Assalaamu alaykum. I would like to know whether laughing out loud is haram in Islam; and secondly, someone mentioned that laughing loudly is a devil's laugh and that we should refrain from laughing loudly. Kindly advise with references. Salaam.

All perfect praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

When that person said that laughing loudly is a devil's laugh, he might have been referring to the hadeeth that reads, “Laughter is from the devil, and smiling is from Allah.” This is a weak hadeeth, as has been stated by Shaykh Al-Albaani in his book Dha’eef Al-Jaami’ As-Sagheer.

Laughing loudly (Arabic: Qahqahah) is not haram, but it is disliked, so a Muslim should avoid it.

The Kuwaiti Fiqh Encyclopedia reads:

“Laughing is either smiling or laughing loudly; in principle, if it is smiling, then it is permissible according to the agreement of the scholars, as the Prophet used to smile and urged us to smile. ‘Abdullah ibn Al-Haarith, may Allah be pleased with him, said, ‘The laughter of the Messenger of Allah was only smiling.’ Moreover, the Prophet said, ‘Smiling in the face of your Muslim brother is an act of charity.’”

As regards laughing loudly, the jurists disliked it and forbade laughing loudly too much. The Prophet said, “Do not laugh too much, as laughing too much renders the heart dead.” 

Tanbeeh Al-Ghaafileen bi Ahadeeth Sayyid Al-Anbiyaa’ wal-Mursaleen, authored by As-Samarqandi, reads, “This narration is evidence that smiling is permissible. The forbiddance (in the hadeeth) is relevant to laughing loudly, so a sane person should not laugh loudly.”

Allah knows best.