A doorbell, footsteps, the honking of a car horn, paper crackles... We can tell where just about all the sounds we hear in our daily lives come from. Many sounds, apart from those that we associate with some previous events, have no effect on our souls. But this does not apply to every sound we hear.

Music is a blessing Allah created as a delightful pleasure for human beings. It is a miracle the way that people take pleasure from sound waves. Sound waves moving through the air are collected, and then converted into nerve impulses and transmitted to the brain. This sound being distinguished as music by the brain and perceived as something that will be enjoyable takes place by Allah bestowing the significance He chooses on the sound and depicting it to us as pleasurable. When the sense of hearing is examined in technical terms, the processes involved in hearing the sound of a creaking door and in listening to a symphony are exactly the same.  Vibrations between a frequency of 15 Hertz (the tone emitted by a 10 m organ pipe) and 20,000 Hertz are collected by the external ear and transmitted into the ear passage, finally arriving at the ear membrane. This membrane then causes the small bones in the middle ear to vibrate, and sound vibrations are converted into mechanical ones.  These mechanical vibrations cause the fluid inside an organ in the inner ear called the cochlea to vibrate. Tiny hair-like structures on the inner face of the cochlea convert these vibrations into nerve impulses and forward them to the brain, where they are interpreted.

It is of course impossible for the brain, a piece of flesh weighing around 1.5 kilograms, to produce meaning from these sounds or to know joy, excitement or peace. It is of course Almighty Allah Who creates sounds, gives them meaning and thus produces an effect in our souls. The way that such a flawless system is able to operate in a perfect fashion is one of the proofs of Allah’s existence and greatness. Allah produces music within the silence of the brain, and it is also He Who creates its impact. It is only by Allah’s will that the sounds of instruments playing one after the other produce pleasure, happiness and excitement in the human soul. This is a great mercy and blessing from Allah.

If you tried to number Allah’s blessings, you could never count them. Allah is Ever-Forgiving, Most Merciful. (Surat an-Nahl, 18)

Mankind! Remember Allah’s blessing to you. Is there any creator other than Allah providing for you from heaven and Earth? There is no deity but Him. So how have you been perverted? (Surah Fatir, 3)