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What is the authenticity of the following narrative:

“Some of the signs of the Day of Judgment are when: Al-Qayenat and singers, al-Ma-Azef (all kind of music), drinking alcoholic products and the use of silk products by men are made halal". (Tabarani and Bayhaqi)

Also, what is the meaning of Al-Qayenat?

Unfortunately I was unable to find an Arabic version of this hadith.

Source: https://www.masjidmanhattan.com/index.php/social-issues/171-question-13-65-what-is-the-proof-of-music-being-haram

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  • A good start would be looking for the hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari and checking its takhreej maybe you may find more information about which of at-Tabarani's and al-Bayhaqi's books include the hadith and if you find them you may get their narrator chains. As for al-Qayenat means female singer. In the source they didn't translate the Arabic words but transliterated them instead which makes the search more difficult as it is better to start from an Arabic original or a standard translation from one of the known translations of Islamic books.
    – Medi1Saif
    Sep 11, 2019 at 7:08
  • @Medi1Saif Okay I will definitely look into this. Sep 11, 2019 at 22:15
  • As for the possible version from Jami' at-Tirmidhi it might be this or this or maybe even this
    – Medi1Saif
    Sep 12, 2019 at 5:01

1 Answer 1

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What is the meaning of al-Qayenat?

This Arabic word refers to female singers, who at the time of the prophet () generally were slave girls, as they are mentioned in the sunnah:

  • 'In the end of this Ummah there will be a collapse, transformation, and Qadhf."' She said :"I said: 'O Messenger of Allah! Will they be destroyed while they are righteous among them?' He said: 'Yes, when evil is dominant."' (Jami' at-Tirmidhi here and here)

  • Narrated Abu Umamah:
    that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: "Do not sell the female singers, nor purchase them, nor teach them (to sing). And there is no good in trade in them, and their prices are unlawful. It was about the likes of this that this Ayah was revealed: 'And among mankind is he who purchases idle talk to divert from the way of Allah (31:6).'" (Jami' at-Tirmidhi here and here)

In an-Nihayah of ibn al-Athir he explains this term saying:
In the following I'll translate from Arabic, as the translations are of my own take them carefully

القينة: الأمة غنت أو لم تغن، والماشطة، وكثيرا ما تطلق على المغنية من الإماء، وجمعها: قينات. ومنه الحديث «نهى عن بيع القينات» أي الإماء المغنيات. وتجمع على: قيان، أيضا. (Source islamweb fatwa #367948)
Al-Qayyinah: is a female slave no matter if she sang or not and al-Mashitah (the lady's maid or tirewoman). And it refers mostly to the singing female slave and it's plural is: Qayyinaat. And in the hadith "he prohibited selling al-Qayyinaat" meaning female (slave) singers) and another plural of this word is: Qiyyaan.

The plural al-Qiyyan is also mentioned in a hadith (which doesn't appear in the six commonly known books.

Source identification

The hadith from Sahih al-Bukhari which was referred to in your source is the following:

Narrated Abu 'Amir or Abu Malik Al-Ash'ari:
that he heard the Prophet (ﷺ) saying, "From among my followers there will be some people who will consider illegal sexual intercourse, the wearing of silk, the drinking of alcoholic drinks and the use of musical instruments, as lawful. And there will be some people who will stay near the side of a mountain and in the evening their shepherd will come to them with their sheep and ask them for something, but they will say to him, 'Return to us tomorrow.' Allah will destroy them during the night and will let the mountain fall on them, and He will transform the rest of them into monkeys and pigs and they will remain so till the Day of Resurrection."
(Sahih al-Bukhari: The book of Drinks/Chapter: The one who regards an alcoholic drink lawful to drink, and calls it by another name)

Note that al-Bukhari didn't quote this hadith in any other part of his Sahih (so he certainly did not consider it as an evidence prohibiting singing and music etc.).
One must also be aware that imam al-Bukhari according scholars of hadith added this hadith as a commentary as he didn't start it by "حدثنا" (we were informed by or we heard from etc.), but used "قال هشام بن عمار" (Hisham ibn 'Ammar said …) so it shouldn't be considered as an evidence al-Bukhari used to condemn music, singing and all other topics of its content in a general manner (unless he has quoted other supporting reports elsewhere in his book). Ibn Hazm even rejects this hadith. In fact it is well known that the people of Medina used to consider music and singing as halal. The only thing on the topic of music and singing the ummah has consensus about is that it is haram to listen to the singing of foreign women! (See also this article of the hadith scholar ibn Amin here, this fatwa on islamonline listing the different views and the scholars who held a similar position as ibn Hazm, both sources are in Arabic).
This doesn't mean that there might be more agreement on other prohibitions on this topic between the four major school of sunni jurisprudence (see for example here and here both in Arabic).
Note that ibn Hajjar in his Fath al-Bary even said that almost all rawys of al-Bukhari quoted this hadith as Musnad hadith while all others quoted it as commentary. Al-Albani says that ibn Hebban in his Sahih could fix this issue.

As for the hadith you are looking for I must still guess the closes findings are:

إذا استحلّت أمتي ستاً فعليهم الدمار: إذا ظهر فيهم التلاعن، وشربوا الخمور، ولبسوا الحرير، واتخذوا القِيَان، واكتفى الرجال بالرجال، والنساء بالنساء

Which appears in at-Tabarni's al-Awsat and Sho'ab al-Eman of al-Bayhaqi according to (islamweb article #183281).

سيكونُ في آخر الزمان خَسْفٌ وَقَذْفٌ وَمَسْخٌ، قِيل: ومتي ذلك يا رسول الله؟ قال: إِذَا ظَهَرَتْ الْمَعَازِفُ والْقَيْنَاتُ

Which appears in at-Tabarani's al-Kabeer and has been compiled in al-Albani's Sahih al-Jami' (Source alukah)

I could hardly find ahadith that mention these four signs together:

  1. al-Qayinat (female singers)
  2. al-Ma'azif (music instruments)
  3. drinking alcohol
  4. (men) wearing silk

Most of the quotes either use a different order of the terms, or include many other signs/terms or only some of these signs or don't explicitly quote these acts as signs of the day of judgment or the hadith being quoted in a book of both at-Tabarani and al-Bayhaqi.
On the dorar.net database i found 125 report that includes one of the four keywords above that was reported by (at least) either al-Bayhaqi or at-Tabarani in their known books (which are in this database: Basically they sadly have only at-Tabarni's al-Awsat):

  • 84 out of the are compiled in at-Tabarni's al-Awsat.
  • 16 out of them are compiled in al-Bayhaqi's as-Sunan al-Kubra.
  • 11 out of them are compiled in al-Bayhaqi's Sho'ab al-Iman (al-Eman).
  • 6 out of them are compiled in al-Bayhaqi's as-Sunan as-Saghir.
  • 4 out of them are compiled in al-Bayhaqi's Dala'il an-Nubuwa.
  • 2 out of them are compiled in al-Bayhaqi's al-Asma' wa as-Sifaat.
  • 1 out of them is compiled in al-Bayhaqi's a-Da'awat al-Kabir and another in his Fada'il al-'Awqaat.

Only a handful of them has been qualified as sahih or hassan while for some more there's a qualification saying they are da'if or worse. As for the majority their qualification depends on other resources or might only be partial.

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