The Ruling on Listening to Songs and Their Effects

The brother Harun also says: The women there listen to songs, and he asks the Shaykh’s permission for advice?
Answer: My advice to all men and women is not to listen to songs; for the danger of songs is great; and people have been afflicted by them on the radio, on television, and in many of the tapes, and this is a trial.
So it is obligatory for the people of Islam, men and women, to beware of their evil, and to replace them by listening to what benefits them from the speech of Allah (Mighty and Majestic), and from the speech of His Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), and from the speech of the successful scholars in their religious narrations, their gatherings, and their articles; all of that benefits them in this world and the Hereafter.
As for songs, their evil is great, and they may cause a believer to deviate from his religion, and a believing woman likewise, and they may cause hypocrisy to grow in the heart through hatred of good; for the root of hypocrisy is hatred of good and love of evil, displaying Islam and concealing something else.
So the danger of hypocrisy is great, and songs call to it; for whoever becomes accustomed to them may come to hate listening to the Qur'an, and listening to advice and beneficial narrations, and the narrations of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him); and they may lead him to love obscenity, corruption, becoming accustomed to lewd acts and desiring them, talking with their people, and inclining toward them. So it is obligatory for the people of faith, men and women, to beware of their evil. Allah (Mighty and Majestic) says in His great Book: [Luqman: 6 - 7].
The scholars of tafsir say: "Idle talk" is singing, and attached to this is every forbidden sound, such as flutes and instruments of amusement; this is what most of the scholars of tafsir said, may Allah have mercy on them.
And 'Abdullah ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) said: -and he used to swear by that, and say: meaning: crops, and the meaning of that is that it causes a person to dislike good and love evil, to dislike dhikr and the Qur'an and the like, and to love songs and entertainments and the like of that. This is a type of hypocrisy; because the hypocrite appears outwardly to be a Muslim but hates it inwardly, appears to be a believer while inwardly he is not, appears to love the Qur'an while inwardly he is not. So songs lead to that; they lead to hating listening to the Qur'an and hearing it, and to hating listening to dhikr and the call to Allah. And its people, meaning: singing, leads its people to the opposite of that, to loving frivolity and loving falsehood, and loving bad speech, and loving speech of obscenity and singing and love, and the like of that which results from singing, which leads to the deviation of hearts; and their love of what Allah has forbidden, and their dislike of what Allah has prescribed . This is clear to whoever has tried it, for whoever has tried it and known it knows this. And so it is with those who have known the people of singing and known their conditions; deviation and corruption appear on them; because of their love of singing, which is a great evil and a great corruption for whoever has become accustomed to it. And there is no power and no strength except with Allah. Yes.