What do these mystic sounds mean?

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There are strange combination of mystic sounds in the beginning of some chapters of Quran. No one knows for sure what those sounds really mean or why they are there in the beginning. A devout Muslim just chants them with devotion without worrying about what they mean.

For example, in the beginning of Chapter 2 of Quran there are these 3 mystic sounds namely

Alif Laam Meem

Often abbreviated as A.L.M. in English.

Such combination of sounds are called Muqatta'at or abbreviated sounds. Various people have given various interpretations for these sounds.

Some even compare these sounds to A U M of Hindu sacred sound OM. They say that Alif is the letter A and Meem is the letter M in Arabic alphabet. They explain Laam as U since according to them in some Arabic words the sound U is pronounced as L. So they jump to the conclusion that A.L.M is nothing but A.U.M or OM of Hindus!

But the problem with this argument is that it is not merely these three letters, but other combination of letters are also present in some other chapters of holy Quran. Explaining away all of them may be difficult.

In the past, opponents of Islam even criticized Quran as mere witchcraft and they pointed to these mystic sounds to justify their claim.

Some Islamic scholars try to interpret these combination of apparently meaningless sounds as a way of Allah to tell the Arabs that

“I have used these simple letters of your language to convey something very profound and something that these letters are not normally capable of conveying!”

More prudent commentators point to the chapters that begin with these mystic sounds, namely chapters 2, 3, 29, 30, 31 and 32 and arrive at the following conclusion.

According to these people, these chapters deal with mainly the coming into existence, sustenance and final return back of life in this world. So they say that these three sounds stand for them – creation, sustenance and final return or death.

I am not sure whether it is wishful thinking, but if this interpretation is right, it has almost one to one correspondence with the three Hindu sounds A U M.

In the ancient Upanishads, these three sounds have been described as symbolic of creation, sustenance and merger with the source. And the combined sound OM is supposed to be the symbol representing GOD who is the overseer of all these three aspects of life.

For example, one of the Upanishads namely the Mandukya Upanishad clearly says that

“The letter ‘A’ being the first letter of the alphabet denotes the creation or beginning, The letter ‘M’ being the last in the alphabet, denotes the end or re-absorption. The letter ‘U’ that is a middle letter stands for a stage between creation and re-absorption. So the three letters ‘A’ ‘U’ ‘M’ stand for creation, sustenance, and re-absorption. Which is nothing but a succinct representation of GOD.”

So, A.L.M. is same as A.U.M or OM of ancient Indians!

At least for the sake of unification of various thoughts, I would like to believe that this interpretation is right. Though I have no intention to claim either Hindu influence on Islam or visa versa.

At the same time, a devout Muslim does not wish to be embroiled in these debates. For him they are just some mystic sounds and he utters them with all reverence without bothering about what they actually mean.

"Alif Laam Meem"

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Based on verses from Holy Quran. The interpretation is by Dr.King. The Quran recitations are from various sites such as Quran.net, Quran411.com and so on.