to them. End quote.
Majmoo’ Fataawa al-Shaykh Ibn Baaz (3/437).
3. He also said (may Allaah have mercy on him):
Islamic nasheeds are like poetry: if it is sound then it is sound and if there is anything objectionable in it then it is objectionable.
The conclusion is that you cannot pass one judgement on all types of nasheed, rather each should be examined on its own merits. There is nothing wrong with sound nasheeds, but nasheeds which contain anything objectionable or promote anything objectionable are objectionable and evil. End quote.
Shareet As’ilah wa Ajwabah al-Jaami’ al-Kabeer (no. 90/A).
4. The scholars of the Standing Committee for Issuing Fatwas said:
It is permissible for you to replace these songs with Islamic nasheeds which contain words of wisdom and exhortation and lessons, which promote keenness to follow Islam and invoke Islamic feelings, which put one off evil and the things that promote it, and which motivate the one who “sings” them and the one who hears them to obey Allaah and discourage them to disobey Him or transgress His limits; they make one keen to protect His sharee’ah and strive in jihad for His sake. But you should not take that as a habit which one persists in, rather that should be something that is done only sometimes, on special occasions such as weddings or when travelling for jihad and so on, and when one feels low, in order to revive the spirit and motivate oneself to do good, or when one feels inclined towards evil, so listening to such nasheeds may ward that off. End quote.
Fataawa Islamiyyah (4/533); we have quoted the fatwa in full in the answer to question no. 47996 and 67925.
5. Shaykh al-Albaani (may Allaah have mercy on him) said:
There may be another sin involved in that [i.e., nasheeds], which is that they may be performed in the manner of immoral songs and performed according to the rules of eastern or western music which makes the listeners enjoy it and makes them dance and behave in a foolish manner. So the aim becomes the tune and the enjoyment thereof, and not nasheed per se. This is a new error, and it is an imitation of the kuffaar and immoral people. That may lead to a further error, which is imitating them in turning away from the Qur’aan and forsaking it, and being included in the general meaning of the complaint of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), as Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning): “And the Messenger (Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم) will say: ‘O my Lord! Verily, my people deserted this Qur’aan (neither listened to it nor acted on its laws and teachings)’” [al-Furqaan 25:30]. End quote from Tahreem Alaat al-Tarb (p. 181).
6. He also said:
If these anaasheed contain Islamic meanings and are not accompanied by any instruments such as the daff, tablah drum and so on, then there is nothing wrong with them, but we must point out an important condition of their being permissible, which is that they should be free of anything that goes against sharee’ah, such as exaggeration and the like. Then there is another condition, which is that they should not become a habit, because that distracts the listeners from reading Qur’aan which is encouraged in the Sunnah, and it also distracts them from seeking beneficial knowledge and calling people to Allaah. End quote.
Majallat al-Asaalah (issue no. 2, 15 Jumaada al-Aakhirah 1413 AH).
7. In the answer to question no. 11563 we mentioned a number of guidelines, which we will mention again here, because they are useful:
Not using forbidden musical instruments in nasheed.
Not doing it too much or making it the focus of the Muslim’s mind, occupying all his time, or neglecting obligatory duties because of it.
Nasheed should not be recited by women, or include haraam or obscene speech.
They should not resemble the tunes of the people of immorality and promiscuity.
They should be free of vocal effects that produce sounds like those of musical instruments.
They should not have moving tunes which make the listener feel “high” as happens to those who listen to songs. This is the case with many of the nasheeds which appear nowadays, so that the listeners no longer pay any attention to the good meaning of the words, because they are so entranced by the tunes.
We have too high an opinion of our brothers who perform nasheeds and recite Qur’aan to think that they could be a cause of fitnah for young men and women, and a cause of their being distracted from obedience to Allaah. They know how great an effect their voices and pictures may have on males and females; if you go to chat rooms you will see very weird things. You will see a woman who is infatuated with a munshid or one who cannot sleep unless she is listening to the voice of So and so, and those who call themselves ‘aashiqat fulaan (lover of So and so – a munshid) and you see men and women venerating those munshids, giving them titles and high status, even though some of them are not religiously committed at all, and some of them have fallen into the trap of singing immoral songs, and if you go to some websites that have these nasheeds, you will be surprised at how often these nasheeds are downloaded and how many people have no interest in listening to Qur’aan and useful lectures.
We ask Allaah to set the affairs of all of us straight.
And Allaah knows best.
Islam Q&A
in detail :
http://www.islam-qa.com/en/ref/91142/permissible nasheeds
. First let me tell you that music has always been a huge part of my life so I was not happy to hear that musical instruments are haram in Islam. Well that being said I have come across some Nasheeds on YouTube and noticed some have instruments in the background music. 
