http://www.beliefnet.com/story/205/story_20527.html
Floating on a Cloud of Mercy
The singer reflects on what drew him to Islam--and how it allows his creative side to flow.
By Dr. Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens), in conversation with Arthur J. Magida
Adapted by Arthur J. Magida from Opening the Doors of Wonder: Reflections on Religious Rites of Passage with permission of University of California Press.
When my brother came back to the United Kingdom following a visit to Jerusalem in 1976, a festival of Islam was taking place in London, and suddenly there were books and exhibitions about Islamic culture in bookshops and museums. He saw the Qur’an in a bookshop window and thought to himself, "That’s the Bible of the Muslims." He decided to buy it and give it to me as a gift.
The more I read the Qur’an, the more it struck me, deep down. This wasn't sudden. I’d been looking at several religions--Buddhism, Taoism--while also reconsidering my Christian upbringing. I was interested in different ways of looking at this universe. I didn't have peace. If you listened to my songs, you would know I was always searching. Ever since I remember, I was searching for the meaning to life. I found that Islam was not quite that “foreign” religion which I had come to expect. It was talking about belief in One God, the Master of the universe. It talked about the unity and the indivisibility of the universe. That message is also contained in the Bible, but the greater clarity, for me, of this message in the Qur’an left a deeper impression. It talked about humanity as one family, and it mentioned many prophets, including Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad, all equally teaching the same message of unity to mankind.
After a few months of carrying the Qur'an around with me, I read the chapter called “Joseph” [Yusuf]. I instinctively felt that, like Joseph, I, too, had passed through many stages. Joseph had been sold in the market by his brother, much as I was being sold in the market of the music world. About a year later--on a winter Friday in 1977--I walked to the mosque in London’s Regent’s Park to declare my faith. I realized that I must get rid of my pride, get rid of my ego, and face God.
After jumu'ah [congregational prayer], I went up to the imam and declared my wish to become a Muslim. I was sat down and asked if I believed there was only one God and that He is absolutely unique without partners. I affirmed that. Then I was asked if I believed that Muhammad was the last of the messengers. It became absolutely clear to me that no prophet could come without God's permission, and no prophet could create a true religion unless it was inspired by God. I knew the Muhammad was exactly what he said he was: the slave of God and His messenger. To the imam, I affirmed my belief, saying, "I declare that there is no God except the one God [Allah]; and I declare that Muhammad is His servant and messenger."
From that moment on, I felt I was floating on a warm, invisible cloud of mercy, carrying me upward from my past entanglements and worldly confusion. The chief imam in the London Central Mosque encouraged me to continue composing and recording; at no time was there ever an ultimatum for me to choose between music or Islam. But many things about the music industry contravened the Islamic way of life--fornication, intoxicants, idolatry, competition, greed, selfishness. How could I really accumulate wisdom and get closer to the angels if I stuck around that kind of a world? I simply decided by myself to give up the music business. This helped me concentrate on learning and practicing the five pillars of Islam and striving to get close to Allah through knowledge and worship. At the time, I said, "I have suspended my activities in music for fear that they may divert me from the true path, but I will not be dogmatic in saying that I will never make music again. You can't say that without adding, 'Insha Allah' ['If Allah Wills']."
Now I understand that the past is part of myself; without it, I would not be where I am today. I have realized that music is part of our lives. I understand that Islam does not prohibit music, but it does not encourage it either. It took me 20 years to reach that conclusion. The problem with Muslim music is that it is dominated by a conservative musical element originating in Saudi Arabia. It is not the genuine music you'd find in Malaysia, Indonesia, or Turkey. There are also people who preach that Islam is against music. I have studied the sources. There was a feast when music was being played in Muhammad’s presence, and someone said, "Music in front of the Prophet? Stop it!" But the Prophet intervened and said, "Let them! They are having a feast." Which means that, under proper circumstances, people are allowed to play or listen to music.
[In my past], it was very difficult to stay on the straight path amid all the destabilizing drama of rock star existence. Today I'm trying to redress that balance and find a way to allow my creative side to flow within the generous rivers of Islam's cultural landscape. The great thing is, I'm still floating.
DANCING IS NOT HARAM IN ISLAM
Islamism and Heavy Metal
Today's post is a guest blog from Mark LeVine, Professor of Middle
Eastern history, culture and Islamic Studies at UC Irvine and
author, most recently, of Heavy Metal
By Mark Levine
Heavy metal has had a more powerful and controversial appeal than
perhaps any other element of Western culture that has taken hold in
the Muslim world. It might seem strange that a genre of music long
associated with sex, drugs and even Satan worship should be popular
in Muslim countries. But heavy metal can't be reduced to the "hair"
or "glam" metal epitomized by one-time MTV staple bands such as
Motley Crue or Quiet Riot. Instead, the much harsher sound of death,
doom and other forms of extreme metal are winning a growing
following across the Muslim world.
This is partly because the subjects these and other extreme metal
bands deal with - death without meaning, the futility of violence,
the corruption of power - correspond well to the issues confronting
hundreds of millions of young Muslims today, the majority of whom
live under authoritarian governments in societies torn by
inequality, underdevelopment and various types of violent conflict.
As one of the founders of the Moroccan metal scene, the Sorbonne-
educated Reda Zine, explained to me when I first met him: "We play
heavy metal because our lives are heavy metal."
Middle Eastern metal isn't merely an outlet for youthful frustration. It offers fans a sense of community, "affirming life" through its seemingly morbid focus on death, creating a space outside of government control to express identities that don't conform to those sponsored or desired by undemocratic regimes and conservative religious establishments.
The characteristics that make metal increasingly popular across the Muslim world are the same qualities that have long made Islamist
movements popular as well. And in a region with the world's highest
percentage of young people (in many countries more than half of the
population is under 25 years old) there is a huge constituency for the kind of community and solidarity that both metal and Islamist movements offer. In Morocco, for example, only two groups could bring 100,000 people into the streets: the rock band Hoba Hoba Spirit and the semi-illegal social-political religious organization, the Justice and Spirituality movement.
Certainly, the region's various religious movements have a far larger base of support than rock, metal, hip-hop or other forms of pop music, despite pop music's rapidly growing fan base. But with festivals in Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, Turkey and Dubai attracting tens of thousands of fans, and a growing list of music video channels catering to the youth demographic (Pakistan alone has upwards of a dozen 24-hour video channels), there's no doubt that rock music is playing an increasingly important role in shaping the identities and attitudes of young people around the Muslim world.
Historically, Islamists and metalheads have been on opposite ends of the political and cultural spectrum. Conservative religious establishments have supported and even encouraged crackdowns against the metal scenes in Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon and Iran. In Egypt's case, the Grand Mufti actually called for the death penalty for the hundred-plus metalheads arrested in 1997 in the region's first full-blown "Satanic metal affair," if the accused didn't repent from their "apostasy."
In fact, Middle Eastern metal was one of the first victims of such strategies of "repressive tolerance," as the German philosopher Herbert Marcuse labeled the phenomenon. The charges have been risible; evidence included Chicago Bulls caps (the bull horns were said to represent Satan) and ashtrays in the shape of pentagrams (in Morocco, no less, where the pentagram is on the nation's flag). But their impact was powerful. Indeed, musicians' reactions to the Satanic metal incidents tell us a lot about how deep the authoritarian culture is embedded in particular countries.
In Lebanon and Iran, however, such episodes did little to dampen the
enthusiasm for metal. In Morocco fans actually fought back, staging mass protests, playing concerts in front of courthouses, and pressuring the government until the verdicts were overturned. Indeed, heavy metal is responsible for perhaps the Arab World's only successful civil protest movement in recent memory.
In recent years, most governments (with the exception of Iran and Saudi
Arabia) have grown more tolerant of their countries' metal scenes, although the price of greater freedom to play metal has often been a growing de-politicization of inherently subversive subcultures. Some governments even co-sponsor metal festivals (with an even bigger stake being taken by Arab and Western multinational corporations, who have equally little interest in encouraging dissent.) This is occurring at the same time that governments are intensifying crackdowns on other movements, particularly against young activists from Islamist groups such as Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood or Morocco's Justice and Spirituality movement.
Pitting two seemingly opposite poles of youth culture against each other is a time-tested strategy to divide and rule, but it's worked well in this case because the memory of religious support for the crackdowns against them is still fresh in the minds of most metalheads. Indeed, the few times I've managed to bring metalheads and young Islamists together in the same room it has been the metalheads who've squirmed in their seats, anxious to leave, while the religious activists -- many with the same biographies (college educated or MBAs, fluent in English and/or French, working in the IT sector) -- were happy to stay and talk.
What is increasingly clear is that heavy metal is playing an important and potentially crucial role in a region still dominated by undemocratic governments that routinely arrest and even torture people for expressing political or social views that deviate from the prescribed norm.
Perhaps this is why the emerging generation of Islamist activists has become far more tolerant of their metal-loving peers than were their elders. With everyone facing the same struggles against authoritarianism, an increasing number of religiously motivated political activists has figured out that, in the words of a 25-year old Muslim Brother in Cairo, "Only when I'm ready to fight for everyone's rights can I hope to have mine." In fact, most every religious activist I've met under 40 has answered an emphatic "Yes" when I've asked them if one could be a metalhead and a good Muslim at the same time.
This belief is supported by the reality that the majority of metalheads I know consider themselves good Muslims; many even pray five times a day. As the teenage musician sons of jailed Egyptian presidential candidate Ayman Nour put it, "We love to go to the mosque for Juma' (Friday afternoon) prayers for three hours and then go play black metal for four hours."
Perhaps one reason for this dynamic is that the experiences and practices surrounding metal culture fulfill many of the same needs as religion. Sitting next to Reda Zine when he first told me why he loved metal was a young Iraqi Shia religious scholar, Sheikh Anwar, known as the "Elastic Sheikh" because of his willingness to combine western and Islamic ideas to better serve his Baghdad flock. As soon as Zine finished, he exclaimed, "I don't like metal; not because I think it's haram (forbidden), but because it's not my kind of music. But when we get together chanting and marching, banging our fists against our chests and pumping them in the air, we're doing metal, too."
Salman Ahmed, a Pakistani rock star and founder of the genre of "Sufi rock," agreed, explaining that one of the reasons he's received death threats from hardcore Islamists in his country is precisely that "we're competing for the same crowd." As important, however, is his revelation that many of the mullahs who publicly lash out at his group, Junoon, ask him for autographs and admit to knowing the words to his songs when no one else is around.
Most interesting, more than a few times, it has turned out that today's twenty- or thirty-something Islamists were yesterday's teenage metalheads. And the transition from one subculture to the other was often not as jarring as one might imagine; nor did it involve a move from the fantasy violence of extreme metal to the real violence of al- Qa'eda, as apparently occurred when a metalhead from Orange County, California named Adam Gadahn converted to Islam, joined al-Qa'eda and became the infamous "Azzam the American," appearing in numerous propaganda videos for the group.
