Category Archives: Islamic Music

Friday Afternoon Sufi Music

08 Friday Apr 2011

Posted by in Huuu..., Islamic Music, Life & Death, Love, Music, Our Spiritual Heritage, The Teachings of the Awliya

≈ 1 Comment

Peace, one and all…

Here are some examples of music from Islamic Spain.  Enjoy and may Allah bless all who pass by.

Ya maliha l lama wa hula t tathanni


Ya sakinan bi fu`adi

Li habibun maqamuhu fawqa ra`si

In love young and old are the same.
In love loss and gain are the same.
In love the worlds are the same.
In love autumn and spring are the same.
Its down is up and up is down.
The earth and the heavens are the same.
The place of love is a circle,
Each spot is equal to the other.
If the Beloved scorns you or welcomes you,
it’s all the same.
In the tradition of love, to die
is the same as gaining eternal life.
(Farid al-Din Attar, trans M. Jamal)

Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman

Chashm-e-Maste

15 Tuesday Mar 2011

Posted by in Friendship and Relationship, Huuu..., Islamic Music, Love, Music, Muslim & Sufi Poetry, Our Spiritual Heritage, Poetry, Sufism/Tasawwuf, The Teachings of the Awliya

≈ 3 Comments

Peace, one and all…

Chasm-e-Maste is a beautiful qawwal, written by Hazret Amir Khusrau and sung by the inimitable Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.  I have given the basic text of the poem below, alongside an English translation (by Regula Burckhardt Qureshi). Enjoy, and may all who pass by be blessed with goodness.

Part 1


Part 2

Text

Chashm-e-Maste `ajabe, zulf taraze `ajabe
O wondrous ecstatic eyes, O wondrous long locks

Maiparaste `ajabe, fitna taraze `ajabe
O wondrous wine worshipper, O wondrous mischievous sweetheart,

Bahr-e-qatlam chu kashad tegh neham sar basujud
As he draws the sword, I bow my head in prostration so as to be killed

U banaze `ajabe man banyaze `ajabe
O wondrous is his beneficence, O wondrous my submission

Waqt-e-bismil shudanam chashm baryush baz ast
In the spasm of being killed my eyes beheld your face;

Mehrbane `ajabe bandanawaze `ajabe
O wondrous benevolence, O wondrous guidance and protection

Turk taze `ajabe shoba babaze `ajabe
O wondrous amorous teasing, O wondrous beguiling

Kajkulahe `ajabe `arbada saze `ajabe
O wondrous tilted cap, O wondrous tormentor

Haq mago kalma-e-kufr ast dar in ja Khusrau
Do not reveal the Truth; in this world blasphemy prevails Khusrau

Razdane `ajabe sahib-e-raz-e-`ajabe
O wondrous source of mystery, O wondrous knower of secrets.

Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman

Wherever the Lowlands are, there the Water Goes…

13 Sunday Feb 2011

Posted by in gratitude and patience, Hazret-i Pir Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi, Hope, Huuu..., Islamic Music, Mevlevi, Music, Sufism/Tasawwuf, The Teachings of the Awliya

≈ 1 Comment

Peace, one and all…

Here is some beautiful Sufi music from Syria.  May it be of benefit, and may all who pass by be blessed by it.

Shaykh Hamza Shakkour

Here are some beautiful words of Mevlana to ponder whilst you listen to the music.

‘Loving-kindness is drawn to the saint, as medicine goes
to the pain it must cure.
Where there is pain, the remedy follows:
wherever the lowlands are, the water goes.
If you want the water of mercy, make yourself low;
then drink the wine of mercy and be drunk.
Mercy upon mercy rises to your head like a flood.
Don’t settle on a single mercy, O son.
Bring the sky beneath your feet
and listen to celestial music everywhere’
(2.1938-1942)

Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman

Farewell Ramadan and a Belated Eid Mubarak

12 Sunday Sep 2010

Posted by in Islamic Music, Moments from My Life, Music, Our Spiritual Heritage, Ramadan 2010

≈ Leave a Comment

Peace, one and all…

Farewell Bright Moon of Ramadan!  May we meet again next year.  May your light come quickly to enlighten us again.  A belated eid mubarak one and all.  Kullu aam wa antum bi khayr.  Bayram sherif mubarak olsun.  In celebration, here is some beautiful music.  May all who pass by be blessed.

