All the King’s men

Hamza Akram Qawwal and Arjumand Azhar to launch album featuring naats penned by non-Muslims

KARACHI:

“Ishq ho jaaey kisi say koi chara toh naheen, Sirf Muslim kaa Mohammad pe ijara to naheen,” wrote Indian Urdu poet Kunwar Mohinder Singh Bedi. These are the words that struck Arjumand Azhar, a media personality, with such great force that he collaborated with Hamza Akram Qawwal to conceive an album, unique in how it only features naats written by non-Muslims. 

“Azhar [the producer] approached me with the idea for this album and we took it from there. All the naats have been jointly composed by both of us,” says Hamza, who’s currently in the process of recording the album along with Azhar. Muslim poets have long worked their magic through naats that resonate with people across the world, but works by non-Muslims have either been relatively rare or not popularised.

Naats previously compiled as a book

“The Holy Prophet (pbuh) was referred to as Rahmatul lil Alameen (mercy to the worlds),” says Hamza about why they opted for composing works by non-Muslims. “He (pbuh) wasn’t just a rehmat for Muslims but for everyone and everything in this world. This is why followers of different religions have written naats in praise of him,” he adds. Azhar highlights the importance of the project, saying that while Muslims were busy fighting among themselves, they were unaware of how followers of other religion had written poetry in praise of the Holy Prophet (pbuh).



Considering the unique nature of his latest project, it merited a different style of production and composition, something that the composer duo has borne in mind for the album. “Arjumand [Azhar] sahab is a keen listener of classical music and he made some recommendations about how we should compose the tracks. We have composed the album in an experimental style,” adds Hamza, who’s the nephew of renowned qawwal Fareed Ayaz. “We’ve used a diverse range of ragas in this album, such as Raag Bhairavi, Raag Darbari and Raag Aiman. There’s also one naat in which we’ve used four different raags.”

Although Azhar formerly made numerous attempts at composing the album with other qawwals, none of his previous efforts met his expectations. But he feels his collaboration with Hamza seemed to have worked from the beginning. “When we started composing the tracks, the tarz were forming so effortlessly and beautifully that they felt like pearls from the sky,” states Azhar. He notes how even a classically-trained musician like Hamza felt surprised by their swift progress. “Hamza was amused by how we finished seven to eight tarz in a day, as he said it used to take him a day to compose just a single tarz.” The album also features a Naat by Rana Bhagwandas, former acting chief justice of Pakistan.



Amid the numerous works by a host of qawwal groups, Azhar is optimistic that their album will be appreciated by listeners and will be a stand-out. “Even the sets some qawwals perform at musical evenings and concerts are the same,” he notes. The naats that are part of the album have previously been compiled as a book titled Noor-e-Sukhun by Noor Ahmed Meeruthi.

Naats Part of the album

•  Tajalli rukh ki kehti hai Nabuwat leke aai ho by Vishunath Prasad

•  Dil-e-betaab ko seene se lagale aaja by Munshi Durgah Sahai

•  Tasawwur bandh kar dil main tumhara Ya Rasool Allah (saw) by Chand Bihari Laal

•  Lardata hai nazar suraj se har zarra Medina ka by Vishno Kumaar

•  Hai Arsh pe qausen ki jaa, Jai Muhammad (saw) by John John Robert

•  Dil hai ajai kisi pe koi chaara to nahi by Kunwar Mohinder Singh Bedi

Published in The Express Tribune, June 24^th, 2015.

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