At its base, a growing cadre of both metalheads and the progressive-minded young Islamists are searching for alternative yet authentic identities to those offered by sclerotic and autocratic regimes and a monochrome globalization.
Ultimately, the best exemplars of Middle Eastern metal and of activist Islam share many attributes: they look critically at their societies, refusing unquestioningly to buy into the myths and shibboleths put forward by political or spiritual leaders; they are positive and forward-thinking rather than nihilistic or based solely on resistance; they create bonds of community that stand against state-sponsored repression; and they reveal the diversity of contemporary Islam.
Mark LeVine is Professor of Middle Eastern history, culture and
Islamic Studies at UC Irvine and author, most recently, of Heavy
Metal
Today's post is a guest blog from Mark LeVine, Professor of Middle
Eastern history, culture and Islamic Studies at UC Irvine and
author, most recently, of Heavy Metal
By Mark Levine
Heavy metal has had a more powerful and controversial appeal than
perhaps any other element of Western culture that has taken hold in
the Muslim world. It might seem strange that a genre of music long
associated with sex, drugs and even Satan worship should be popular
in Muslim countries. But heavy metal can't be reduced to the "hair"
or "glam" metal epitomized by one-time MTV staple bands such as
Motley Crue or Quiet Riot. Instead, the much harsher sound of death,
doom and other forms of extreme metal are winning a growing
following across the Muslim world.
This is partly because the subjects these and other extreme metal
bands deal with - death without meaning, the futility of violence,
the corruption of power - correspond well to the issues confronting
hundreds of millions of young Muslims today, the majority of whom
live under authoritarian governments in societies torn by
inequality, underdevelopment and various types of violent conflict.
As one of the founders of the Moroccan metal scene, the Sorbonne-
educated Reda Zine, explained to me when I first met him: "We play
heavy metal because our lives are heavy metal."
Middle Eastern metal isn't merely an outlet for youthful frustration. It offers fans a sense of community, "affirming life" through its seemingly morbid focus on death, creating a space outside of government control to express identities that don't conform to those sponsored or desired by undemocratic regimes and conservative religious establishments.
The characteristics that make metal increasingly popular across the Muslim world are the same qualities that have long made Islamist
movements popular as well. And in a region with the world's highest
percentage of young people (in many countries more than half of the
population is under 25 years old) there is a huge constituency for the kind of community and solidarity that both metal and Islamist movements offer. In Morocco, for example, only two groups could bring 100,000 people into the streets: the rock band Hoba Hoba Spirit and the semi-illegal social-political religious organization, the Justice and Spirituality movement.
Certainly, the region's various religious movements have a far larger base of support than rock, metal, hip-hop or other forms of pop music, despite pop music's rapidly growing fan base. But with festivals in Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, Turkey and Dubai attracting tens of thousands of fans, and a growing list of music video channels catering to the youth demographic (Pakistan alone has upwards of a dozen 24-hour video channels), there's no doubt that rock music is playing an increasingly important role in shaping the identities and attitudes of young people around the Muslim world.
Historically, Islamists and metalheads have been on opposite ends of the political and cultural spectrum. Conservative religious establishments have supported and even encouraged crackdowns against the metal scenes in Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon and Iran. In Egypt's case, the Grand Mufti actually called for the death penalty for the hundred-plus metalheads arrested in 1997 in the region's first full-blown "Satanic metal affair," if the accused didn't repent from their "apostasy."
In fact, Middle Eastern metal was one of the first victims of such strategies of "repressive tolerance," as the German philosopher Herbert Marcuse labeled the phenomenon. The charges have been risible; evidence included Chicago Bulls caps (the bull horns were said to represent Satan) and ashtrays in the shape of pentagrams (in Morocco, no less, where the pentagram is on the nation's flag). But their impact was powerful. Indeed, musicians' reactions to the Satanic metal incidents tell us a lot about how deep the authoritarian culture is embedded in particular countries.
In Lebanon and Iran, however, such episodes did little to dampen the
enthusiasm for metal. In Morocco fans actually fought back, staging mass protests, playing concerts in front of courthouses, and pressuring the government until the verdicts were overturned. Indeed, heavy metal is responsible for perhaps the Arab World's only successful civil protest movement in recent memory.
In recent years, most governments (with the exception of Iran and Saudi
Arabia) have grown more tolerant of their countries' metal scenes, although the price of greater freedom to play metal has often been a growing de-politicization of inherently subversive subcultures. Some governments even co-sponsor metal festivals (with an even bigger stake being taken by Arab and Western multinational corporations, who have equally little interest in encouraging dissent.) This is occurring at the same time that governments are intensifying crackdowns on other movements, particularly against young activists from Islamist groups such as Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood or Morocco's Justice and Spirituality movement.
Pitting two seemingly opposite poles of youth culture against each other is a time-tested strategy to divide and rule, but it's worked well in this case because the memory of religious support for the crackdowns against them is still fresh in the minds of most metalheads. Indeed, the few times I've managed to bring metalheads and young Islamists together in the same room it has been the metalheads who've squirmed in their seats, anxious to leave, while the religious activists -- many with the same biographies (college educated or MBAs, fluent in English and/or French, working in the IT sector) -- were happy to stay and talk.
What is increasingly clear is that heavy metal is playing an important and potentially crucial role in a region still dominated by undemocratic governments that routinely arrest and even torture people for expressing political or social views that deviate from the prescribed norm.
Perhaps this is why the emerging generation of Islamist activists has become far more tolerant of their metal-loving peers than were their elders. With everyone facing the same struggles against authoritarianism, an increasing number of religiously motivated political activists has figured out that, in the words of a 25-year old Muslim Brother in Cairo, "Only when I'm ready to fight for everyone's rights can I hope to have mine." In fact, most every religious activist I've met under 40 has answered an emphatic "Yes" when I've asked them if one could be a metalhead and a good Muslim at the same time.
This belief is supported by the reality that the majority of metalheads I know consider themselves good Muslims; many even pray five times a day. As the teenage musician sons of jailed Egyptian presidential candidate Ayman Nour put it, "We love to go to the mosque for Juma' (Friday afternoon) prayers for three hours and then go play black metal for four hours."
Perhaps one reason for this dynamic is that the experiences and practices surrounding metal culture fulfill many of the same needs as religion. Sitting next to Reda Zine when he first told me why he loved metal was a young Iraqi Shia religious scholar, Sheikh Anwar, known as the "Elastic Sheikh" because of his willingness to combine western and Islamic ideas to better serve his Baghdad flock. As soon as Zine finished, he exclaimed, "I don't like metal; not because I think it's haram (forbidden), but because it's not my kind of music. But when we get together chanting and marching, banging our fists against our chests and pumping them in the air, we're doing metal, too."
Salman Ahmed, a Pakistani rock star and founder of the genre of "Sufi rock," agreed, explaining that one of the reasons he's received death threats from hardcore Islamists in his country is precisely that "we're competing for the same crowd." As important, however, is his revelation that many of the mullahs who publicly lash out at his group, Junoon, ask him for autographs and admit to knowing the words to his songs when no one else is around.
Most interesting, more than a few times, it has turned out that today's twenty- or thirty-something Islamists were yesterday's teenage metalheads. And the transition from one subculture to the other was often not as jarring as one might imagine; nor did it involve a move from the fantasy violence of extreme metal to the real violence of al- Qa'eda, as apparently occurred when a metalhead from Orange County, California named Adam Gadahn converted to Islam, joined al-Qa'eda and became the infamous "Azzam the American," appearing in numerous propaganda videos for the group.
At its base, a growing cadre of both metalheads and the progressive-minded young Islamists are searching for alternative yet authentic identities to those offered by sclerotic and autocratic regimes and a monochrome globalization.
Ultimately, the best exemplars of Middle Eastern metal and of activist Islam share many attributes: they look critically at their societies, refusing unquestioningly to buy into the myths and shibboleths put forward by political or spiritual leaders; they are positive and forward-thinking rather than nihilistic or based solely on resistance; they create bonds of community that stand against state-sponsored repression; and they reveal the diversity of contemporary Islam.
Mark LeVine is Professor of Middle Eastern history, culture and
Islamic Studies at UC Irvine and author, most recently, of Heavy
Metal
Islamic Idol: Music spreading message of faith
By HADEEL AL-SHALCHI,
Associated Press Writer
Sunday, May 17, 2009
(05-17) 07:47 PDT CAIRO, Egypt (AP) --
Flames burst from the stage for a grand entrance, and fake fog swirls around a young man in a white robe. He clutches the microphone, gazes seriously into the camera and then, accompanied only by drums, he sings.
"I accept Allah as my God, His religion as my religion, and His Messenger as my Messenger," he intones, as the audience, divided into men's and women's sections, claps along with the rhythm.
The singer is a contestant on a new Islamic version of "American Idol," launched to promote and drum up talent for one of the Arab world's newest Islamic pop music video channels.
The satellite station, 4shbab — Arabic for "For the Youth" — is the brainchild of an Egyptian media worker, Ahmed Abu Heiba, who says his mission is to spread the message that observant Muslims can also be modern and in touch with today's world.
"We have failed to deliver this message," Abu Heiba said in an interview on the sidelines of the contest, aired in late April. "What I am trying to do is to use the universal language of music to show what Islam looks like."
The channel, which was launched in February and can be seen across the Arab world, is a bid to capitalize on a generation of young Muslims who have become more observant but are also raised on Western pop influences.
But it's hard to hit the right balance between conservative and liberal. The channel shows no female singers — or any other women — adhering to the mainstream view that women performers are taboo in Islam. Still, some conservatives are wary about mixing pop culture and religion.
So what does Islam look like on 4shbab? There's rock and hip-hop from American and British Muslim bands, singing about the struggles of keeping up with daily prayers or dressing modestly. The Arab singers tend toward a more romantic pop style — young men with smoldering eyes and flowing shirts sing in the rain about leading a virtuous life, going to mosque and supporting their families, from helping their sisters with homework to taking out the garbage.
Abu Heiba said he wants to include women singers on the station, but "I believe that our societies are not ready to accept it."
"It is a matter of time and phases, it is a very sensitive matter and it will take a very long time," he told The Associated Press.
The Arab world is full of female singers, but only on the numerous secular pop music channels. The videos often feature scantily clad women singing or dancing, with suggestive lyrics. Many tut-tut that such videos are offensive and against Arab and Muslim culture, but viewers still flock to the wildly popular video TV stations.
There are also many popular Islamic TV stations, featuring recitations from the Quran, sermons by clerics and talk shows on how to live a proper Muslim life — but no music.
