Music and Religion Between Spiritual Expression and Moral Regulation

Abstract

Abstract.

This study examines the relationship between music and religion through a philosophical and civilizational lens that spans from the earliest ritual practices in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and India to the mystical traditions of Islamic Sufism. The analysis reveals that music functioned as a structural device for regulating collective ecstasy and directing emotional experience within religious rituals through its rhythmic and symbolic framework. The study further highlights the philosophical dimension in which music operates as a medium that gives form to spiritual emotion and bridges the sensory world with the metaphysical realm in which religious experience is shaped. Evidence from ancient civilizations shows that music constituted an institutional component of temple life and was integrated into the authority of religious practice, granting it a role that surpasses aesthetic expression and embeds it within the core of religious consciousness.

The Sufi tradition offers a complementary perspective, wherein music becomes an educational and contemplative practice grounded in audition, invocation, and ritual movement, shaping inner awareness and opening access to deeper layers of mystical perception. The study also shows that classical jurisprudential and philosophical positions assessed music in relation to its ethical and intentional dimensions, while modern neuroscientific research indicates an overlap between the neural pathways of musical and religious experience. Together, these insights support the study’s central argument that music constitutes a structural element in shaping spiritual sensibility and moral regulation within religious experience across diverse civilizations.