What ideas about music did Islam begin with?
J.B.: There were several important schools of ancient Greek thought about music that the early Muslims inherited. The Pythagoreans believe that in order to understand music, you have to see it in the universal, celestial context of all other fields of science and philosophy, nature, and medicine. These ideas are popularized in the sort of New Age thinking that talks about the music of the spheres, the celestial music of the universe, and the way music broadly connects to each and every one of us. Intuitively, we’ve heard these ideas before, and ultimately they stem from the Pythagorean school of musical thought. Here’s how Dr. Shihadi described this school of thought: Fadlou Shihadi: If you think the universe is interconnected in such a way that that every part is to be understood in its relation to other parts, then music is part of the universe, and therefore it must be understood in terms of its relation to some of the other things, the stars, the seasons, even the phases of moon. A