Mixing the two worlds can get a little uncomfortable. One Egyptian pop star caused a fuss several years ago when his latest hit video showed him crooning a chaste love song to a girl in a higab, the Islamic headscarf that is ubiquitous on Egyptian streets but is never seen in music videos. Some conservatives were scandalized at the suggestion of a good religious girl being in such a romantic situation.
Abu Heiba said 4shbab is an antidote to the "lewd" music videos that mainstream channels show.
"We give our kids the shadow of holiness because this is basic in our culture and religion," said Abu Heiba. "But when our kids are exposed to this (un-Islamic) media, it is totally different, they don't feel like they belong to this culture anymore... their passions are divided."
Sixteen-year-old Hagar Hossam said she watches 4shbab "every day and every night." Dressed in a headscarf and a long flowing robe, the high school student giggled with her friends sitting in the middle of the women's section of the competition.
"I like that 4shbab shows a moderate view of Muslim youth," said Hossam. "Islam isn't just about praying and religious rituals. We're allowed to have fun, be happy and be young — we just try to balance it with our religion and with what makes God happy."
Her 22-year-old friend, Shahy Samir, is not so sure, saying she's uncomfortable with many of the videos on 4shbab, particularly those in a hip-hop style, with their rap moves.
"I know that in their culture it's normal to do all that dancing and those movements while singing," said Samir. "But I don't think it's very Islamic and even though the lyrics are good, the movements take away from the weight of the meaning."
Some hard-line clerics say Islam forbids music, allowing only percussion to accompany religious chants. But others don't see a strict prohibition.
"Islam is not against music or singing as long as it doesn't stir desires and it adheres to the values of Islam," said Sheik Youssef el-Badri, an Egyptian cleric who has sought to prosecute in court many Egyptian artists and writers for alleged insults to Islam. "This channel would be a good thing if it tries to attract people to clean, Islamic values."
In the Arab world, there are few "Islamic singers." Thus the contest, through which Abu Heiba hopes to drum up new talent.
"I don't have singers, the field is empty," he said. "So I need a star-making process from the beginning to get my own stars to deliver my own message by my own way."
The contest was called "Soutak Wasel," Arabic for "Your Voice is Heard," though Abu Heiba nicknamed it "Islamic Idol" — perhaps not the most appropriate nickname given Islam's strong prohibition against idolatry.
For the past two months, listeners called in to 4shbab to sing a song on the air, and a panel of experts judged them. The 12 best, from around the Arab world, won the chance to compete in the finals in front of a live audience of about 300 people in an open air theater at Cairo's historic Citadel. During the April 17 show, viewers voted by text message and chose three winners.
Habib Battah, an American journalist who analyses Arab media, is skeptical about the channel's chances for success. Numerous satellite stations have been launched by wealthy businessmen aiming to spread a particular message, but end up failing to find an audience and disappearing, he said.
"I don't want to say there isn't a place for religious music videos in the market," said Battah. "But there isn't a lot of research and it's very hard to stick out in an industry where there is no agreed upon rating system."
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f ... 751D78.DTL
By HADEEL AL-SHALCHI,
Associated Press Writer
Sunday, May 17, 2009
(05-17) 07:47 PDT CAIRO, Egypt (AP) --
Flames burst from the stage for a grand entrance, and fake fog swirls around a young man in a white robe. He clutches the microphone, gazes seriously into the camera and then, accompanied only by drums, he sings.
"I accept Allah as my God, His religion as my religion, and His Messenger as my Messenger," he intones, as the audience, divided into men's and women's sections, claps along with the rhythm.
The singer is a contestant on a new Islamic version of "American Idol," launched to promote and drum up talent for one of the Arab world's newest Islamic pop music video channels.
The satellite station, 4shbab — Arabic for "For the Youth" — is the brainchild of an Egyptian media worker, Ahmed Abu Heiba, who says his mission is to spread the message that observant Muslims can also be modern and in touch with today's world.
"We have failed to deliver this message," Abu Heiba said in an interview on the sidelines of the contest, aired in late April. "What I am trying to do is to use the universal language of music to show what Islam looks like."
The channel, which was launched in February and can be seen across the Arab world, is a bid to capitalize on a generation of young Muslims who have become more observant but are also raised on Western pop influences.
But it's hard to hit the right balance between conservative and liberal. The channel shows no female singers — or any other women — adhering to the mainstream view that women performers are taboo in Islam. Still, some conservatives are wary about mixing pop culture and religion.
So what does Islam look like on 4shbab? There's rock and hip-hop from American and British Muslim bands, singing about the struggles of keeping up with daily prayers or dressing modestly. The Arab singers tend toward a more romantic pop style — young men with smoldering eyes and flowing shirts sing in the rain about leading a virtuous life, going to mosque and supporting their families, from helping their sisters with homework to taking out the garbage.
Abu Heiba said he wants to include women singers on the station, but "I believe that our societies are not ready to accept it."
"It is a matter of time and phases, it is a very sensitive matter and it will take a very long time," he told The Associated Press.
The Arab world is full of female singers, but only on the numerous secular pop music channels. The videos often feature scantily clad women singing or dancing, with suggestive lyrics. Many tut-tut that such videos are offensive and against Arab and Muslim culture, but viewers still flock to the wildly popular video TV stations.
There are also many popular Islamic TV stations, featuring recitations from the Quran, sermons by clerics and talk shows on how to live a proper Muslim life — but no music.
Mixing the two worlds can get a little uncomfortable. One Egyptian pop star caused a fuss several years ago when his latest hit video showed him crooning a chaste love song to a girl in a higab, the Islamic headscarf that is ubiquitous on Egyptian streets but is never seen in music videos. Some conservatives were scandalized at the suggestion of a good religious girl being in such a romantic situation.
Abu Heiba said 4shbab is an antidote to the "lewd" music videos that mainstream channels show.
"We give our kids the shadow of holiness because this is basic in our culture and religion," said Abu Heiba. "But when our kids are exposed to this (un-Islamic) media, it is totally different, they don't feel like they belong to this culture anymore... their passions are divided."
Sixteen-year-old Hagar Hossam said she watches 4shbab "every day and every night." Dressed in a headscarf and a long flowing robe, the high school student giggled with her friends sitting in the middle of the women's section of the competition.
"I like that 4shbab shows a moderate view of Muslim youth," said Hossam. "Islam isn't just about praying and religious rituals. We're allowed to have fun, be happy and be young — we just try to balance it with our religion and with what makes God happy."
Her 22-year-old friend, Shahy Samir, is not so sure, saying she's uncomfortable with many of the videos on 4shbab, particularly those in a hip-hop style, with their rap moves.
"I know that in their culture it's normal to do all that dancing and those movements while singing," said Samir. "But I don't think it's very Islamic and even though the lyrics are good, the movements take away from the weight of the meaning."
Some hard-line clerics say Islam forbids music, allowing only percussion to accompany religious chants. But others don't see a strict prohibition.
"Islam is not against music or singing as long as it doesn't stir desires and it adheres to the values of Islam," said Sheik Youssef el-Badri, an Egyptian cleric who has sought to prosecute in court many Egyptian artists and writers for alleged insults to Islam. "This channel would be a good thing if it tries to attract people to clean, Islamic values."
In the Arab world, there are few "Islamic singers." Thus the contest, through which Abu Heiba hopes to drum up new talent.
"I don't have singers, the field is empty," he said. "So I need a star-making process from the beginning to get my own stars to deliver my own message by my own way."
The contest was called "Soutak Wasel," Arabic for "Your Voice is Heard," though Abu Heiba nicknamed it "Islamic Idol" — perhaps not the most appropriate nickname given Islam's strong prohibition against idolatry.
For the past two months, listeners called in to 4shbab to sing a song on the air, and a panel of experts judged them. The 12 best, from around the Arab world, won the chance to compete in the finals in front of a live audience of about 300 people in an open air theater at Cairo's historic Citadel. During the April 17 show, viewers voted by text message and chose three winners.
Habib Battah, an American journalist who analyses Arab media, is skeptical about the channel's chances for success. Numerous satellite stations have been launched by wealthy businessmen aiming to spread a particular message, but end up failing to find an audience and disappearing, he said.
"I don't want to say there isn't a place for religious music videos in the market," said Battah. "But there isn't a lot of research and it's very hard to stick out in an industry where there is no agreed upon rating system."
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f ... 751D78.DTL
ok i guess we all have a serious problem when it comes to what is haram and what is halal
to put this in a very simple way i would say , Islam is a religion of moderation and does not approve of either extremism or negligence. It does not prevent people from having entertainment; however, it provides the rules that regulate this entertainment.
At the same time, Islam does not tolerate any kind of entertainment that contains haram (unlawful) or even leads to haram behavior.
Dancing can be either between women, between men, or mixed between both sexes. It is allowed for women to dance together unless it involves revealing any of the woman’s `awrah – that is, the parts of the body between the navel and the knee – in front of other women. It is also allowed unless the dancing means that mandatory obligations will not be carried out or if it coincides with unlawful acts.
53:59 (Picktall) Marvel ye then at this statement,
53:60 (Picktall) And laugh and not weep,
53:61 (Picktall) While ye amuse yourselves?
to put this in a very simple way i would say , Islam is a religion of moderation and does not approve of either extremism or negligence. It does not prevent people from having entertainment; however, it provides the rules that regulate this entertainment.
At the same time, Islam does not tolerate any kind of entertainment that contains haram (unlawful) or even leads to haram behavior.
Dancing can be either between women, between men, or mixed between both sexes. It is allowed for women to dance together unless it involves revealing any of the woman’s `awrah – that is, the parts of the body between the navel and the knee – in front of other women. It is also allowed unless the dancing means that mandatory obligations will not be carried out or if it coincides with unlawful acts.
53:59 (Picktall) Marvel ye then at this statement,
53:60 (Picktall) And laugh and not weep,
53:61 (Picktall) While ye amuse yourselves?
I think it would be better to say that dancing is permitted unless it means A PERSON'S `awrah will be revealed. Not the `awrah of women, the `awrah of anybody.hungama25 wrote:Dancing can be either between women, between men, or mixed between both sexes. It is allowed for women to dance together unless it involves revealing any of the woman’s `awrah – that is, the parts of the body between the navel and the knee – in front of other women. It is also allowed unless the dancing means that mandatory obligations will not be carried out or if it coincides with unlawful acts.
As for `awrah, it's sometimes translated as "navel and knee" by Qur'an translators but perhaps more accurately means the area that is personal: the inner thigh and genitals and above it. "Navel and knee" is, I think, a clever archaism; remember that no matter how good the translator, most of them deferred to particularlist traditions of Sunni jurisprudential interpretation, even the Dawudi Ismaili one.
