Opening with an 8-minute long meditative evocation of pure sound without words (the aalaap), allowing you to settle into a nameless and wordless place within yourself, this qawwali invokes the sense of the primordial, the sacred, the divine, which is at the root and source of everything. The song revels in the joy of ‘taking the name of Allah’, echoing remembrance traditions from so many other cultures, for instance 'naam-jap' or 'sumiran'. The singing itself seems to evoke the power of remembrance, repeating again and again a few simple lines of poetry with deeper and deeper satisfaction and taste.
(Click on Settings for subtitles in English & in Urdu in Devanagari script. Click ‘B’ on keyboard to remove the black background in subtitles.)
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Find lyrics/translation of this song at
ajabshahar.com/songs/details/3...
Discover a universe of Bhakti, Sufi, Baul poetry and music at www.ajabshahar.org.
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In the tradition of starting a qawwali performance with a ‘hamd’ - a song in praise of Allah - Fariduddin Ayaz & Abu Mohammed from Karachi, Pakistan started their concert with this song on the closing night of the Festival of Kabir in Bangalore, 2009.
Fariduddin Ayaz & Abu Mohammed are acclaimed qawwals from Karachi, Pakistan and belong to the 700-year-old 'Qawwal Bachchon Ka Gharana' of Delhi. They sing in Urdu, Sindhi, Punjabi, Pushto, Hindi, Poorbi, Persian, Arabic and Turkish, intermingling with aplomb the voice of Kabir with a range of Sufi poets including Jalaluddin Rumi, Sachal Sarmast, Zaheen Shah and others.
Contact them at: +92-300-2105393, abupk@yahoo.com
The Festival of Kabir was organized by the Kabir Project, Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology along with several other partner organizations in Bangalore in February 2009. It brought together singers from India and Pakistan in an immersive week-long event that included film screenings, live music concerts and talks.
This is one of a series of uploads for Ajab Shahar, a webspace dedicated to mystic poem and song, created by the Kabir Project team (www.ajabshahar.org ; www.kabirproject.org).
Song Credits:
Lead Vocals & Harmonium: Fariduddin Ayaz & Abu Muhammad
Chorus & Clapping: Ghulam Akram, Ali Akbar, Gayoor Ahmed,
Moiz-uddin, Mubark Haris, Zarrar Ahmed, Shah Laeegh-uddin, Shehzad Hussain
Dholak: Muhammad Ashfa, Muhammad Nawab Kallan
Translation: Vipul Rikhi
Video Credits:
Cameras: Tahireh Lal & Vinay Dhodgeri
Editing: Piyush Kashyap
Editing Support: Shruti Kulkarni
Sound: Dipanshu Mitra
Sub-Titling: Kabir Khanna & Vipul Rikhi
Collection: The Kabir Project
Place: Bangalore, India
Date of Recording: Mar 01, 2009