Quora Answer: Is the Divine Sound “Om” or “Hu”?

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ 

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “Many Hindus, Sanatana Dharmis, say the Divine Sound is ‘Om’, but the Sufis say it’s ‘Hu’.  Which one is it really?” 

Sufis do not say that the Divine sound is Hu.  There is no Divine sound per se, since divinity, in Creation, is an attribute of association with the Divine.  Nothing is divine by itself, since that would imply a pantheistic Allah (s.w.t.), and that is untenable in Islamic theology.  “Hu” is a Divine Name, from “Huwa”, which is an ungendered pronoun in Arabic.  It is sometimes said in conjunction with “Allah”, as “Allahu”, which literally means “Allah (He) is.” 

“Om” is a syllable which has profound meaning from Hindu scripture such as in the Vedas or the Upanishads.  It is part of sacred incantations recited before and after the reading of the text, and is part of the meditative chants.  It is Divine by association, and not Divine in and of itself.



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