There is a related video and more linked at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/15/magaz ... .html?_r=1
August 12, 2010
Islam’s Answer to MTV
By NEGAR AZIMI
The Egyptian entrepreneur Ahmed Abu Haiba isn’t having a good day. A Saudi columnist has accused him of corrupting the country’s youth. A music video he has been working on for months is behind schedule. He hasn’t had time to prepare for his weekly talk show, an Islamo-Egyptian version of “Dr. Phil.” Worse, one of the program’s financiers has become upset because there was to be a woman on the show — unchaste behavior, to some. We’re driving along Sheik Zayed Road in the desert outside Cairo on a bright day as the radio plays Sami Yusuf, a saccharine-sweet Muslim pop star based in London. Abu Haiba theatrically throws his arms in the air to perform his frustration. At the age of 42 he is tubby and, as a sign of his deep faith, has a large zabiba — a dark smudge on his forehead born of rubbing his head repeatedly on a prayer mat. And yet he is not a conventional man and certainly not a conventional Muslim. Today he looks more like a hip-hop mogul, with a black knit golf cap on backward and a suit of all black. And a pink tie.
As the brains behind 4Shbab, the world’s first Islamic version of MTV, Abu Haiba is the consummate man in the middle — situated between the dictates of Islam and those of the pop-music business. Introduced in the spring of last year, 4Shbab, which means “for youth” in Arabic, broadcasts music videos, variety shows (including Abu Haiba’s own), news and even a reality program called “Your Voice Is Heard” — which might as well be called “Who Wants to be an Islamic Pop Star?” Imagine MTV without the gratuitous gyration and skin, and with videos about family, public service, Palestine and, above all, salvation. In trying to make Islam relevant to youth, 4Shbab is part of a recent trend that, from Cairo to Kuala Lumpur, has inspired restaurants with Islamic themes, Islamic entertainment centers and even Islamic water parks and beaches. 4Shbab’s mission seems to be communicating that there is a middle ground between the rigid Islam of stern-faced elders and jihadists on one hand and the louche ways of the West on the other. On 4Shbab, you can be traditional and modern at once, Islamic and hip, pious and fun. The channel’s music videos speak to real life, from the difficulties of finding work to the pain of depression to the burn of spurned love. And in all of 4Shbab’s promotional spots a tremendous smokey voice booms: “Lissssssten . . . to the tune of Islam.”
More at the above mentioned link....
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/15/magaz ... .html?_r=1
August 12, 2010
Islam’s Answer to MTV
By NEGAR AZIMI
The Egyptian entrepreneur Ahmed Abu Haiba isn’t having a good day. A Saudi columnist has accused him of corrupting the country’s youth. A music video he has been working on for months is behind schedule. He hasn’t had time to prepare for his weekly talk show, an Islamo-Egyptian version of “Dr. Phil.” Worse, one of the program’s financiers has become upset because there was to be a woman on the show — unchaste behavior, to some. We’re driving along Sheik Zayed Road in the desert outside Cairo on a bright day as the radio plays Sami Yusuf, a saccharine-sweet Muslim pop star based in London. Abu Haiba theatrically throws his arms in the air to perform his frustration. At the age of 42 he is tubby and, as a sign of his deep faith, has a large zabiba — a dark smudge on his forehead born of rubbing his head repeatedly on a prayer mat. And yet he is not a conventional man and certainly not a conventional Muslim. Today he looks more like a hip-hop mogul, with a black knit golf cap on backward and a suit of all black. And a pink tie.
As the brains behind 4Shbab, the world’s first Islamic version of MTV, Abu Haiba is the consummate man in the middle — situated between the dictates of Islam and those of the pop-music business. Introduced in the spring of last year, 4Shbab, which means “for youth” in Arabic, broadcasts music videos, variety shows (including Abu Haiba’s own), news and even a reality program called “Your Voice Is Heard” — which might as well be called “Who Wants to be an Islamic Pop Star?” Imagine MTV without the gratuitous gyration and skin, and with videos about family, public service, Palestine and, above all, salvation. In trying to make Islam relevant to youth, 4Shbab is part of a recent trend that, from Cairo to Kuala Lumpur, has inspired restaurants with Islamic themes, Islamic entertainment centers and even Islamic water parks and beaches. 4Shbab’s mission seems to be communicating that there is a middle ground between the rigid Islam of stern-faced elders and jihadists on one hand and the louche ways of the West on the other. On 4Shbab, you can be traditional and modern at once, Islamic and hip, pious and fun. The channel’s music videos speak to real life, from the difficulties of finding work to the pain of depression to the burn of spurned love. And in all of 4Shbab’s promotional spots a tremendous smokey voice booms: “Lissssssten . . . to the tune of Islam.”
More at the above mentioned link....
Hassan: Muslims have nothing to fear from music class
By Farzana Hassan, Calgary HeraldFebruary 18, 2011curriebarracks
http://www.calgaryherald.com/story_prin ... iebarracks
NEW YORK - MARCH 27: SVP Specialist Head of Musical Instruments, Kerry K. Keane displays the rarest and most coveted 1930 OM-45 Deluxe Guitar by C.F. Martin and Co. owned and played by Roy Rogers at Christie's on March 27, 2009 in New York City. (Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)
Photograph by: Neilson Barnard, Getty Images
Only the most retrogressive forces among Muslims shun music. Still, Manitoba is scrambling to find a solution to yet another faith accommodation sought by reactionary Islamists. They wish to deprive their children of some of their most beneficial educational opportunities by barring them from attending music class.
Years ago, I met a young boy who refused to go to music class because he considered the activity haram, or prohibited. That was an isolated incident. Now, we are witnessing a brigade of no fewer than 12 Muslim families seeking exemption for their children from compulsory music and physical education classes. Not only do they practise an ultraconservative brand of Islam; they also wish to indoctrinate the next generation of Muslims into rejecting all that is vibrant and wholesome about Canadian culture.
As a Muslim who has taught music to Canadian children, I am naturally curious to examine the accuracy of these ultraconservative opinions on music from a strictly Islamic perspective. What exactly do the Qur'an and Hadith say about music?
Not surprisingly, the Qur'an is silent on the issue. Therefore, individuals prohibiting music rely mostly on Hadith, a body of literature that suffers from countless internal contradictions. Some Hadith appear to proscribe music, while others clearly allow its use. The question then is: Should Muslims rely on literature that is replete with inconsistencies, anomalies and ambiguities?
Even Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, the well-known Egyptian Islamist, considers music permissible when he states, "Islam permits singing under the condition that it is not in any way harmful to Islamic morals. There is no harm in its being accompanied by music which is not exciting."
Those who wish to establish a general prohibition against music, on the other hand, consider Qaradawi's opinions lacking in "meticulous critical research." The consensus among moderate Muslims, however, is that Islam proscribes music only in instances where there is a chance of exploitation. This explains why the Prophet of Islam cautioned against the misuse of music. Women and young girls in the Arabia of his time were often sold into prostitution and then made to sing and dance provocatively in public. Is that a scenario to be feared in the elementary schools of Manitoba?
The dozen or so newly arrived Muslim families fear the influence of music on their elementary schoolchildren, and seem unaware of the benefits of teaching music to young children. What damage could music education possibly have on the psyche of young children?
Why then must Canada accommodate these obscurantist and reactionary forces among Muslims? Are we becoming a society that constantly capitulates to the bullying tactics of religious fundamentalists in the name of multiculturalism? Does the inclusiveness of multiculturalism mean that we should tolerate the most intolerant?
These families have contacted the Manitoba school division and have even involved the Manitoba Human Rights Commission to accommodate their wishes.
But before Manitoba scurries to grant these families their wish, it must consider the repercussions of such a move. Regrettably, such accommodations set precedents that are often used to demand faith accommodations that are even more outrageous. In this case specifically, the trend is likely to spread in society, depriving other Muslim children of the benefits of learning music.
Canadian society and Canadian schools must now set limits to multiculturalism. Realistic faith accommodations should be provided, but the move to bar children from learning music is unrealistic and illogical.
There is much that Canada has to offer to immigrants and their children. Music is one small but valuable aspect of that. Let Muslim children benefit from an opportunity to tap their creativity and musical imagination.
Farzana Hassan is the author of Islam, Women and the Challenges of Today, and former president of the Muslim Canadian Congress.
© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald
By Farzana Hassan, Calgary HeraldFebruary 18, 2011curriebarracks
http://www.calgaryherald.com/story_prin ... iebarracks
NEW YORK - MARCH 27: SVP Specialist Head of Musical Instruments, Kerry K. Keane displays the rarest and most coveted 1930 OM-45 Deluxe Guitar by C.F. Martin and Co. owned and played by Roy Rogers at Christie's on March 27, 2009 in New York City. (Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)
Photograph by: Neilson Barnard, Getty Images
Only the most retrogressive forces among Muslims shun music. Still, Manitoba is scrambling to find a solution to yet another faith accommodation sought by reactionary Islamists. They wish to deprive their children of some of their most beneficial educational opportunities by barring them from attending music class.
Years ago, I met a young boy who refused to go to music class because he considered the activity haram, or prohibited. That was an isolated incident. Now, we are witnessing a brigade of no fewer than 12 Muslim families seeking exemption for their children from compulsory music and physical education classes. Not only do they practise an ultraconservative brand of Islam; they also wish to indoctrinate the next generation of Muslims into rejecting all that is vibrant and wholesome about Canadian culture.
As a Muslim who has taught music to Canadian children, I am naturally curious to examine the accuracy of these ultraconservative opinions on music from a strictly Islamic perspective. What exactly do the Qur'an and Hadith say about music?
Not surprisingly, the Qur'an is silent on the issue. Therefore, individuals prohibiting music rely mostly on Hadith, a body of literature that suffers from countless internal contradictions. Some Hadith appear to proscribe music, while others clearly allow its use. The question then is: Should Muslims rely on literature that is replete with inconsistencies, anomalies and ambiguities?
Even Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, the well-known Egyptian Islamist, considers music permissible when he states, "Islam permits singing under the condition that it is not in any way harmful to Islamic morals. There is no harm in its being accompanied by music which is not exciting."
Those who wish to establish a general prohibition against music, on the other hand, consider Qaradawi's opinions lacking in "meticulous critical research." The consensus among moderate Muslims, however, is that Islam proscribes music only in instances where there is a chance of exploitation. This explains why the Prophet of Islam cautioned against the misuse of music. Women and young girls in the Arabia of his time were often sold into prostitution and then made to sing and dance provocatively in public. Is that a scenario to be feared in the elementary schools of Manitoba?
The dozen or so newly arrived Muslim families fear the influence of music on their elementary schoolchildren, and seem unaware of the benefits of teaching music to young children. What damage could music education possibly have on the psyche of young children?
