What is the ruling on listening to music, and what is the evidence for its prohibition? Is the prayer of one who listens to it accepted, even if he also listens to the Quran? What is the punishment for one who listens to music?

Listening to lewd songs accompanied by musical instruments is forbidden, as is the case if the singer is a foreign woman and the listener is a foreign man. This exposes the doer in this world to transformation (maskh) or swallowing by the earth (khasf), and in the Hereafter to a humiliating torment, as stated in the verse: ﴿And among the people is he who buys the amusement of speech to mislead [others] from the way of Allah without knowledge and who takes it in ridicule. Those will have a humiliating punishment.﴾ [Luqman: 6]. As for prayer, it is accepted if performed as prescribed.