October 6 (Insider) – Rihanna has faced backlash for using an Islamic hadith during her Savage x Fenty fashion show.
The 32-year-old singer, full name Robyn Rihanna Fenty, has shifted attention away from her music in more recent years to focus on her ever-expanding beauty and lingerie businesses.
However, while the star has been widely praised for using a diverse range of models of all sizes and nationalities, Rihanna has been criticized for including sacred Muslim phrases in a remix that played during part of the show.
Hadith is a collection of traditional Muslim phrases from the Prophet Muhammed, and is used as guidance for those of the Islamic faith.
The song, titled “Doom,” was created by London producer CouCou Chloe and uses samples of the Hadith mixed into a house beat, which played as models performed on the catwalk, and debuted on Amazon Prime Video at the start of the month.
The use of Hadith led to a number of fans criticizing Rihanna on social media.
“There’s really no way we can let this slide like a straight up hadith?” one Twitter user said, posting an excerpt of the fashion show.
“Rihanna baby, you screwed up hard.”
“Rihanna is messed up for using a song with a Hadith in it to play at her LINGERIE show,” a second fan said. “What is up with artists using Islam as an aesthetic?? Have some respect.”
“As a Muslim, no words can describe how disappointed I am with Rihanna for letting her models dance to hadith,” a third wrote.
“Hadith are the sacred words of our prophet, you can’t just use it for your lingerie show. disgusting and extremely disrespectful.”
Rihanna is yet to officially respond to the backlash.
Standard Online has contacted a spokesperson for the star for comment.
