The Highway 61 ~ Blog!

Sufism or tasawwuf (Arabic ) is defined by its adherents as the inner, mystical dimension of Islam. A practitioner of this tradition is generally known as a Sufi. Another name for a Sufi is Dervish.

This is what you get to read when you Google Sufism, though it is one to each and each to one. What thoughts you share with your heart or what it shares with you, in your heart you have faith and that faith speaks to you.

Moreover, a lot of people are getting closer to Sufi music : Sufi music, wonder what it is!? Well to me it’s the music in the poetry.

To be honest I sure don’t have all our compositions which we truly justify, there are moments when we connect to what we speak, though the moments when it connects/speaks back to us are few. It’s a master of its own. One sure cannot take away the poetry aspect out of the composition which you want to categorize in this genre.

At times this whole “kayanaat” seems to be nothing but fake , but I can’t take away the fact of our existence because of it. The “Justuju” of living and making a foot place for oneself puts us through a lot of tests in life.

Lots of deviations, lots of lustful thoughts occur to me. Sometimes I bypass them and at times I fall into them. What remains with me is that feeling of being strong, feeling of being weak. These tests to me paint a picture which is no less than a mystery. Why do I feel what I feel, how do I feel what I feel.

Happy, sad, dejected, angry, lost, hurt, pain, aggression, calm. I have no idea why at times I can’t speak a word even if I want to after performing “mazhab” with Highway 61. There is a sense of lightness in my head at times like that. This mystery is nothing but the connect to my Almighty, be it anything, thanking him, praising him. I sure don’t have the experience to feel what others have already felt, from “Sham su tabrezi” to “Abida parveen”. They all have gone through the cycle. I hope and pray I feel what they have in time.

In time I say, because nothing happens before time.

Coming back to Sufi Poetry, I found a very interesting paragraph explaining the forms of poetry. The Sufi poetry is implicitly understood to be spiritual in its meaning, even though the lyrics can sometimes sound wildly secular, or outright hedonistic. Qawwali is profound form of Sufi music. The central themes of Qawwali are love, devotion and longing (of man for the Divine).

Qawwalis are classified by their content into several categories:

• A hamd, Arabic for praise, is a song in praise of Allah. Traditionally, a qawwali performance starts with a hamd.
• A naat, Arabic for description, is a song in praise of the Prophet Muhammad. The opening hamd is traditionally followed by a naat.
• A manqabat, Arabic for characteristics, is a song in praise of either Imam Ali or one of the Sufi saints. Manqabats in praise of Ali are sung at both Sunni and Shi’a gatherings. If one is sung, it will follow right after the naat. There is usually at least one manqabat in a traditional programme.
• A marsiya, Arabic for lamentation for a dead person, is a lamentation over the death of much of Imam Husayn’s family in the Battle of Karbala. This would typically be sung only at a Shi’a concert.
• A ghazal, Arabic for love song, is a song that sounds secular on the face of it. There are two extended metaphors that run through ghazals—the joys of drinking and the agony of separation from the beloved. These songs feature exquisite poetry, and can certainly be taken at face value, and enjoyed at that level. In fact, in Pakistan and India, ghazal is also a separate, distinct musical genre in which many of the same songs are performed in a different musical style, and in a secular context. In the context of that genre, the songs are usually taken at face value, and no deeper meaning is necessarily implied. But in the context of qawwali, these songs of intoxication and yearning use secular metaphors to poignantly express the soul’s longing for union with the Divine, and its joy in loving the Divine. In the songs of intoxication, "wine" represents "knowledge of the Divine", the "cupbearer" (saaqi) is God or a spiritual guide, the "tavern" is the metaphorical place where the soul may (or may not) be fortunate enough to attain spiritual enlightenment. (The "tavern" is emphatically not a conventional house of worship. Rather, it is taken to be the spiritual context within which the soul exists.) Intoxication is attaining spiritual knowledge, or being filled with the joy of loving the Divine. In the songs of yearning, the soul, having been abandoned in this world by that cruel and cavalier lover, God, sings of the agony of separation, and the depth of its yearning for reunion.
• A kafi is a poem in Punjabi, Seraiki or Sindhi, which is in the unique style of poets such as Shah Hussain, Bulleh Shah and Sachal Sarmast. Two of the more well-known Kafis include Ni Main Jana Jogi De Naal and Mera Piya Ghar Aaya.
• A munadjaat Arabic for a conversation in the night, is a song where the singer displays his thanks to Allah through a variety of linguistic techniques. It is often sung in Persian, with Mawlana Jal?l-ad-D?n Rumi credited as its inventor.

Sufism is more about poetry and Sufi music is more about the music in that poetry. The vocals being little pinching than the normal it should take you deep within seas .

To begin with one should for sure listen to “raks se bismil” by Abida parveen.

I m just a human, not perfect but yes I have faith: so please don’t ignore the mistakes, read for yourself, do the research and stay blessed.

                                                                                                            

                                                                                                             Mohammad Muneem