Why then must Canada accommodate these obscurantist and reactionary forces among Muslims? Are we becoming a society that constantly capitulates to the bullying tactics of religious fundamentalists in the name of multiculturalism? Does the inclusiveness of multiculturalism mean that we should tolerate the most intolerant?
These families have contacted the Manitoba school division and have even involved the Manitoba Human Rights Commission to accommodate their wishes.
But before Manitoba scurries to grant these families their wish, it must consider the repercussions of such a move. Regrettably, such accommodations set precedents that are often used to demand faith accommodations that are even more outrageous. In this case specifically, the trend is likely to spread in society, depriving other Muslim children of the benefits of learning music.
Canadian society and Canadian schools must now set limits to multiculturalism. Realistic faith accommodations should be provided, but the move to bar children from learning music is unrealistic and illogical.
There is much that Canada has to offer to immigrants and their children. Music is one small but valuable aspect of that. Let Muslim children benefit from an opportunity to tap their creativity and musical imagination.
Farzana Hassan is the author of Islam, Women and the Challenges of Today, and former president of the Muslim Canadian Congress.
© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald
Flamenco complements Qawalli
What happens when a South Asian Islamic Sufi musical tradition meets a Spanish Flamenco guitarist and renowned Flamenco singer?
Sit through the whole 13 minutes. You need this musical experience once in awhile.
"Music has no religious, lingual or geographical barriers." This video is a proof of this statement.
(Anis Baluch)
http://www.kabobfest.com/2011/04/qawwal ... menco.html
What happens when a South Asian Islamic Sufi musical tradition meets a Spanish Flamenco guitarist and renowned Flamenco singer?
Sit through the whole 13 minutes. You need this musical experience once in awhile.
"Music has no religious, lingual or geographical barriers." This video is a proof of this statement.
(Anis Baluch)
http://www.kabobfest.com/2011/04/qawwal ... menco.html
East or West Music has no boundary.
What a combination! with Qawwali and Spanish song, good rhythm, good mixing.
East or West music has no boundaries.
East or West music has no boundaries.
WHAT IS ISLAM'S ATTITUDE TOWARDS MUSIC?
Circular #1 of The Religious Study Group of Rangoon. (5th May, 1960)
Members: Chairman: 1. Rai U Chit Shwe (a) Rai Aziz Habib Mulji.
2. Secretary: Ko Sein Lin (a) Hoosein Karamali Khanmohamed.
3.Member: Rai U Ba Tin (a) Rai Rahematali J.Karimi.
4.Member: Hony.Alwaez Alijah U Tin Hla (a) Alijah Gulamali Nanji.
The following are the notes prepared by Ko Sein Lin (a)Hoosein Khanmohamed and read at the First Meeting of The Religious Study Group of Rangoon.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1) a) "The beautiful voice is indirectly praised in the Holy Quran as follows: "Verily the least pleasing of voices is the voice of donkeys." (31:18).
b) "Abu Musa Ashari, a companion of the Holy Prophet, was gifted with
melodious voice. His recitation of the Quran was sweet and musical and so the the Prophet said that: "the harp of David had been renewed in his voice.
c)"According to a tradition, the Prophet is reported to have said: "Ornament your recitation of the Quran with your good voice. For everything there is an ornament and the ornament ofthe Quran is melodious voice."
d) "Cultivation of music as a subject of study, began during the end of the Ommayyad rule and was fully developed under the Abbasids, though singing and playing of musical instruments for purposes of enjoyment were prevalent as early as the time of the Prophet. Later on the theologians perceived that it was being misused and society was degenerating into lust and passion. Hence they took serious steps to combat the evil. Most of them declared "ghina" (music) as "malahi" or pleasure forbidden by Islam.
But opinion amongst them was not unanimous, e.g.
i) IMAM MALIK BIN ANAS considered it to be Lawful;
ii) AL GHAZZALI approved its practice subject to certain conditions;
iii) IMAM ABU HANIFA, although he considered 'ghina' as a vice,
maintained that a Muslim who destroys the musical
instruments of other Muslims does an unlawful act and
should be made responsible for the loss.
iv) THE MAJORITY OF SUFI SAGES not only approved the playing on musical instruments but also permitted singing and dancing as necessary in addressing the Divine Being in terms of love and to reflect on sublime beauty.
2) AMONG THE EARLIEST MUSLIM PROFESSIONAL MUSICIANS WERE:
i) TAVAIS. (d.805 A.D.)
ii) SAID KATHIR. (d.683 A.D.)
iii) IBN-MISJAH, who studied the Byzantine and Iranian systems of music
and blended them with the Arabic.
iv) MUSLIM, son of Mahrij, a pupil of Ibn-Misjah and
v) IBN SURAIJ, were great musicians at MECCA.
vi) MABAB and vii) MALIK, were at MEDINA.
viii) ATA ALI RABAH (d. 734 A>D.) introduced the style of "tashriq' in which
two women entertained the people with love-songs and odes
DURING THE PILGRIMAGE SEASON.
ix) YUNUS KATEEwas especially invited to Damascus(742 A.D.) by
Khaif Walid II (himself a good player of the lute) and he collected Arab songs and wrote a book on music, including the "Kitabul-kiyan"(The Book on Melodies).
x) ISHAQ (769-850 A.D) and xi) MOUSALI were two great musicians of Harun al Rashid. Music reached its highest excellence during the reigns of Harun and Mamun.
3) SOME OF THE FAMOUS MUSLIM AUTHORS AND PHILOSOPHERS WHO WROTE ON MUSIC WERE:
i) AL-KINDI, who wrote (7) books on composition and laws of tones, elements of music, rhythm, musical instruments and union of poetry and msic;
ii) AL-FARABI, the first great Muslim philosopher was a musician and his criticism on Greek music shows the extent of Muslim advance in the subject. His works are among the best and even today may be studied with advantage. He has written on the principles of sound and the variety of musical instruments in use at the time, and his book "KITABUL MUSIQI' is considered very important contribution to the study of music.
iii) IBN SINA, the next great Muslim philosopher has dealt on music in his (2) celebrated works entitled, "SHIFA" and "NIJAT" and his treatise on the theory of the subject is as important as that of Al-Farabi;
iv) THE RASAIL IKHEAN-US-SAFA contains separate section on music.
v) AL-GHAZZALI has explained how music can be made to source for the attainment of spiritualty and ecstasy in his celebrated work,
""IHYA UL ULUM' He has also given description of LAWFUL AND UNLAWFUL music.
vi) ABUL-FARAJ ISPHANI'S in (21) parts in which he has illustrated (100) selected tunes and has traced their origins, nature, and scope, is considered the most important work in Arabic on music.
vii) PHILOSOPHERS IBN-BAJA (AVAMPACE d.1138A.D) and
viii) IBN-UR-RUSHD (AVERROES (d.1198 A.D) and
ix) IBN SABIRI (d.1269 A>D.) and
x) YAHYA-AL-KUDUJ were the most noted Muslim authors in SPAIN.
xi) IBN-ABD RABBIM (d.940 A.D.) wrote a biography of noted musicians in which he defended the lawfulness and healthy effects of music.
xii) NASIRUDDIN TUSI, the famous astronomer and mathemaatician also wrote about music.
xiii) SHAMSUDDIN MURAMMAD, son of Al-Maran Qutubdin Shiraz (d.1310 A.D.) the author of"DURRATUL-TEJ" also discussed music.
4) KHALIFA ABDUR-RAHMAN OF SPAIN opened a school of music at CORDOBA, which was known for producing famous musicians.
5) THERE WERE SCHOOLS OF MUSIC IN:
i) BAGHDAD,
ii) CAIRO,
iii) DAMASCUS,
iv) SEVILLE,
v) GRANADA,
vi) TOLEDO, AND also in other cities of
vii) IRAN,
viii) CENTRAL ASIA AND SPAIN.
The musicians were respected, well paid and held in high esteem. Considering all the above facts we may conclude that Islam does not forbid the study and cultivation of music as an art: on the contrary it has patronized and developed pre-Islamic Arabic music to a high degree of excelolence, assimilating Persian and to some extent Byzantine music and Greek music and in doing so has contributed considerable literature and musical instruments to the world of music.
What Islam attempted to prevent was the licentious indulgence and demoralizing misuse of this fine art.
(Ref: "The Outlines of Islamic Culture" by Prof. A.M.Shustery.
" Muqaddama" by Ibn Khaldun, Eng.Tr.)Rangoon Burma May 5th, 1960.
[Word processed on 12-5-87 at Santa Monica, California, USA. Re-edited
02-29-2004 by Hoosein Khanmohamed, [email protected]]
Circular #1 of The Religious Study Group of Rangoon. (5th May, 1960)
Members: Chairman: 1. Rai U Chit Shwe (a) Rai Aziz Habib Mulji.
2. Secretary: Ko Sein Lin (a) Hoosein Karamali Khanmohamed.
3.Member: Rai U Ba Tin (a) Rai Rahematali J.Karimi.
4.Member: Hony.Alwaez Alijah U Tin Hla (a) Alijah Gulamali Nanji.
The following are the notes prepared by Ko Sein Lin (a)Hoosein Khanmohamed and read at the First Meeting of The Religious Study Group of Rangoon.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1) a) "The beautiful voice is indirectly praised in the Holy Quran as follows: "Verily the least pleasing of voices is the voice of donkeys." (31:18).
b) "Abu Musa Ashari, a companion of the Holy Prophet, was gifted with
melodious voice. His recitation of the Quran was sweet and musical and so the the Prophet said that: "the harp of David had been renewed in his voice.
c)"According to a tradition, the Prophet is reported to have said: "Ornament your recitation of the Quran with your good voice. For everything there is an ornament and the ornament ofthe Quran is melodious voice."
d) "Cultivation of music as a subject of study, began during the end of the Ommayyad rule and was fully developed under the Abbasids, though singing and playing of musical instruments for purposes of enjoyment were prevalent as early as the time of the Prophet. Later on the theologians perceived that it was being misused and society was degenerating into lust and passion. Hence they took serious steps to combat the evil. Most of them declared "ghina" (music) as "malahi" or pleasure forbidden by Islam.
But opinion amongst them was not unanimous, e.g.
i) IMAM MALIK BIN ANAS considered it to be Lawful;
ii) AL GHAZZALI approved its practice subject to certain conditions;
iii) IMAM ABU HANIFA, although he considered 'ghina' as a vice,
maintained that a Muslim who destroys the musical
instruments of other Muslims does an unlawful act and
should be made responsible for the loss.
iv) THE MAJORITY OF SUFI SAGES not only approved the playing on musical instruments but also permitted singing and dancing as necessary in addressing the Divine Being in terms of love and to reflect on sublime beauty.
