Notes of transcendence

The youngest generation of a qawwal family remains devoted to its 700-year-old legacy

“A performance of qawwali is something that we take very seriously,” says Ghayoor Ahmed, the principal singer of Ghayoor Moiz Mustafa Qawwal and Party. “It is more than just singing for us because we have to make sure that our rendition is accurate and faithful to the original tenets of qawwali. We have to uphold the tradition established by our ancestors.” The tradition Ahmed refers to is certainly one that needs to be revered and preserved. His forefathers have faithfully practiced the art of qawwali for more than 700 years. This month, Ahmed and his compatriots — the sons of beloved qawwals Abu Muhammad and Fareed Ayaz — made their debut in America.

Delhi Ke Qawwal Bachon Ka Gharana

Qawwali predates Islam and has existed in various forms — samaa, zikr, and chanting among others — for at least 18 centuries. It is, in essence, the integration of spiritual, philosophical, religious, musical and poetic elements to create a vehicle that facilitates the spiritual connection of participants in the performance of qawwali — the mehfil-e-samaa — to the Creator.



The practice of qawwali, in its primitive form, gained popularity in South Asia as musicians, ascetics, clerics, mystics, philosophers, scholars, and Sufi saints moved to the region from Iran, Afghanistan, Turkey and several other countries. The Thirteenth Century poet, musician, statesman, and philosopher Amir Khusrau created the current form of qawwali and defined the requirements and rules for its performance. He developed a rhythmic cycle of eight beats, the qawwali taal, to be used specifically in qawwali.

The cycle is as follows:

Amir Khusrau composed a number of qawwalis, using raags that he had created himself as musical scales. These included Aiman, Ghaara, Hijaaz, Mujeer, Saazgiri, Sarparda and Zeelaf. In order to ensure the proper education, development and propagation of the newly formalised form of qawwali, Amir Khusrau trained a group of 12 young musicians in the art of qawwali. Miyan Saamat Bin Ibrahim was the leader of the group that came to be known as the Qawwal Bachay. The school of music thus established and followed by the scions of the 12 musicians is known as Delhi Ke Qawwal Bachon Ka Gharana.

Munshi Raziuddin, Fareed Ayaz and Abu Muhammad in performance. PHOTO COURTESY FAREED AYAZ

Ghayoor Moiz Mustafa Qawwal and Party represent the 34th generation of the gharana. “We are direct descendants of the very first qawwal in the world,” says Moizuddin Haydar proudly. “Our ancestry can be traced back directly to Miyan Samat bin Ibrahim. The great musician, Miyan Taan Ras Khan, who was the court musician of Bahadur Shah Zafar, was one of our forefathers as well. Our family has practiced, preserved and conserved the tradition of qawwali established by Amir Khusrau in the Thirteenth Century for more than 700 years. We are devoted to maintaining the purity and original form of qawwali.”

A debut in America

Ghayoor Moiz Mustafa Qawwal and Party comprises eight musicians: two are sons of Abu Muhammad Qawwal and six are sons of Fareed Ayaz Qawwal, arguably the greatest qawwal alive today. The ensemble is known for an unwavering fidelity to the form originally developed by Amir Khusrau. “We have always resisted the urge to dilute and modernize our qawwali,” says Muhammad Shah. “Experimenting with qawwali is not for us,” adds Taimoor Akram. “Fusion is for others to dabble in. Our allegiance is to the qawwali invented by Amir Khusrau. It is our sacred duty to preserve the art of qawwali in its original and most pristine form.” This reluctance to experiment, however, is exclusive to the younger lot. Fareed Ayaz and Abu Muhammad featured in Coke Studio, known for its fusion of folk and contemporary music, back in 2011.

Ghayoor Moiz Mustafa Qawwal and Party recently made their debut in the United States of America, with an all-night performance of classical qawwali in Dallas, Texas. “It was important for us to perform ancient qawwalis composed by Hazrat Amir Khusrau and other masters in this mehfil,” says Zarar Ahmed. “The event was attended by musicians, musicologists and poets from both India and Pakistan. It was an honour for us to perform for the highly knowledgeable and discerning audience. It was necessary for us to perform qawwalis that best represent the tradition established by Amir Khusrau and illustrate the unique qualities and characteristics of the Qawwal Bachon Ka Gharana. We also had to strictly maintain fidelity to raag and taal because of the knowledge of the listeners. We were anxious but confident before the performance which was undoubtedly a daunting, but ultimately a very fulfilling, experience.”

