Rihanna apologises to Muslims for using Hadith in lingerie show

Rihanna on Tuesday apologised to the Muslim community after being criticised for using a song that sampled a recitation from Islam’s sacred hadith for her lingerie show.

The artist-turned-designer, whose lingerie show was initially praised for its inclusivity, was called out by several Muslim fans for disrespecting the religion – a mistake she characterised as “honest, yet careless”.

“I’d like to thank the Muslim community for pointing out a huge oversight that was unintentionally offensive in our savage x fenty show,” Rihanna wrote on her Instagram Stories.

“I would more importantly like to apologize to you for this honest, yet careless mistake,” she continuedsaid.

https://twitter.com/tayhoaxe/status/1313463246314233857

Speaking to Loop News in the wake of this incident, President of the Barbados Muslim Association Dr Abdul Mohammed said: “Religious text is considered sacred and its inappropriate use or abuse is desecration.” However, “In Islam the condition for forgiveness are: 1)Expressing remorse and regret over an action; 2)Resolving not to repeat the mistake again.”

Therefore, he added, “If Rihanna acknowledged that it was an error and apologised, especially stating that it was an inadvertent error, then I think the issue ends there.”

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The hadith is a record of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)’s words and actions. Rihanna came under heavy criticism earlier this week after it was discovered that a hadith about the Day of Judgement was used in a song chosen to accompany her show. Vocal samples of the Hadith had been sped up and layered over a dance track for the song “Doom” by London producer Coucou Chloe.

After the outrage, Coucou Chloe released the following statement on Twitter: “I want to deeply apologise for the offence caused by the vocal samples used in my song ‘Doom’. The song was created using samples from Baile Funk tracks I found online. At the time, I was not aware that these samples used text from an Islamic Hadith.”

This is not the first time Rihanna has faced accusations of being “disrespectful” towards Islam.

In 2013, the singer was asked to leave the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi after taking “inappropriate” photos outside it.