2) AMONG THE EARLIEST MUSLIM PROFESSIONAL MUSICIANS WERE:
i) TAVAIS. (d.805 A.D.)
ii) SAID KATHIR. (d.683 A.D.)
iii) IBN-MISJAH, who studied the Byzantine and Iranian systems of music
and blended them with the Arabic.
iv) MUSLIM, son of Mahrij, a pupil of Ibn-Misjah and
v) IBN SURAIJ, were great musicians at MECCA.
vi) MABAB and vii) MALIK, were at MEDINA.
viii) ATA ALI RABAH (d. 734 A>D.) introduced the style of "tashriq' in which
two women entertained the people with love-songs and odes
DURING THE PILGRIMAGE SEASON.
ix) YUNUS KATEEwas especially invited to Damascus(742 A.D.) by
Khaif Walid II (himself a good player of the lute) and he collected Arab songs and wrote a book on music, including the "Kitabul-kiyan"(The Book on Melodies).
x) ISHAQ (769-850 A.D) and xi) MOUSALI were two great musicians of Harun al Rashid. Music reached its highest excellence during the reigns of Harun and Mamun.
3) SOME OF THE FAMOUS MUSLIM AUTHORS AND PHILOSOPHERS WHO WROTE ON MUSIC WERE:
i) AL-KINDI, who wrote (7) books on composition and laws of tones, elements of music, rhythm, musical instruments and union of poetry and msic;
ii) AL-FARABI, the first great Muslim philosopher was a musician and his criticism on Greek music shows the extent of Muslim advance in the subject. His works are among the best and even today may be studied with advantage. He has written on the principles of sound and the variety of musical instruments in use at the time, and his book "KITABUL MUSIQI' is considered very important contribution to the study of music.
iii) IBN SINA, the next great Muslim philosopher has dealt on music in his (2) celebrated works entitled, "SHIFA" and "NIJAT" and his treatise on the theory of the subject is as important as that of Al-Farabi;
iv) THE RASAIL IKHEAN-US-SAFA contains separate section on music.
v) AL-GHAZZALI has explained how music can be made to source for the attainment of spiritualty and ecstasy in his celebrated work,
""IHYA UL ULUM' He has also given description of LAWFUL AND UNLAWFUL music.
vi) ABUL-FARAJ ISPHANI'S in (21) parts in which he has illustrated (100) selected tunes and has traced their origins, nature, and scope, is considered the most important work in Arabic on music.
vii) PHILOSOPHERS IBN-BAJA (AVAMPACE d.1138A.D) and
viii) IBN-UR-RUSHD (AVERROES (d.1198 A.D) and
ix) IBN SABIRI (d.1269 A>D.) and
x) YAHYA-AL-KUDUJ were the most noted Muslim authors in SPAIN.
xi) IBN-ABD RABBIM (d.940 A.D.) wrote a biography of noted musicians in which he defended the lawfulness and healthy effects of music.
xii) NASIRUDDIN TUSI, the famous astronomer and mathemaatician also wrote about music.
xiii) SHAMSUDDIN MURAMMAD, son of Al-Maran Qutubdin Shiraz (d.1310 A.D.) the author of"DURRATUL-TEJ" also discussed music.
4) KHALIFA ABDUR-RAHMAN OF SPAIN opened a school of music at CORDOBA, which was known for producing famous musicians.
5) THERE WERE SCHOOLS OF MUSIC IN:
i) BAGHDAD,
ii) CAIRO,
iii) DAMASCUS,
iv) SEVILLE,
v) GRANADA,
vi) TOLEDO, AND also in other cities of
vii) IRAN,
viii) CENTRAL ASIA AND SPAIN.
The musicians were respected, well paid and held in high esteem. Considering all the above facts we may conclude that Islam does not forbid the study and cultivation of music as an art: on the contrary it has patronized and developed pre-Islamic Arabic music to a high degree of excelolence, assimilating Persian and to some extent Byzantine music and Greek music and in doing so has contributed considerable literature and musical instruments to the world of music.
What Islam attempted to prevent was the licentious indulgence and demoralizing misuse of this fine art.
(Ref: "The Outlines of Islamic Culture" by Prof. A.M.Shustery.
" Muqaddama" by Ibn Khaldun, Eng.Tr.)Rangoon Burma May 5th, 1960.
[Word processed on 12-5-87 at Santa Monica, California, USA. Re-edited
02-29-2004 by Hoosein Khanmohamed, [email protected]]
Jazz album by Pakistan music veterans tops western charts
Philanthropist Izzat Majeed's Sachal Orchestra pulls off unlikely musical coup
Declan Walsh in Lahore
guardian.co.uk, Friday 5 August 2011 14.15 BST
Article history
The Sachal Studios Orchestra plays Take Five Link to this video
The rich strains of eastern music have for centuries wafted across the rooftops of old Lahore. Now you might hear something new: jazzy riffs and a bossa nova beat.
An ensemble of veteran Pakistani musicians has pulled off an unlikely coup – topping western charts with an innovative jazz album and prompting comparisons with Buena Vista Social Club's rediscovery of a lost generation of Cuban musicians.
The Sachal Studios Orchestra has captured imaginations with a cover of Dave Brubeck's Take Five blending sweeping classical violins with sitars, tablas and other eastern instruments.
The piece has brought praise from jazz greats – Brubeck, 90, says it is "the most interesting" version of Take Five he's ever heard – and propelled the orchestra's album to the top of the iTunes jazz charts in the US and UK. The album, which includes versions of The Girl from Ipanema, Misty and Desafinado, reached the top 10 in both countries.
"I'm so excited," said Riaz Hussain, the 55-year-old violinist who arranged the music. "I don't have words to express how I feel."
Recording at premises on the edge of Lahore's walled city, the 60-strong orchestra mixes local legends with musicians recently enticed out of retirement, some from lives of poverty. Few knew much about jazz before.
The project is the brainchild of Izzat Majeed, a millionaire philanthropist based in London. Eight years ago Majeed built a state-of-the-art studio for the orchestra: engineers from Abbey Road Studios provided technical advice, while western session musicians were hired to play instruments unavailable in Pakistan.
Although it cost more than $2m (£1.2m), his motive is music, not money. "To be honest, I never really enjoyed business," said the 60-year-old, who made his money in oil, gas and finance (he was involved in the $500m-plus sale of a Pakistani bank in 2006). "But I truly love this." His creation draws on multiple influences, from Lahore to Rio to New Orleans. And the buzz is building. The song's video has attracted a flood of internet hits, an Oscar-nominated Hollywood producer wants to make a documentary, and concerts are planned for the UK and US this winter.
Majeed's wider goal is to rub fresh magic from an old lantern. Pakistan's classical music scene was decimated in the 1980s, he said, when the dictator General Zia-ul-Haq crushed the local film industry, known as Lollywood. Several hundred musicians, employed to record film scores, lost their jobs. As the son of a hobbyist film producer, Majeed felt the loss personally. "Demand just collapsed after Zia," he said. "That guy dug the grave of Pakistan."
The cull forced many musicians into less lyrical trades, where they remained in obscurity for decades. Majeed found his cello player running a tea stall; others were selling clothes or electrical parts. Mubarak Ali, a shy 48-year-old violinist, was selling vegetables from his bicycle, earning barely £2 a day.
Now Ali's life has been transformed. At his home – a cramped two-room dwelling he shares with his wife, daughter and ailing 103-year-old mother – he lovingly lifted his cloth-wrapped violin from a case on the shelf. Then he pointed to a new fridge, DVD player and wooden bed. "Sachal paid for this, this and that," he said. "God bless Sachal. And God bless Majeed sahib."
Although named after a Sufi poet, it hasn't always been harmonious at Sachal studios. In the beginning, rival musicians competed ferociously against one another, Majeed recalled. "They wouldn't let each other play," he said. And it remains little known, even inside Pakistan. Pursuing music rather than promotion, Majeed had done little to push the jazz album until a BBC interview propelled it into the charts 10 days ago. "We haven't been very good at marketing," he admitted.
The confidence boost is urgently needed. Although Brubeck, Duke Ellington and other jazz legends performed in Pakistan in the 1950s, the turbulence of the past decade has isolated local musicians. Foreign travel is difficult and at home extremist violence has made concerts rare. So is growing conservatism – some Sachal musicians said they dared not practise at home, fearing they could offend pious neighbours.
Now success has brought fresh hope. "This is the first drop of rain," said flautist Baqar Abbas. "It shows that Pakistan is not just a place of bomb and suicide attacks." Ijaz "Balu" Khan, the orchestra's tabla player, said his dream was "to play solo with the orchestra in the Royal Albert Hall".
Such high hopes, and the Buena Vista comparisons, may be difficult to live up to; Majeed worries his musicians will not even get visas to leave Pakistan. But a second album is already in the works. "I speak music, I hear music. And now I want to live music," said irrepressible flautist Abbas.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/au ... harts-jazz
Philanthropist Izzat Majeed's Sachal Orchestra pulls off unlikely musical coup
Declan Walsh in Lahore
guardian.co.uk, Friday 5 August 2011 14.15 BST
Article history
The Sachal Studios Orchestra plays Take Five Link to this video
The rich strains of eastern music have for centuries wafted across the rooftops of old Lahore. Now you might hear something new: jazzy riffs and a bossa nova beat.
An ensemble of veteran Pakistani musicians has pulled off an unlikely coup – topping western charts with an innovative jazz album and prompting comparisons with Buena Vista Social Club's rediscovery of a lost generation of Cuban musicians.
The Sachal Studios Orchestra has captured imaginations with a cover of Dave Brubeck's Take Five blending sweeping classical violins with sitars, tablas and other eastern instruments.
The piece has brought praise from jazz greats – Brubeck, 90, says it is "the most interesting" version of Take Five he's ever heard – and propelled the orchestra's album to the top of the iTunes jazz charts in the US and UK. The album, which includes versions of The Girl from Ipanema, Misty and Desafinado, reached the top 10 in both countries.
"I'm so excited," said Riaz Hussain, the 55-year-old violinist who arranged the music. "I don't have words to express how I feel."
Recording at premises on the edge of Lahore's walled city, the 60-strong orchestra mixes local legends with musicians recently enticed out of retirement, some from lives of poverty. Few knew much about jazz before.
The project is the brainchild of Izzat Majeed, a millionaire philanthropist based in London. Eight years ago Majeed built a state-of-the-art studio for the orchestra: engineers from Abbey Road Studios provided technical advice, while western session musicians were hired to play instruments unavailable in Pakistan.
Although it cost more than $2m (£1.2m), his motive is music, not money. "To be honest, I never really enjoyed business," said the 60-year-old, who made his money in oil, gas and finance (he was involved in the $500m-plus sale of a Pakistani bank in 2006). "But I truly love this." His creation draws on multiple influences, from Lahore to Rio to New Orleans. And the buzz is building. The song's video has attracted a flood of internet hits, an Oscar-nominated Hollywood producer wants to make a documentary, and concerts are planned for the UK and US this winter.