Munshi Raziuddin Qawwal — Grandfather of the members of Ghayoor Moiz Mustafa Qawwal & Party. PHOTO: ONLINE

The forms of qawwali can be defined both in terms of poetry and music. In terms of poetry, bhajan, geet, ghazal, hamd, kafi, manqabat, marsiya, and naat are popular forms of qawwali. Amir Khusrau developed six musical forms. These are the gul, khayal, naqsh, qalbana, qaul and tarana. The forms of dadra, saadara, thumri, tirwat and a few others have been added to the repertoire of qawwali over the centuries.

In accordance with custom and tradition, Ghayoor Moiz Mustafa Qawwal and Party began the mehfil in Dallas with a hamd, which is in praise of God. The qawwali was recited in the Bhairav raag. The raag is immensely popular in Hindustani sangeet, the music of Pakistan and Northern India, and was borrowed from Carnatic sangeet, the music of Southern India, where it is known as Mayamalavagowla. The raag is deeply rooted in Hindu mythology and named after Lord Shiva, one of the main deities of Hinduism. The genuine, but somewhat ironic, pleasure of listening to a song in Allah’s praise composed in a raag named after a Hindu God was a veritable illustration of the secular nature of qawwali.

The hamd was followed by the tremendously popular Manqabat, Man Kunto Maula, in praise of Hazrat Ali (RA). The qawwali is performed by virtually all qawwals from Pakistan and India and is always sung in the prescribed raag, Shudh Kalyan, a melodic scale that uses all seven musical notes, five in aarohi or ascent, and seven in amrohi or descent. The spiritual and religious nature of the qawwali, along with the heartfelt rendition, had the attentive audience in a state of rapturous ecstasy. Many were moved to tears by the end of the qawwali.

Fareed Ayaz & Abu Muhammad performing at Nizamuddin Auliya’s Dargah in Delhi. PHOTO COURTESY: FAREED AYAZ

“An ensemble of musicians cannot perform a qawwali alone,” claims Ghayoor Ahmed. “The audience is an essential and equal participant. The goal of qawwali is to deliver the message of Sufi love. This cannot be done if there is no one to receive the message.”

The audience in the mehfil was equally in love with the qawwals and, in observance of tradition, showered them with hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars in nazar throughout the performance. The host of the mehfil has to initiate the ritual of nazar. The giving of nazar before the host is bad form and a sign of poor upbringing.

A rare form of qawwali

One of the most interesting qawwalis recited in the mehfil was a naqsh set to raag Aiman. The naqsh, along with the gul, are obscure musical forms that are known to only a handful of musicians. These virtuosos jealously guard their knowledge of these rare forms of qawwali and typically do not perform them in public settings. The evening was special for the musicians who sang a leisurely naqsh and, in a rare gesture of magnanimity, allowed listeners to record the 35-minute long rendition.

Dargah of Nizamuddin Auliya in Delhi.

Another rare item performed in the mehfil was Kangna. The song was performed by Fareed Ayaz and Abu Muhammad Qawwal in Season four of Coke Studio and used by Mira Nair in her feature film, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, in 2012. Kangna is actually a saadra in raag Malkauns. The saadra is a song sung in dhrupad style, an ancient form of Indian music, and set to the 10 beat rhythmic cycle jhaptal in madh lay, or medium tempo. A midnight raag, Malkauns, is said to attract djinns and spirits when rendered correctly at the right time. The performance by Ghayoor Moiz Mustafa Qawwal coincided with the midnight hour and had a unique magical and ethereal quality to it. It left the audience simultaneously enthralled and entranced.



The musicians performed a number of qawwalis in the mehfil which concluded, according to custom, with a masterly rendition of rang. The qawwali was written by Amir Khusrau in praise of his spiritual master, Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya. The song has retained its original lyrics, tune and structure for more than seven centuries. It is believed to have the power to result in the corporeal manifestation of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya, Sufi saints and the Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) himself, for those who are spiritually enlightened. The qawwals and the audience both stand up during the performance of rang in respect of the saints who may present themselves in the mehfil. Fareed Ayaz and Abu Muhammad Qawwal joined their sons in the recitation of rang which ended at the crack of dawn.

“It is customary to end concerts of music at the time of the Fajr prayer,” says Moizuddin Haydar. “Since, the goal of the Dallas mehfil was primarily to present qawwali in its original form, in accordance with tradition, we made sure that we followed the well-established, but occasionally disregarded, customs, rituals and traditions of a chishtiya mehfil-e-samaa.”

Ally Adnan lives in Dallas and writes about culture, history and the arts. He tweets @allyadnan

Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, September 20^th, 2015.