Taken from: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1901

P219

And Abu Bakr Muhammad b. Da’ud ad-Dinawari (5), known as ar-Raqqi (may God be well pleased with him), has narrated: I was in the desert and came to a tribe of the tribes of the Arabs, and a man of them received me as guest and led me into his tent. And I saw in the tent a black slave fettered with a fetter. And I saw dead camels lying before the tent, and there remained but one camel alive, and it was weak and thin as though it were about to perish. Then the young man said to me: Thou art a guest and hast a right, so intercede for me with my master, for he honours his guest, and he will not reject thy intercession to this extent, and perhaps he may loose the fetter from me. Then when they had brought in food I refused to eat and said: I will not eat until I have made intercession for this slave. And he said: This slave has made me poor and has destroyed all my wealth. So I said: What has he done? Then he said: He has a fine voice, and I got my living from the backs of these camels and their carrying heavy loads, and he would sing the driving-song to them, until they would perform a journey of three days in one night from the excellence and sweetness of his voice; then when they had set down their loads they died, all of them, except this one camel. But thou art my guest, and, for the honour due to thee, I give him to thee. So I longed to hear that voice. Then when the morning came he commanded that he should sing to a camel that it might draw water from a well there. And when he lifted up his voice and that camel heard it, he ran wild and broke his tether and I fell upon my face. I do not think that I ever heard a voice finer than it.

P226

Again, A’isha (4) said: The Apostle of God came in to me while two girls were with me singing a song of the Day of Bu'ath (1), and lay down on his side on the bed and turned away his face. Then Abu Bakr (6) entered and rebuked me, and said: The pipe of the Devil in the presence of the Apostle of God! But the Apostle of God turned to him and said: Let them alone! Then, when he was not attending, I made a sign to them two, and they went out. It was a festival day and the blacks were playing with hide shields and spears; then either I asked the Apostle of God or he said: Would you like to look on? And I said: Yes. So he made me stand behind him with my cheek against his cheek, and he kept Saying: Keep it up, 0 Banu Arfada!(2) until, when I turned, he said: Had enough? I said: Yes, and he said:  Then go. And in the Sahih of Muslim (3) is: Then I put my head upon his shoulder and began watching their playing until I was the one who turned away.

All these traditions are in the two Sahihs and are a clear proof that singing and playing are not forbidden.

Imam al Ghazzali; Al-mustasfa min 'ilm al-usul

(On Legal theory of Muslim Jurisprudence)
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Taken from: islamicbook.ws  المستصفى في علم الأصول

………….. they said that if you approved the speech of the Arab in the Arabic language, and the Persian and the Zinj, then you went far and arbitrarily.

Harvest settlement between them is arbitrary and unfair.

The second answer: I allow the Prophet, peace be upon him, to address all the people of the earth from the Zinj to the Turk in the Qur’an and making them feel that it includes commands and that the translator knows them …………………………

(1) The Day of Bu'ath or Bughatli was one of the celebrated battle-days of the tribes of al-Aws and al-Khazraj. The fight fell between the mission of the Prophet and the Hijra, and the victory remained with al-Aws. Bu‘ath is a place in al-Madina.

(2) In a report recorded in Lisan al-Arab that the Banu Arfida mentioned in the tradition are said to have been a group of Abyssinians who practiced dancing.

(3) Sahih Muslim is a 9th-century hadith collection and a book of sunnah compiled by the Persian scholar Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj (815–875).

(4) Aisha: youngest wife of the Prophet.

(5) Died in Damascus after 961AD after a life of more than 100 years.

(6) Abd Allah ibn Abi Quhafa, commonly known by his kunya Abu Bakr, was the first caliph, ruling from 632 until his death in 634. As a senior companion of Muhammad and, through his daughter Aisha, also his father-in-law, Abu Bakr is referred to with the honorific title al-Siddiq by Sunni Muslims.