Does this story about Satan inventing Music even exist in Islam?

Question

I've heard about a story of 2 tribes or families where they derived from 2 brother which parted ways. One of the tribes had beautiful women and ugly men while the other had beautiful men and ugly women. I don't remember clearly but they were not allowed to mix with together. Allah allowed the shaitan to misguide them as a test so shaitan made music and had parties from a tribe to attract the others on the other tribe. This is how music instruments and music was invented.

Does such a story exist? What is the source of this story? Or did I just imagine it?

Answer 1

There is no authentic story of this sort in any Islamic source I know.

Answer 2

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته Yes, I know the story you mean. First, there is no hadith was mentioned about this story. Rather, some Muslim scholars mentioned it to warn against it, and the source of the story is unknown.

Answer 3

Such a story is not mentioned in the Quran or a hadith going back to the Prophet ﵌. However it does exist in Islamic tradition in the form of a mawqoof report. It is possible that it comes from the Prophet ﵌, and it is also possible that it was taken from the Israelite traditions passed on from converts to Islam.

عن ابن عباس، أنه تلا هذه الآية: «ولا تبرجن تبرج الجاهلية الأولى» .قال كانت فيما بين نوح وإدريس، وكانت ألف سنة، وإن بطنين من ولد آدم، كان أحدهما يسكن السهل، والآخر يسكن الجبل، وكان رجال الجبل صباحا وفي النساء دمامة، وكان نساء السهل صباحا وفي الرجال دمامة، وإن إبليس أتى رجلا من أهل السهل في صورة غلام فآجر نفسه منه، وكان يخدمه، واتخذ إبليس لعنه الله شيئا مثل الذي يزمر فيه الرعاء، فجاء فيه بصوت لم يسمع الناس مثله، فبلغ ذلك من حولهم، فانتابوهم يسمعون إليه، واتخذوا عيدا يجتمعون إليه في السنة، فتتبرج النساء للرجال، قال: وينزل الرجال لهن وإن رجلا من أهل الجبل هجم عليهم وهم في عيدهم ذلك، فرأى النساء وصباحتهن، فأتى أصحابه فأخبرهم بذلك، فتحولوا اليهن، فنزلوا عليهن، فظهرت الفاحشة فيهن، فهو قول الله عز وجل:ولا تبرجن تبرج الجاهلية الأولى

Ibn Abbas recited this verse of the Quran: "And do not display yourselves as [was] the display of the former times of ignorance" (Quran 33:33) and said: This was the time between Noah and Idris and it was a thousand years. There were two tribes of Adam's descendants. One of them lived in the plains, and the other on a mountain. The men from the mountain were handsome, and their women mountain were ugly, while the women of the plain were beautiful, and their men ugly.

Iblis came to one of the inhabitants of the plain in the form of a young boy and hired himself out as his servant. Iblis took something like the flutes used by shepherds and produced with it a sound, the likes of which people had not heard before. The people started to gather and listen to it. They made it a festival, gathering for it each year, and in it women would display themselves for the men and the men would descend upon them.

One of the men from the mountain intruded upon them during that festival of theirs. He saw the beauty of the women and going back to his companions, told them about it. So they came to the women and immorality spread among them. This is meant by Allah's word: "And do not display yourselves as [was] the display of the former times of ignorance"

^{— Tareekh al-Tabari and Mustadrak al-Hakim etc. - translation adapted from Franz Rosenthal}