Importance of Music

“During one of Sabir’s intermissions, the voice of the female vocalist happened to carry through the widows overlooking the courtyard so the men could hear her. She was singing “My lover’s departed.” Fahmy set about listening eagerly and with enormous interest. He concentrated all of his attention on absorbing the music, not because he particularly liked Jalila’s voice, but because he thought Maryam would be listening to her at that moment. The lyrics would be speaking to both of them at the same time. Jalila united the two of them in a single experience of listening and possibly feeling. She had created an occasion for their spirits to meet. All of these considerations made him revere her voice and love her song. He wished to share this one sensation with Maryam. He tried for a long time to get through to her soul by retreating deep into himself. He sought to contact the vibrations of her reactions by following his own. Notwithstanding the distance and the thick walls separating them, he wished to live for a few minutes inside her essence. To accomplish this, he attempted to determine from the lyrics the effect they would have on his beloved’s soul. What would her response be to “My lover’s departed” or It’s a long time since he sent me a letter” ? Had she been lost in a sea of memories? Had not at one of those slipped away to reveal his face? Had not her heart felt a stabbing pain or a piercing of grief? Or was she just in such a daze throughout that she saw nothing in the song but enjoyable music” (260-261).

Her voice serves as a connection between the two distant lovers. Music creates an intimacy. There’s a healthy moral intimacy and then there’s a sinful intimacy shown it the book. This paragraph is an example of the good kind of intimacy because it’s a spiritual intangible connection. We see this through the description of how connected Fahmy feels to Maryam. Then there’s the intimacy between family members shown through how Yasin feels music connects the family. He thinks to himself, “Everyone sings. It’s a family with deep roots in music” (251). However in this case the music is played in a sinful atmosphere of adultery and fornication contrasting to the music played at the respectable wedding. The music played in Zanuba’s house arouses the sinful kind of intimacy. This contrast reflects the debate about the acceptance of music in Islam. Some Muslim scholars believe music should be banned because of its association with sensuality, dancing and drinking (Kutty). Music overall is a very controversial and heavily debated topic by Muslim scholars for many years. In general Islam does not either absolutely accepts music or remains indifferent (Sabir).
Some Muslims believe music should be prohibited in Islam. Music was never completely banned in Islam. Here’s an example of an argument against Music in Islam: “In modern schools and universities, we observe independence, free expression and secular thinking being encouraged. This idea of freedom…is a predominant, underlying theme of today`s music. It is being used as a means for drilling those modern ideologies that are totally contrary to Islamic Shariah and values, into the minds of Muslims” (Music and Islam). This opinion is interesting in the way it connects music with freedom. It suggests that freedom especially in relation to secularism and modernism is something bad. There seems to be a struggle between the traditional Islamic beliefs and “modern ideologies”. almost all the members of the family had gone against Islamic rules to steel a small bit of freedom their religion doesn’t allow.
Musicians have a lot more freedom and play than any other character in the book. Jalila, for example, as a musician has sexual and social freedom but at what cost? She avoids her arranged marriage. She has the freedom to chose her lover. She is free to walk over to the men’s side in the wedding. Even though she is a known adulteress and fornicator, no one has scorn her yet for her choice of lifestyle and it is amazing in the fact that she gets to chose that lifestyle all because she is a musician.




Work Cited

Sabri, Mustafa. "A Topic of Dispute in Islam: Music." Wake Up! 1995. Web. 25 Feb. 2010. http://www.wakeup.org/anadolu/05/4/mustafa_sabri_en.html.

"Music and Islam." Inter-Islam: Relaying the same message brought by the Prophets, Prophets Adam - Muhammad (Peace and Blessings be Upon Them All). 1998. Web. 25 Feb. 2010. http://www.inter-islam.org/Prohibitions/Mansy_music.htm.

Kutty, Sheikh A. "What Does Islam Say on Music?" Islam Awareness Homepage. Aug. 2002. Web. 2010. http://www.islamawareness.net/Music/music_fatwa001.html.