The Tahir Archive's video: The Place of Music Dance in the Islamic World

A study of the development of music over recent centuries, as against the rapid and decibel eruptive changes witnessed during the last few decades of this century provides interesting and intriguing data for comparison. I do not personally know much of music and should be pardoned if some of my remarks are considered alien to the realities of the world of music. My intuition would make me believe, however, that the progressive development of music, during the last few centuries in the West, has been in the direction of the sublime, exquisite and noble. Such music brought peace to the mind and heart simultaneously. The best music was that which identified and submerged completely with the latent music of human mind and soul. Harmony and peace were the ultimate goals, which the evolution of music pursued. Of course, there were passages in the works of great composers and artistes, which created images of volcanic eruptions, typhoons, thunderbolts and a sense of commotion, which tallied, with the external phenomenon of nature. Its memories were stored and preserved indelibly in the memorising mechanism of life. At times, its climax reached such crescendos as if the whole universe was about to burst apart. Yet the audience sat motionless, drowning itself in the deluge of music, without moving a muscle or batting an eyelid, until, suddenly pindrop silence fell. Only then would the hall explode into tremendous applause. Even the most powerful music, highly charged with emotion, would not turn the listener into a violent, eruptive, and rebellious being. The message of all music was sublime, peaceful and harmonious. The best in man was brought out and awakened; the worst was banished. Alas! During the last few decades, we observe a different phenomenon altogether. The ears of the contemporary generation are deafened with music capable of arousing coarse and rudimentary passions of life. A disturbed and restless generation finds itself only attuned to such music as makes them go mad. The more violent the music, the more popular it would be. Again, I should be excused for any observation borne out of my ignorance of the world of classical and popular music, but of one thing I am sure and it is that violence, rebellion, madness and vandalism etc. are fast corrupting the noble human faculties. Professor Bloom, who must be credited with some knowledge of Western music, seems to agree with me in his book 'The Closing of the American Minds' [sic] when he laments the erosion of the sensibilities of adolescents of the contemporary age who, in his words, are brutalised by constant exposure to rock music which he dismisses as junk food for the soul. (Hazrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad - Khalifatul Masih IV. 'Islam's Response to Contemporary Issues'. Islam International Publications Ltd, 1992. 73, 74). 'Remembrance of Allah' by Hazrat al-Hajj Mirza Bashiruddeen Mahmood Ahmad - Khalifatul Masih II https://alisl.am/e7361 'Music in the Islamic Tradition' @CambridgeMuslimCollege https://youtu.be/5qJdhhOCv04 'Music in the Islamic World' @LetsTalkReligion https://youtu.be/IFj2YEuwZ_8 'Music in the Islamic World (2) https://youtu.be/Ban2s6KX4-8 'What is Sufi Music? (The Sound of Islamic Mysticism)' https://youtu.be/nMaPYccAzfw From Rencontre avec les Francophones, 29 December 1997. © MTA International / digitised by The Tahir Archive, 2012.