Habib Wali Mohammad was born in 1921 at Rangoon to a conservative Memon family, which later moved to Mumbai. His family, Tabani, an industrial house has large business holdings in Pakistan.
During his childhood Habib Wali Mohammad often listened to Qawwali music. But due to economic and business reasons, he gave priority to academics.
He received his MBA from Syracuse University, New York in 1947, and then lived in Mumbai for about 10 years before moving to Pakistan. He died on 3 September 2014 in Los Angeles, USA.
As a youth, Habib Wali received classical music lessons from Ustad Latafat Hussain, nephew of Ustad Fayyaz Khan. In college, he became active in the musical functions of Ismail Yusuf College, gaining the nickname 'Taan Sen'. He completed his bachelor's degree in Bombay.
In 1941, Habib Wali was awarded first prize in a Bombay music competition with 1200 contestants, including the singer Mukesh Chand Mathur. His winning performance was singing the ghazal of the last Moghul Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar, Lagta Nahin Hai Jee Mera Ujray Diyar Mein.
Encouraged by this honour, at a young age, he took more interest in ghazal singing. During his stay in America, he had been out of touch with music. Hence, he felt lonely and missed his earlier college functions in Bombay. In his own words, "He was not happy in ‘Ujray dayar mein’, the same ghazal which had won him an award of a lifetime. He put a lot of effort and came out with a gramophone record of ghazals in his voice. On one side of the record, he dubbed Bahadur Shah Zafar's ghazals and on the other side, Ghalib's ghazals.
Unfortunately, the Indian public was reluctant to buy them.
Listening to these ghazals, actress Meena Kumari became a fan of his, and since she was at the time affiliated with Radio Ceylon, she had his recordings broadcast often. This boosted Habib Wali's sales and caused him to become a celebrity.
After the independence of Pakistan in 1947, his family migrated to Pakistan and established an industrial group which includes the Shalimar Silk Mills. He gave most of his time to the family business, recording ghazals and geets for films in his spare time, however music was not pursued as a profession.
However he still sang ghazals for the music companies.(including a geet written by Parveen Shakir: ‘Gori karath singhar’). In the eighties, he recorded ghazals on audio cassettes which were composed by the renowned music director Nisar Bazmi and the Pakistan Television, Karachi Center's music director Niaz Ahmed. In addition, he received offers to become a film playback singer for the Pakistani film industry.
Habib Wali Mohammad was from an early group of singers ever to record the ghazals. But probably because of his background and as a member of a well-established family, Habib Wali had never pursued an aggressive and mainstream career as a singer, though he was still highly regarded.
His famous ghazals include Bahadur Shah Zafar's 'Na kisi ki aankh ka noor hoon' and Qamar Jalalvi's 'Kab mera nasheman ahelay chaman'. All of his performances of the ghazals of Bahadur Shah Zafar have been very popular.
His other well known ghazals, include Aaj Jaane Ki Zid Na Karo. He also sang the famous national song, "Roshan-o-Rakhshan, Nayyar-o-Tabaan, Pakistan rahay".
PTN-USA