Music Education, the Individual, Society and Allah

The `Oud, the Thinking Instrument

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IslamOnline.net (IOL): For many, music only serves as a means of entertainment. What role does music play in your life? How do you perceive the role of music in education of children?

Shamma: If we refer to the history of music, we will find that music was first created by humans as a spiritual link between humans and Almighty Allah. After the divine scriptures were revealed, music remained part of the rituals of worship. Music emerged and flourished as a means of expressing the relation between humans and their Creator. This is the spiritual aspect of music. It has always been an essential aspect of music in life.

When different ways of musical expression appeared, part of it was intended for kings and emperors during festivals and celebrations as a means to show the magnificence of a king or a kingdom or the greatness of one civilization in comparison to another.

Afterward, big musical bands were initiated, and great musicians were honored and given respect, which helped put their work at the highest level of proficiency and perfection; the industry of music started to develop.

Eventually, another shape of music appeared: the "residue of music," as it was… In Andalusia, the Arab kings used to collect the leftovers from their banquets and distribute them over the poor subjects at night. Of all the leftovers put together, the poor made a dish that was called bahia. This word is derived from the Arabic word baqeyya, which means remainder. Now called paella, this dish is famous in Spain.

Similarly, from the residue of great music came out bad music or consumer music, which is music for pubs and bars. Part of music descended from a divine rank marking the relation between humans and God to a lower, mundane rank.

At this point, music went in different directions and had differing inclinations. This is where one is faced with a choice and where family and school can play a role in enhancing awareness of music at an early age.

Early learning of music protects children; it makes them much more clever than their peers. Here, at the House of Oud, we have students at the ages of seven, eight, and nine. They became more clever at school and started getting higher grades after they joined the house.

For a child, early music education promotes open-mindedness and matures the child's personality so that he or she would be mentally nine months older. Interests and games change; children become no longer interested in the games that their peers like. This happened to me, and it is happening now to the students I teach at the House of Oud.

Besides, when music enters a house through a person who had music education, it helps protect other family members from bad music or lyrics that may negatively affect them.

IOL: How can music be a "clean" path to Allah at a time when music is considered haram (prohibited by Allah) by some Muslim scholars?

Shamma: What is haram is clearly stated in the Qur'an. We should not believe in just anything said by anyone. Not everyone who calls himself or herself an Islamic scholar is necessarily an Islamic scholar. What is haram is clearly and explicitly stated in the Qur'an…

Therefore, Allah knew there would be music, so if it was haram, He would have stated this explicitly as with the case of drinking wine, gambling, committing adultery, dealing with riba (usury), and eating pork. If music was haram, Almighty Allah would have added music to what is prohibited. If it was haram, it would not have begun as a ritual.

For me, I find myself unable to hate, hold grudges, or do any sin, and that was even before I became committed to religious rituals. I grew up in a religious family, but I have been a practicing Muslim a short time ago.

I learned all religious morals from music. I learned to abstain from hating people, dispraising them, or holding grudges against others. Music refined so many things in my personality. I don't look at something in someone's hands, wishing to have it in my hands. I developed a sense of contentment and asceticism. Music taught me all morals of Islam and everything that Islamic scholars or preachers try to teach people.

I reached levels of Sufism (mysticism) that had been reached by high-rank Sufis without going into the world of Sufism. Now, I believe that my thought and outlook match those of great Sufis, yet I haven't been a recluse and I haven't had the knowledge they experienced. Music has a rank that is higher than all of this.

Some scholars consider everything haram, but let them come and see the young people here in the House of Oud: how they respect the times of Adhan (call to Prayer) and how they perform the Prayer as soon as they hear the person who calls the Adhan say Allahu Akbar (Allah is Greatest). No one tells them to do so; they stop what they were doing, perform ablution, and go for Prayer.  

Only five percent of my students used to pray before they came to the House of Oud; no one asked the rest of students to pray. After a while, they automatically felt that they want to pray. The House of Oud is near Al-Azhar mosque, which is located in an area full of spiritual energy.

Eventually, this influenced their souls. Music started to make them feel sublime; their personalities started to change. Before, their voices were loud; now their voices are no more loud. They used to talk in a strongly worded manner; now, they are no more like this. They used to move their hands so much while speaking; now they don't do this. With time, all indicators get better and better until they reach a nice, commendable level.

Even their facial features changed and became more harmonized. This is because the soul has a radiation. For example, malevolent people think that no one knows their feelings, but actually they provide people with a negative energy.

Sometimes, you may say that you feel you don't like someone, yet you don't know the reason behind this feeling and this person may have done nothing bad to you. But, actually, he or she did give you that feeling in the form of negative energy. For us, that energy is tamed and refined by music, because music works on the soul, the heart, and the mind, and therefore the effect of music reaches the whole body.

IOL: Modern education stresses the need of music education for children. Music enables children to understand and appreciate the abstract concepts of the relationship between notes,, and beauty. Do you think that music as a means of training in harmony in the western sense should be applied to Muslim children?