Imam Shushtari: They Poured Me a Cup

Sufi Music from Syria

Hasan Bitmez: Farewell Ramadan

Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman

Tere Dar Se Nisbat

13 Thursday May 2010

Posted by in Huuu..., Islamic Music, Love, Mevlevi, Moments from My Life, Music, Our Spiritual Heritage, Sufism/Tasawwuf, Zikr/Salawat

≈ Leave a Comment

Peace, one and all…

This one of my favourite qawwals, sung by Kurban Farid Shahi and group.  Spiritual music has a unique ability to pierce our hearts. This particular qawwal strongly reminds me that God’s door is my true connection, my true home.  May all who pass by this day be blessed. I hope you enjoy this song as much as I do.

Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman

More Spiritual Music

03 Monday May 2010

Posted by in Hazret-i Pir Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi, Huuu..., Ilahi, Islamic Music, Mevlevi, Moments from My Life, Music, Our Spiritual Heritage, Qawwali, Sufism/Tasawwuf, The Teachings of the Awliya

≈ 2 Comments

Peace, one and all…

My You Tube adventures continue!  Here are two new videos.  I hope you enjoy this spiritual music as much as I do.  Feel free to visit my You Tube channel.

May Allah bless you in all that you are and do…

Ya Mevlana

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan – Jhoole Lal Jhoole Lal

Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman

Music and Revelation

15 Thursday Jan 2009

Posted by in Flashes, gratitude and patience, Islamic Music, Learning to Talk, Learning to Listen, Music, Muslim Art, Music & Culture, Our Spiritual Heritage, Qawwali, Reflections, Writing

≈ 16 Comments

Peace, one and all…

oud

Is it possible to lose one’s self completely in a piece of music?  Is it possible to be so utterly overcome by the beauty of sound that we are lifted briefly beyond our normal, workaday selves?

There are songs that make me feel this way.  There are songs which lift me.  There are songs that seem to speak to me so fully that they have, in some sense, become mine.  Perhaps this is why I love qawwali so very much.  Although I don’t understand all of the words, the right song at the right time moves me momentarily beyond myself, into beautiful rosegardens of the soul.  For me, at least, qawwali speak in a deep and powerful tongue, one that exists beyond the words themselves.  Indeed, music itself is that language, that rhythmic speech of the soul.  This is perhaps why it is called qawwali, coming as it does from an Arabic word meaning ‘speech’ or ‘utterance’.  This may also be why qawwali is such a participatory affair (at least in its traditional form), for ‘speech’ requires a ‘hearing’; a mouth requires an ear.

These mysterious qualities of music are, in some ways, like revelation: God’s word must be heard to be known.  Or, in other words, God does not speak without a purpose.  Perhaps this is why some 200 or so Quranic passages begin with the imperative qul (or ‘say’).  Divine revelation necessitates a response: God’s act requires us to re-act.  Thus, the Quran is replete with ways of responding to the descent of revelation.  It speaks of the proper attitude to be adopted: ‘we hear and we obey’.  This is not to compare God’s word with music, though the Quran certainly does have the power to lift the soul to the very highest registers of being.  Rather, it is simply to draw attention to the strong inward pull that both music and revelation exert on the human spirit.

Perhaps the essential difference between them is that revelation descends from God, it is sent down (tanzil) in the words of the Quran, and is thus pure in and of itself.  Music, by contrast, ascends to God and is therefore an inherently human phenomenon.  This is why music contains all the potentialities of the human soul.  Music can be Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan or a beautiful ney solo.  Music can be the vicious racism of Screwdriver or the synthetic pop of Britney Spears et al.  Music can be everything in between those two extremes.  The Quran by contrast does not change.  The Quran is always God’s word, even though human beings (fools that we are) so often put our own limited understandings in the way.  God’s speech is always God’s speech, even though we may hear it all imperfectly, and reflect upon its implications less perfectly still.

May Allah open me to the hidden music of His voice in all the quiet spaces of my soul.

Wa akhiru da’wana an il hamdu lillahi rabbil alameen.

Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 96 other followers