Majeed's wider goal is to rub fresh magic from an old lantern. Pakistan's classical music scene was decimated in the 1980s, he said, when the dictator General Zia-ul-Haq crushed the local film industry, known as Lollywood. Several hundred musicians, employed to record film scores, lost their jobs. As the son of a hobbyist film producer, Majeed felt the loss personally. "Demand just collapsed after Zia," he said. "That guy dug the grave of Pakistan."
The cull forced many musicians into less lyrical trades, where they remained in obscurity for decades. Majeed found his cello player running a tea stall; others were selling clothes or electrical parts. Mubarak Ali, a shy 48-year-old violinist, was selling vegetables from his bicycle, earning barely £2 a day.
Now Ali's life has been transformed. At his home – a cramped two-room dwelling he shares with his wife, daughter and ailing 103-year-old mother – he lovingly lifted his cloth-wrapped violin from a case on the shelf. Then he pointed to a new fridge, DVD player and wooden bed. "Sachal paid for this, this and that," he said. "God bless Sachal. And God bless Majeed sahib."
Although named after a Sufi poet, it hasn't always been harmonious at Sachal studios. In the beginning, rival musicians competed ferociously against one another, Majeed recalled. "They wouldn't let each other play," he said. And it remains little known, even inside Pakistan. Pursuing music rather than promotion, Majeed had done little to push the jazz album until a BBC interview propelled it into the charts 10 days ago. "We haven't been very good at marketing," he admitted.
The confidence boost is urgently needed. Although Brubeck, Duke Ellington and other jazz legends performed in Pakistan in the 1950s, the turbulence of the past decade has isolated local musicians. Foreign travel is difficult and at home extremist violence has made concerts rare. So is growing conservatism – some Sachal musicians said they dared not practise at home, fearing they could offend pious neighbours.
Now success has brought fresh hope. "This is the first drop of rain," said flautist Baqar Abbas. "It shows that Pakistan is not just a place of bomb and suicide attacks." Ijaz "Balu" Khan, the orchestra's tabla player, said his dream was "to play solo with the orchestra in the Royal Albert Hall".
Such high hopes, and the Buena Vista comparisons, may be difficult to live up to; Majeed worries his musicians will not even get visas to leave Pakistan. But a second album is already in the works. "I speak music, I hear music. And now I want to live music," said irrepressible flautist Abbas.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/au ... harts-jazz
October 25, 2011
Bridging Cultural Gaps With Music
By SOUAD MEKHENNET
While most media coverage around Islam focuses on wars or terrorism, two female singers, Falguni Shah and Emel Aykanat, are using music to show a fuller picture.
They do not know each other — one lives in the United States, the other in Switzerland — but for years they have each used Oriental instruments and rhythms to speak out against racism and try to overcome prejudices.
“If there is anything that brings together people and not divide them, it is music,” said Mrs. Shah, who goes by the name Falu. “When people of different backgrounds become united by valuing the same ideas, I think it is very easy to fight anything. Radicalism and racism can be fought with a message of peace through beautiful music and inspiring lyrics.”
She was born in India and raised a Hindu, but early in life she encountered Islam through a Muslim, Sultan Khan, who taught her classical Indian music.
Mr. Khan not only influenced her music, he introduced Falu to her husband, an oncologist, who also studied music and is now a member of her band.
Halfway through a recent interview at her New York apartment, the singer stooped to pick up her 11-month-old son Nishaad, planting a kiss on his cheek.
“Bringing a child into this world also increases your responsibility to save the best things on the planet,” she said, saying that had inspired a recent song, “A Prayer for the Planet.”
She and her band mix Hindustani classical — a fusion of Arabic and South Indian music — with pop and Oriental styles. It is East and West, ancient and modern.
Falu said she often collaborated with Arabic musicians, absorbing Islamic culture as she went. Increasingly well known in India and America, she performed at the White House in 2009.
New York’s openness and multiculturalism made the city her chosen home, although she professed shock at certain moments: for example, the protests last year against building an Islamic community center and mosque near the World Trade Center. “I thought this was driven by a lack of knowledge, and by generalizations that can be countered through education,” she said. “I am planning to write a song about it.”
Half a world away in Switzerland, where in November 2009 voters approved a ban on the construction of minarets for mosques, Emel Aykanat spoke — in German with a Swiss accent — of her feeling that the country where she was born was becoming openly anti-Muslim.
“I remember how I was marching, advanced in pregnancy, against the ban,” she said. Her boyfriend, who is also the father of her 22-month-old daughter, Ayleen, was even more active in fighting the minaret ban, she said. He is half-Jewish, half-Christian.
Ms. Aykanat is the daughter of Turkish immigrants and grew up in a mainly immigrant neighborhood in Zurich with workers from Turkey, the former Yugoslavia and Arab countries.
Her mother taught her prayers, and she attended Koran school; her family welcomed friends of all cultural backgrounds. “I was also influenced by Christianity since I grew up with many Christians. For all of us, it is clear there is one god, and it is the same god for all monotheist religions. And all human people have been made by god.”
In the 1990s, she performed with the musicians Xavier Naidoo and Sabrina Setlur and the band Fettes Brot, well-known in German-speaking countries. She hopes to reach the finals to represent Swizerland in a European song contest.
In the late 1990s, she moved to Los Angeles with her then husband, Ashley Ingram, a black musician who played bass in a band, Imagination. She said it was Mr. Ingram who had inspired her to include more Turkish and Arabic culture in her music. Today, she sings mainly in English; her themes are political and social.
In one new song, “She,” Ms. Aykanat explores so-called honor killings, addressing directly the mother, father and brother of the victim. “People who are from the same culture very often keep silent, and I had the feeling that people in the West think we would agree to it,” she said, pausing and looking at her daughter. “It was important to me, as a Turkish woman, to show people how I would talk to the family of the victim.”
Like Mrs. Shah, Ms. Aykanat believes that music is one of the best ways to fight prejudices. “If I write a song as a Muslim woman, which the people like, I think it is much more complicated for people to hate a culture or a group, if they already know someone they like.”
Both singers say it would be important to have more role models and people who can build bridges between cultures. “As a child, I was always looking for female Muslim role models,” Ms. Aykanat said. “People who have made it, even though it was a hard road.”
Mrs. Shah sees a need for cultural ambassadors as the gaps between cultures and religions deepen. “Music is an important tool, but it is also important who is singing, speaking or writing,” she said. “If you got the right people, you can build bridges and translate the fears and problems of the other side.”
Ms. Aykanat remembered a Swiss woman who came to her to complain about her Moroccan neighbors, who were taking the fresh mint from her garden to make tea. “I told her, go and tell them I have cursed the mint — if you eat it, you will have seven years’ bad luck. The woman called me later and said it worked,” she laughed.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/26/world ... &ref=world
Bridging Cultural Gaps With Music
By SOUAD MEKHENNET
While most media coverage around Islam focuses on wars or terrorism, two female singers, Falguni Shah and Emel Aykanat, are using music to show a fuller picture.
They do not know each other — one lives in the United States, the other in Switzerland — but for years they have each used Oriental instruments and rhythms to speak out against racism and try to overcome prejudices.
“If there is anything that brings together people and not divide them, it is music,” said Mrs. Shah, who goes by the name Falu. “When people of different backgrounds become united by valuing the same ideas, I think it is very easy to fight anything. Radicalism and racism can be fought with a message of peace through beautiful music and inspiring lyrics.”
She was born in India and raised a Hindu, but early in life she encountered Islam through a Muslim, Sultan Khan, who taught her classical Indian music.
Mr. Khan not only influenced her music, he introduced Falu to her husband, an oncologist, who also studied music and is now a member of her band.
Halfway through a recent interview at her New York apartment, the singer stooped to pick up her 11-month-old son Nishaad, planting a kiss on his cheek.
“Bringing a child into this world also increases your responsibility to save the best things on the planet,” she said, saying that had inspired a recent song, “A Prayer for the Planet.”
She and her band mix Hindustani classical — a fusion of Arabic and South Indian music — with pop and Oriental styles. It is East and West, ancient and modern.
Falu said she often collaborated with Arabic musicians, absorbing Islamic culture as she went. Increasingly well known in India and America, she performed at the White House in 2009.
New York’s openness and multiculturalism made the city her chosen home, although she professed shock at certain moments: for example, the protests last year against building an Islamic community center and mosque near the World Trade Center. “I thought this was driven by a lack of knowledge, and by generalizations that can be countered through education,” she said. “I am planning to write a song about it.”
Half a world away in Switzerland, where in November 2009 voters approved a ban on the construction of minarets for mosques, Emel Aykanat spoke — in German with a Swiss accent — of her feeling that the country where she was born was becoming openly anti-Muslim.
“I remember how I was marching, advanced in pregnancy, against the ban,” she said. Her boyfriend, who is also the father of her 22-month-old daughter, Ayleen, was even more active in fighting the minaret ban, she said. He is half-Jewish, half-Christian.
Ms. Aykanat is the daughter of Turkish immigrants and grew up in a mainly immigrant neighborhood in Zurich with workers from Turkey, the former Yugoslavia and Arab countries.
Her mother taught her prayers, and she attended Koran school; her family welcomed friends of all cultural backgrounds. “I was also influenced by Christianity since I grew up with many Christians. For all of us, it is clear there is one god, and it is the same god for all monotheist religions. And all human people have been made by god.”
In the 1990s, she performed with the musicians Xavier Naidoo and Sabrina Setlur and the band Fettes Brot, well-known in German-speaking countries. She hopes to reach the finals to represent Swizerland in a European song contest.
In the late 1990s, she moved to Los Angeles with her then husband, Ashley Ingram, a black musician who played bass in a band, Imagination. She said it was Mr. Ingram who had inspired her to include more Turkish and Arabic culture in her music. Today, she sings mainly in English; her themes are political and social.
In one new song, “She,” Ms. Aykanat explores so-called honor killings, addressing directly the mother, father and brother of the victim. “People who are from the same culture very often keep silent, and I had the feeling that people in the West think we would agree to it,” she said, pausing and looking at her daughter. “It was important to me, as a Turkish woman, to show people how I would talk to the family of the victim.”
Like Mrs. Shah, Ms. Aykanat believes that music is one of the best ways to fight prejudices. “If I write a song as a Muslim woman, which the people like, I think it is much more complicated for people to hate a culture or a group, if they already know someone they like.”
Both singers say it would be important to have more role models and people who can build bridges between cultures. “As a child, I was always looking for female Muslim role models,” Ms. Aykanat said. “People who have made it, even though it was a hard road.”
