Recordings › In Depth: Is Music allowed in Islam? | Mufti Abu Layth · 18 Sep 2019 › Segment 9 of 12
Does sound exist if nobody hears it?
muftisThe universe is silent: sound as the brain's interpretation of vibration
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This segment48:15 to 52:08 · 3 min 53 sGeneral teaching
What this part covers
machinesummary, machine-writtenSound, colour, taste and smell are the brain's interpretations of vibrations and waves, so the universe itself is silent and colourless. A tree falling with nobody to hear it makes no sound, only vibrations.
In more detail
Mufti Abu Layth shares a thought from an audiobook that struck him: our brains interpret sensory data rather than perceiving things as they are. We feel vibrations and the brain interprets them as sounds; we receive electromagnetic waves and see colours; the brain tells us a taste is sweet or sour and a smell woody or spicy. In reality, he says, the universe is colourless, soundless, odourless and tasteless; there is no colour, only light reflecting in different ways, and the universe is entirely silent. This, he says, answers the old question whether a tree falling in a forest with nobody to hear it makes a sound: it does not, since it only sends out vibrations, which become sound only when a brain picks them up and interprets them. He begins to apply this to music and says he must at some point make a detailed video on the subject.
Position stated
Mufti Abu Layth says that in reality the universe is colourless, soundless and odourless, since sound and colour exist only as a brain's interpretation of vibrations and waves.
“in reality the universe is actually colorless soundless odorless it is insipid it has no taste and it is silent that is a fact”
Category: other
Kind: general teachingTranscript
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kind of I don't know this kind of like rapping or hip-hop or that kind of mode but the question is what's the difference in essence what is the difference the content is the same okay the content is not very and I'm not saying the content has to be something we like it's not I mean I don't necessarily I'm not saying I like that or I would want you know like to teach that to my children or I would want them to be I wouldn't probably I wouldn't want that as a parent but the point is I don't have to lie to do that I could say look I don't like it I want you to have a certain at least in front of me I would want my children to have a certain
standard but that doesn't mean I become like I stop lying or fabricating things on behalf of Allah oh I Oh either that I act like oh that children will never know these things I don't need to act naive either that they will know these things they live in this world so they will know these things okay all right so the thing music Allah Akbar here's an interesting thought see I was mesmerized by this thought the other day I was listening to this audio book but anyway and he said something which I think obviously I may have come
across will probably come across in different ways before but it just hit me they said in reality you see our minds our brains interpret data they interpret sensory data perception sensation we don't read things or interpret them the way they actually are we feel vibrations right and the brain interprets them as sounds we feel vibrations and we
interpret them as sounds we see the electric waves and things like this electromagnetic field we interpret them differently we're seeing you know we will see colors we were you you might taste something bite something and you will be told your brain will interpret that this was sweet so sour this was spicy this was your brain is interpreting this yeah you might smell something little whatever things impacting the
olfactory senses which are interpreting this smell to be woody or spicy or whatever in reality in reality the universe is actually colorless soundless odorless it is insipid it has no taste and it is silent that is a fact
yeah we it's so unreal that is a fact people that the world the universe is entirely silent and it is colorless there is no color this is just light reflecting in different ways think about that that's bloody now in you so we've answered the age-old question of if a tree falls in the forest and nobody's there to hear it does it make a sound the answer is no because it just sends off vibrations unless those vibrations are picked up and interpreted by a brain to be a sound then it's just vibration
this is waves there is no sound so in my understanding okay the thing about music please I have to at some point do a detailed video like make a music video on me and I hope you guys are gonna share it and make me famous the thing is now I have to do a video on music at some point because it's difficult because you gotta set the
Paragraphs overlapping 48:15 to 52:08. Full text on the recording page.
Cite this segment
Stable id, transcript version and tier are part of the citation. Every change to a transcript is logged.Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 2019-09-18-S09, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/axxub9lxfoc/s/9/ (accessed 1 November 2026)
- APA 7
Mufti Abu Layth. (2019, September 18). Does sound exist if nobody hears it? [Video, segment 2019-09-18-S09, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/axxub9lxfoc/s/9/
- Chicago author-date
Mufti Abu Layth. 2019. "Does sound exist if nobody hears it?" Video, segment 2019-09-18-S09, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded September 18, 2019. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/axxub9lxfoc/s/9/
- BibTeX
@misc{abulayth-2019-09-18-S09, author = {Mufti Abu Layth}, title = {{Does sound exist if nobody hears it?}}, year = {2019}, month = {9}, date = {2019-09-18}, howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/axxub9lxfoc/s/9/}}, url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/axxub9lxfoc/s/9/}, organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive}, urldate = {2026-11-01}, note = {Segment 2019-09-18-S09, auto-transcribed, may contain errors} }
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