Religion and Music: It's A Contest In Idiocy; Who Proves To Be A Greater Fool!
By
Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
14 August
2023
There's no
gainsaying the fact that music-before-mosque has been the biggest irritant and
agent provocateur in communal riots for the last 150 years. Now music and
festivity are dove-tailed in Hindu India.
Come to
Maharashtra during Ganeshotsav. Any sane person will start crying with a
palpable sense of helplessness and anguish. It's like the Big-Bang happening
constantly for the ten days of Ganeshotsav.
Other
festivals are also equally noisy and nauseous. Drumming, music and noise are
the main and major constituents of all Hindu festivals. What was initiated by
Bal Gangadhar Tilak in 1894 has become a nuisance. Tilak, who hated Muslims
much more than he disliked the Brits, is a revered character among the Brahmins
of Maharashtra.
That apart,
Muslims are also to be blamed. When they know that brainless and communal
Hindus are provoking them with music, why on earth do they get provoked? If a
dog bites you, do you bite it back?
Moreover,
who says, music is prohibited in Islam? Does the Quran state anywhere in its 6,
234 verses that music is Haram? That music is Haram an injunction
supposedly based on an inauthentic Hadees (in fact, all Hadees or
Muhammad's garbled teachings are dubious).
Music
echoes the sounds of the cosmos, and our souls love it because those moments of
treble and bass evoke the universal harmony of which they were a part long
before our current birth. What's Marsiya-Khwani (dirge singing) in
Arabic Islamic culture? Isn't it music, albeit elegiac by nature?
I read
somewhere, the Sufi mystic Rumi extolled the sacred beauty and majesty of music
and often led his congregants in religious chants and songs all night long. One
night, a conservative practitioner joined the congregation but became so
uncomfortable with the singing, music, and drumming that he finally burst out
in protest," What's all this singing and singing?!" Rumi replied,
" It's the sound of the creaking of the doors of Paradise." "Well,
I hate the sound of creaking," cried the outraged man. Rumi answered back,
"That's because when you hear the sound of creaking, for you the doors of
Paradise are closing! "
To cut the
matter short, whether Hindus or Muslims, all are primitive in understanding the
gist of their respective faiths. If Hindus are playing blaring music during
their countless religious festivals, Muslims are shunning it because they
erroneously think that their Islam prohibits it. It's a contest in idiocy; who
proves to be a greater fool!
----
A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in
comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed
articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including
Persian.
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/music-indian-festivals-mosques/d/130443