The issue exploded on social media recently.
16 minutes ago
SEVENTEEN member The8 has landed himself in hot water over his alleged use of a sacred hymn as rave music.
The8 | @xuminghao_o/Instagram
The controversy stemmed from the idol’s recent dabbling in professional DJing. Recently, The8 headlined the MIDOU Music Festival in Nanjing, China, closing the event with a DJ-style performance.
| @xuminghao_o/Instagram
As videos from the event made their way to social media, many netizens claimed that during his set, The8 played a remix track that included a sacred Islamic hymn (usually called a “Nasheed”).
SEVENTEEN Minghao used a remix in his DJ set that turns the Islamic nasheed, “Salu ‘ala al-Nabi wa Zidu Salatah,” into rave music. The original hymn is a widely recognized religious piece associated with Hajj seasons and Islamic celebrations, making its use as party music… pic.twitter.com/JRjEHFITav
— Naevis -77.82X-78.29 (@naevisualizer) May 7, 2026
This discovery sparked heated backlash online, as Muslim netizens, including SEVENTEEN fans, expressed their disappointment at The8’s actions. Explaining the reason behind the reaction, some users pointed out that the Nasheed is considered highly sacred by Muslims, and pairing it with club music was deeply offensive.
HELLO? ARE WE SERIOUS? does these idols have no sense of awareness about what they are doing? https://t.co/zySWB5IFu6
— into the sun enthusiast ⋆˚𖥔 ݁ (@lybtsv) May 3, 2026
what the actual fuck…. seriously what the fuck https://t.co/TeXfGY1DxD
— ? baekhyun day🎈 (@milfloey) May 7, 2026
some of yall really dont understand how much Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) means to us. seeing religious audio associated with him used like that genuinely made me uncomfortable and upset and i rlly dont care about fandoms rn that just felt mad disrespectful to me as a muslim
— yushi sushi (@yushiscigar) May 7, 2026
As people started demanding that The8 address the issue immediately and apologize, some defended the idol, arguing that he had simply used a song in his set that included the Nasheed; he wasn’t the one who created the remix itself. As many fans dug deeper, they discovered that the song The8 used was called “Where R U Going?” by Mat Weasel. This song originally included the religious hymn, and fans argued that the idol probably used it in his set without being aware of it, given that Weasel didn’t mention anything about using any religious content in the song credits.
We found the DJ playlist he used (linked below, credit as due) and the song here is called Where R U Going? by a Western artist Mat Weasel.
Looking at his Spotify, there’s multiple remixes of nasheeds and other cultural/religious songs without credit. 2/?https://t.co/HzDnDNu6lR
— kyu ° ot13 omega (@saythname_kronk) May 3, 2026
All this is to say, the artist whose song Minghao used DID NOT CREDIT the nasheed OR provide lyrics or give any indication that it was a religious song to start with.
All I can say is that Minghao, while not blameless, cannot be held up to trial for blasphemy.
— kyu ° ot13 omega (@saythname_kronk) May 3, 2026
Despite these arguments, many feel that it would be better for The8 to address the issue head-on and publicly apologize before the situation takes a turn for the worse. However, the artist is yet to respond to these pleas.
SEVENTEEN