The Ruling on Listening to Songs

The second question in the letter of our brother, Shaykh Muhammad Bulaydah, says: Is listening to songs forbidden? Please inform us, may Allah reward you.
Answer: There is no doubt that listening to songs is forbidden. This is because it leads to many sins and various trials. It leads to passion, and to falling into unlawful sexual intercourse, lewd acts, and sodomy. It also leads to other sins, such as drinking intoxicants, gambling, and mixing with evildoers. It may even lead to associating partners with Allah and disbelief in Allah, depending on the nature of the singing and the differences in its types.
Allah, Exalted and Majestic, says in His great Book: [Luqman: 6-7]. Thus, He, the Exalted, informed that some people buy the amusement of talk to mislead from the path of Allah. It is read: "to mislead" (li-yudilla) and it is read: "to mislead" (li-yudilla), and the lam is for causation.
The meaning is that by engaging in it, the amusement of talk, which is singing, leads him to misguidance and to misguiding others. He is misguided by the hardness and sickness that occur in his heart, so he strays from the truth by being lax in the sins of Allah and committing them, and by leaving some of what Allah has made obligatory. This includes leaving the prayer in congregation, leaving dutifulness to parents, gambling, and inclining toward unlawful sexual intercourse, lewd acts, and sodomy, among other things that may occur due to songs.
Most of the exegetes said that the meaning of in the verse is: singing. And a group of others said that added to this is every disliked sound from the sounds of entertainment that falls under this, such as the flute, the lute, the violin, and the like.
All of this turns away from the path of Allah and causes misguidance and the misguiding of others. It is established from 'Abdullah ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) , the noble Companion, one of the scholars of the Companions , that he said regarding the verse: "It is, by Allah, singing." And he said: "It grows hypocrisy in the heart as water grows herbs." The verse indicates this meaning, for Allah said: [Luqman: 6], meaning the path is blinded to him as it is blinded to a drunkard; because singing intoxicates the hearts and leads to following desires and falsehood, so one is blinded to the right path when he becomes accustomed to it until he falls into falsehood without realizing it, due to his preoccupation with singing and his heart being filled with it, and his inclination toward falsehood, and toward the affairs of so-and-so and so-and-so, and toward the company of so-and-so and so-and-so, and the friendship of so-and-so and so-and-so, and the like.
[Luqman: 6], meaning it leads to taking the path of Allah in mockery. The path of Allah is His religion, so singing and amusement lead to taking the path of amusement in mockery, as play, and without caring about it.
And when the Qur'an is recited to him, he becomes arrogant and it is heavy for him; because he has become accustomed to listening to singing and instruments of entertainment, so listening to the Qur'an is heavy for him and he does not find comfort in listening to the Qur'an. This is one of the immediate punishments.
So it is obligatory for the believer to beware of that, and likewise every believing woman should beware of that. There are many hadiths in this meaning, all of which indicate the prohibition of singing and instruments of amusement and pleasure, and that they are a means to great evil. And Allah is the One to be sought for help. Yes.