Query - We, Muslims, have never seen any mention of OM in our holy scriptures. Can you please quote any reference of OM in our Koran?
Rama - Please listen attentively.In the very beginning of your Koran, at the top, there are three letters, Alif (A) Lam (I) and Mim (M). Can anyone of you explain what these three letters mean?
Answer- This is a secret which Allah has kept to himself. (At this, Rama laughs heartily).
Rama- When God has revealed the entire Koran for the benefit of mankind, as the Muslims claim, it is very strange that He has kept its very heading a secret. No. It is not so. If you, the Muslims, who repose full faith in the Koran do not know the secret of the letters A.L.M., Rama will tell you what they signify. The letters Alif (A), Lam (L) and Mim (M) are nothing but Alif (A) Wao (0) and Mim (M) i.e, A,O,M or OM.
Query - Swami Ji, Lam is Lam Le. L is L. It is not clear how Lam (L) can be pronounced as Wao (0), as you have done.
Rama- Yes. Lam (L) can be pronounced as Wao (0), according to your own Arabic grammar, under certain circumstances. Please listen to Rama and try to understand what he says. In the Arabic language, you write Shamsaldin but you read it as Samsuddin. You write Nizamaldin but you read it as Nizamuddin. Why do you pronounce Lam(L) as Wao (0) or (U)? Does not Lam (L) become silent here and give the sound of Wao (0 or U)? According to the Arabic grammar, when Lam (L) comes between a vowel and a consonant, it becomes silent and give the sound of Arabic Pesh (0 or U). Similar is the case here with Alif (A), Lam (L) and Mim(M). Here Lam (L) is in between the vowel Alif (A) and the consonant Mim (M) and therefore it becomes silent and gives the sound of 0 or U. Accordingly, Alif, Lam and Mim give the sound of Alif (A) Wao (0 or U) and Mim (M) Le.AOM or AUM. This is nothing but OM. This is no secret of God. It is your own ignorance that you do not try to understand your own Koran correctly. It is clearly and unambiguously OM and nothing but OM.
Muslism Representative- Swami Ji, your arguments and the reasonings have surprised us.
Rama- There should be no surprise. Your very Arabic grammar makes it quite clear. God is not to blame, if the Muslims themselves do not try to understand it correctly. It is Kufra, heretical or a sin to blame God for keeping it a secret and not disclosing it to the mankind. It appears that the erudite and learned Muslims themselves either do not understand it or, if they do, they want to keep it a secret from the Muslim masses who are generally ignorant of the Arabic language in which the Koran has been written.
Swami Ram Tirath
~ An excerpt from “A Session with Muslim Representatives” in Lucknow, 1905