A pen can write and rewrite music,  but the music of  Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan can only be written by the pen drowned in, who Javed Akhtar calls an ocean, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. A rose to love is the late lover Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and as long as lives love, lives Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Undeniably, he was his words. He sang to the everlasting sacrifice of Karbala and with words shed tears upon the sands of Karbala : undeniably from whom the world has studied to live after death, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was, and is, a student of high regard. He lives.

Beings  whose hearts have been opened by love, bring your minds to stop and salute  the presence of the  Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, the immortal voice of a blessed  mortal. On August 16 1997, his life had only just begun.He is a lesson for all aspiring singers and listeners. You may not listen to any music or may not even have a taste for the kind of music he sings. But it is his methodology that makes him the ultimate revelation to all singers and listeners of the future. None can make it close to this man’s shadow but by blindly consuming his approach, one surely shall ascend to the epitome of love and devotion. Yes, love is blind. You see your blindness and there is no vision more eloquent than this.

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan came from a family whose heart beat echoed the greatest form of Qawalli . Qawalli was, and still is, the water of his family tree and in 600 years they  finally saw the blooming of a son who was to symbolize his family’s works in the most fruitful of expression. Initially his father did not wish for his son to follow the family culture. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, though, had his fate in his faith. He is now the fragrance that gives the family its eternal breath.

Qawalli finds its soil in the land of Sufi thought. But Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan  became the catalyst of the modernisation of this music. I say, with great caution, that Khan gets modernity to rethink its thought. Qawalli utilizes the individual’s vocals as its main instrument : its best instrument is Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. He sang in dedication to numerous personalities and concepts : his appreciation of all that he appreciated will continue to send listeners into a trance. Each of his works is a sermon. I am sure you have your personal prayers of preference. For me, then and now, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s callings to the Qalandars will remain ripe in my heart : the beats of Dhamaal shall remain my beat of life. Jhoolay Lal.

Author: Ali Abbas