Shamma: The House of `Oud is open for the families who want to come and see how the children who joined the place have witnessed development. I have a student who came here when he was nine years old. Now, he is 14 years old, and he is the youngest teacher of music in the whole Arab world. He is a teacher like any other teacher of music in the House of Oud. He gets the same salary as any other teacher in the house.

For me, the issue is not about age — it is whether the person can do the job or not. That boy knew the whole thing and understood it. He can teach what he learned maybe better than adults, so why not give him the chance? He became a soloist and a teacher, and this is just one case here.

I have other young children in the House, among whom is a boy who began with us when he was eight years old. Now, he plays with all other players in the concerts I hold in Abu Dhabi and other places.

Let the parents and families come and see how music enhances a child's perception and insight and improves his or her personality, spiritually and psychologically. I assert that no musician would ever need to go to a psychiatrist. In fact, a musician can help people get healed of any psychological disorder.

No matter how angry and sad I am because of the situation in Iraq, Palestine, Sudan, or Lebanon, when I feel I am about to explode because of anger, only 10 minutes of playing, composing, or listening to music can make me completely calm and able to look at things in a logical way.

IOL: What makes music able to influence all these aspects in humans?

Shamma: If all plants, trees, and animals are affected by music, how would music affect humans whom Allah has created in a perfect manner? In some places in Europe, people make poultry listen to the music of Beethoven. The chickens themselves choose to listen to the music of Beethoven, not any other music. How would chickens express their musical preferences? They do this by laying more eggs when they listen to Beethoven than when they listen to any other music.

So, even chicken have taste for music and choose the best of all music —Beethoven's. So, how would things go with human beings? This was discovered in the seventies of the last century, not these days. Really, when the chickens listened to music, they produced more eggs than without music, but when they listened to the music of Beethoven, they laid double or triple the number of eggs they laid with other music.

I believe that those who do not love music deserve pity because they are really deprived of a very big blessing. Those who do not know how to enjoy music are deprived. The music I mean is not singing — it is the music itself; any music that lived for five decades or more deserves to be used for developing the taste of children and adults.

IOL: What message can a musician have for the humankind? How can he or she act as a reformer and work with religious and intellectual reformers for all humanity?

Shamma: Away from theorizing, even if a musician does not have a line of thought that can be theorized or thought that is equivalent to his or her art, creative work can reform a lot of people. For example, Mozart, Wagner, and Bach are not present now to theorize their work, but their music has the ability to reform many people spiritually.

I have been always wondering how would a human being kill? In a few cases, we would say that those who kill are sick people or criminals, but when the killing happens on a very wide scale and happens to very young children like the case in Iraq, this becomes something that needs to be questioned.

I asked some scientists who are specialized in metaphysics about how a human being can be able to kill a child in a very brutal way that I cannot even describe. When I heard that story, for a whole month, I was unable to forget it or stop thinking about it. So, I prefer not to tell you about it so that you can lead a normal life.

I believe that music can change even the souls of these kinds of humans, but not at the age of 40. At that age, music can only help somehow by calming down the evil character or freezing it. However, if music is used during childhood, it will have a great influence on the soul.

To conclude, good music is in itself a reformer of the soul, of the mind, of the whole human body. A musician who perfects his or her work is a reformer. So, what if that kind of human development and reformation started from childhood?

One of the people I know works in agriculture. His wife is German. They cultivated many areas without using any chemicals. That German lady was concerned about the children of the simple farmers in Egypt. She made them listen to the music of Bach and other classical music. Now, in a period of three or four years, a generation of farmers' children whose parents are illiterate know about music and musicians more than any musical critic.

It is quite difficult to think that a child living in the Egyptian countryside can have taste for and knowledge about classical music. Music is what made those children pursue their dreams in an attempt to achieve them. It is what enabled them to have a wider vision of life. Such children can become very important people through music. A child is like a piece of dough that one can have it in the shape one likes.

Parents and educators should start teaching their children music at a very early age. In the Arab World and the East, we don't have much music of our own. Maybe only India and a few other countries have plenty of their own music. Still, this small stock of musical heritage can contribute to the upbringing of our children. However, because we do not have much music of our own, it is not wrong at all to teach children Western classical music, because it is a creative human achievement. It is not Eastern or Western — it is music for humanity.

So, no matter where good music comes from, it can contribute to the essential base needed for developing the taste of children. After they have developed taste for good music and good art, they can choose what they like, according to their environment and culture.

IOL: Does music contribute to children's awareness of their identity?

Shamma: Music makes children balanced and logical; it never makes them racist or extremist.

IOL: Wouldn't listening to foreign music affect children's awareness of their identity?

Shamma: No, in the beginning, children should listen to music in general; then, afterward, they can choose. While children learn perfection, classical music can be very beneficial. When they understand the meaning of perfection and proficiency, they will not like any music of their culture unless it is on the same level of perfection and proficiency. For example, in manufacturing, when there is a competition between what is local and what is imported, the locals will choose to buy the imported products if they are better than the local ones.

IOL: Today, we can see the negative impact of modern music on the identity of our children and their music education. What can parents do to help their children develop self-education?

Shamma: Providing them with good education can be of great help. If a child is well educated, he or she will become immune against bad music. We do not need to tell them anything directly; instead of cursing the dark, light a candle.