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Qawwals - Another Sufi Musical Tradition from Pakistan
Tuesday, June 5th Pakistani Qawwal Akhtar Sharif Arup Vale Qawwals performed at Bab Makina. A Qawwal is devotional music of the Chisti Sufis from region of India and Pakistan.
This type of music, dating back 700 years, was performed at the shrines of Sufi saints. It is fusion of Persian poetry and Indian classical music that can be a means of becoming gharq, the final stage of a Sufi.
Listeners, and often artists themselves are transported to a state of wajad, a trance-like state where they feel at one with God, generally considered to be the height of spiritual ecstasy within Islam. (Wikipedia.org)
The Akhtar Sharif Qawwals consist of nine male members who sit cross-legged on the floor in two rows and accompany themselves with two harmoniums played by singers, drums and simple hand-clapping. The singers are in the front and the percussionists in the back. Although the vocals were powerful and the harmonies were wonderful, the lyrics were sung in Punjabi, Urdu, Persian and sometimes Arabic. Akhtar Sharif Hussain, leader of the group, was trained by the famous qawwal master, Fateh Ali Khan, father of popular qawwal singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.
Qawwal music, although religious in nature, often has secular sounding lyrics and a couple of examples follow:
Singing strings, vibrant wood, throbbing drums
Whence comes the voice of the Beloved?
Not from strings, not from wood, nor from drum
Of Himself comes the voice of the Beloved
as Sung by Nasrat Fateh Ali
Another:
Tonight there came a news that you, oh beloved, would come -
Be my head sacrificed to the road along which you will come riding!
All the gazelles of the desert have put their heads on their hands
In the hope that one day you will come to hunt them....
The attraction of love won't leave you unmoved;
Should you not come to my funeral,
you'll definitely come to my grave.
My soul has come on my lips (e.g. I am on the point of expiring);
Come so that I may remain alive -
After I am no longer - for what purpose will you come?
(Translation Annmarie Schimmel)
Akhtar Sharif Arup Vale Qawwals received a standing ovation and came back to the stage for an encore performance.
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