Mrs. Shah sees a need for cultural ambassadors as the gaps between cultures and religions deepen. “Music is an important tool, but it is also important who is singing, speaking or writing,” she said. “If you got the right people, you can build bridges and translate the fears and problems of the other side.”
Ms. Aykanat remembered a Swiss woman who came to her to complain about her Moroccan neighbors, who were taking the fresh mint from her garden to make tea. “I told her, go and tell them I have cursed the mint — if you eat it, you will have seven years’ bad luck. The woman called me later and said it worked,” she laughed.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/26/world ... &ref=world
The Power of Pop Culture
by osfadmin
November 22, 2011
Pop culture and the arts play a key role in shaping national identity, says Hussein Rashid, and Muslim voices should be part of that conversation.
Image credit: martwork/stock.xchng
The following is a guest post from Dr. Hussein Rashid, a member of the Our Shared Future Advisory Board. Dr. Rashid took part in our recent panel discussion, “Across the Atlantic: Islam, the West and the Repercussions of 9/11.”
During our panel discussion last Wednesday, we ended up talking about the question of cultural production and whether it is actually a sign of societal acceptance. I think there is a strong debate that must be had regarding the production and consumption of things like music and television. However, I am more interested in what artistic creation can tell us about how Muslims see themselves in the US or the UK. For me, the key issue is one of crafting a national narrative. That narrative is shaped and reflected through popular culture.
Playwright and political commentator Wajahat Ali draws a distinction between two types of artistic production. The first he calls “for us, by us.” This is art that is created by Muslims for Muslims. Some of it may be didactic or theologically centered, but generally it’s art that is created absent any engagement with a broader cultural context and engagement. The second he dubs “by us, for everyone.” He sees this as a production that may be deeply embedded in and reflective of a Muslim experience, but that also speaks to broader audiences, and intentionally so. It is an art that engages the cultural setting in which it is created, so that we can point to a play like Ali’s “Domestic Crusaders,” and see it as a play about Pakistanis, about Muslims, and about Americans.
These two ways of looking at art are important in understanding how national narratives are constructed. Popular culture becomes an important way of contesting who is “in” and who is “out.” If Muslims are not engaged in crafting popular culture, they are missing an important way of engaging in the national narrative.
As H.A. Hellyer suggests in his policy paper that was the basis of our recent discussion, in certain parts of Europe the question of Muslim belonging is very much about crafting national identities. So, for example, the French hijab ban was not about defining what Muslims could do, but about defining what is means to be “French.” This definition is one of negation, that looks at the actions of others and defines “Frenchness” against those actions, rather than positively arguing what is means to be French. While I am simplifying his argument here, the core idea is that without knowing what a national identity is, how can individuals engage in crafting it?
What emerges, then, is a downward spiral of art being produced for limited consumption that does not engage in crafting a national narrative. The national narrative is further impoverished by forcibly rejecting voices that seek enter the public sphere. The result is increasing alienation amongst all parties.
In many respects, I think the tendency in the US to constantly reinvent the national narrative every generation makes it much easier for cultural engagement to have an impact and to be welcomed. I mentioned, on the panel, Ali’s play, the books “Love, Inshallah,” “I Speak for Myself,” and “The Butterfly Mosque.” In addition, there are projects like “The 99,” and musicians such as Mos Def and Lupe Fiasco, that are actively engaged in crafting our national narrative. In the UK, I have seen projects like Khayaal Theater, Dialogue Productions, and Arakan Creative lead to similar engagement through story-telling.
I also believe that in any democratic society, the oppositional voice is just as important. A debate does not happen when all parties agree. From Britain, I see groups like Fun^Da^Mental playing this role, and in the US, The Kominas do the same. All of these voices must be heard for healthy intra- and inter-community debates on how Muslims belong.
While I think we can argue about how effective these cultural interventions are in increasing the acceptance of Muslims, I do believe they are important to initiating the debates that would otherwise not occur
http://blog.britishcouncil.org/ourshare ... p-culture/
by osfadmin
November 22, 2011
Pop culture and the arts play a key role in shaping national identity, says Hussein Rashid, and Muslim voices should be part of that conversation.
Image credit: martwork/stock.xchng
The following is a guest post from Dr. Hussein Rashid, a member of the Our Shared Future Advisory Board. Dr. Rashid took part in our recent panel discussion, “Across the Atlantic: Islam, the West and the Repercussions of 9/11.”
During our panel discussion last Wednesday, we ended up talking about the question of cultural production and whether it is actually a sign of societal acceptance. I think there is a strong debate that must be had regarding the production and consumption of things like music and television. However, I am more interested in what artistic creation can tell us about how Muslims see themselves in the US or the UK. For me, the key issue is one of crafting a national narrative. That narrative is shaped and reflected through popular culture.
Playwright and political commentator Wajahat Ali draws a distinction between two types of artistic production. The first he calls “for us, by us.” This is art that is created by Muslims for Muslims. Some of it may be didactic or theologically centered, but generally it’s art that is created absent any engagement with a broader cultural context and engagement. The second he dubs “by us, for everyone.” He sees this as a production that may be deeply embedded in and reflective of a Muslim experience, but that also speaks to broader audiences, and intentionally so. It is an art that engages the cultural setting in which it is created, so that we can point to a play like Ali’s “Domestic Crusaders,” and see it as a play about Pakistanis, about Muslims, and about Americans.
These two ways of looking at art are important in understanding how national narratives are constructed. Popular culture becomes an important way of contesting who is “in” and who is “out.” If Muslims are not engaged in crafting popular culture, they are missing an important way of engaging in the national narrative.
As H.A. Hellyer suggests in his policy paper that was the basis of our recent discussion, in certain parts of Europe the question of Muslim belonging is very much about crafting national identities. So, for example, the French hijab ban was not about defining what Muslims could do, but about defining what is means to be “French.” This definition is one of negation, that looks at the actions of others and defines “Frenchness” against those actions, rather than positively arguing what is means to be French. While I am simplifying his argument here, the core idea is that without knowing what a national identity is, how can individuals engage in crafting it?
What emerges, then, is a downward spiral of art being produced for limited consumption that does not engage in crafting a national narrative. The national narrative is further impoverished by forcibly rejecting voices that seek enter the public sphere. The result is increasing alienation amongst all parties.
In many respects, I think the tendency in the US to constantly reinvent the national narrative every generation makes it much easier for cultural engagement to have an impact and to be welcomed. I mentioned, on the panel, Ali’s play, the books “Love, Inshallah,” “I Speak for Myself,” and “The Butterfly Mosque.” In addition, there are projects like “The 99,” and musicians such as Mos Def and Lupe Fiasco, that are actively engaged in crafting our national narrative. In the UK, I have seen projects like Khayaal Theater, Dialogue Productions, and Arakan Creative lead to similar engagement through story-telling.
I also believe that in any democratic society, the oppositional voice is just as important. A debate does not happen when all parties agree. From Britain, I see groups like Fun^Da^Mental playing this role, and in the US, The Kominas do the same. All of these voices must be heard for healthy intra- and inter-community debates on how Muslims belong.
While I think we can argue about how effective these cultural interventions are in increasing the acceptance of Muslims, I do believe they are important to initiating the debates that would otherwise not occur
http://blog.britishcouncil.org/ourshare ... p-culture/
The Sacred Music of Islam: Sama‘ in the Persian Sufi tradition
Dr Leonard Lewisohn
This is an edited version of an article that originally appeared in the British Journal of Enthomusicology, Vol. 6, British Forum for Ethnomusicology, 1997, pp 1-33.
Abstract
The creation of a specific liturgy, composed of prayer, litanies, singing, music and sometimes dance, known as Sama‘, integrating music into the practice of meditation, is an important aspect of the contemplative life in Muslim Sufism. The essay explores the basic theological and mystical concepts of Sama‘. Part 1 discusses audition in Islamic theology, where three schools of scholars existed: advocates, adversaries and moderates. The views of the advocates − the Sufis − are discussed, and in particular, key works on Sama‘ by the Persians Ahmad b. Muhammad al-Tusi and Abu Hamid al-Ghazali. Part 2 explores the idea of the Sacred and analyses Tusi and Ghazali's understanding of the three conditions (“right time, place and company”) of Sama‘. Part 3 examines the relation of music to poetry in Muslim mysticism. Part 4 explores the relation of Qur’anic cantillation to singing, poetry and Sama‘. Part 5 discusses the contemplative fruits of audition, the relationship of ecstasy (wajd) to trance experiences, and the attitude of the Qur’an and Prophet Muhammad to dance, often considered an integral part of Sama‘.
http://www.iis.ac.uk/view_article.asp?ContentID=113592
Dr Leonard Lewisohn
This is an edited version of an article that originally appeared in the British Journal of Enthomusicology, Vol. 6, British Forum for Ethnomusicology, 1997, pp 1-33.
Abstract
The creation of a specific liturgy, composed of prayer, litanies, singing, music and sometimes dance, known as Sama‘, integrating music into the practice of meditation, is an important aspect of the contemplative life in Muslim Sufism. The essay explores the basic theological and mystical concepts of Sama‘. Part 1 discusses audition in Islamic theology, where three schools of scholars existed: advocates, adversaries and moderates. The views of the advocates − the Sufis − are discussed, and in particular, key works on Sama‘ by the Persians Ahmad b. Muhammad al-Tusi and Abu Hamid al-Ghazali. Part 2 explores the idea of the Sacred and analyses Tusi and Ghazali's understanding of the three conditions (“right time, place and company”) of Sama‘. Part 3 examines the relation of music to poetry in Muslim mysticism. Part 4 explores the relation of Qur’anic cantillation to singing, poetry and Sama‘. Part 5 discusses the contemplative fruits of audition, the relationship of ecstasy (wajd) to trance experiences, and the attitude of the Qur’an and Prophet Muhammad to dance, often considered an integral part of Sama‘.
http://www.iis.ac.uk/view_article.asp?ContentID=113592
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mazharshah
- Posts: 263
- Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2015 5:08 pm
On your instruction, I am moving my question under caption 'dancing is not haraam in Islam'. Le me repeat my question;
On Dec 2,2015 I saw on front page of this site a photo of Imam dancing in Uganda in 1966. Does Imam dances, I have not seen any dancing photo of MSMS, or Imam Ali Shah, or Imam Shah Hasan Ali Shah.
Sir you deleted the words Imam Ali Shah and Imam Shah Hasan Ali Shah, Because you do not have dancing photos of our those Imams, instead you posted MSMS and Mata Salamat's dancing photo. Did you realized that bottles of champagne are visible, what message you are delivering!!
My question is did Mowla Murtaza Ali danced? May be I have blurred vision.
On Dec 2,2015 I saw on front page of this site a photo of Imam dancing in Uganda in 1966. Does Imam dances, I have not seen any dancing photo of MSMS, or Imam Ali Shah, or Imam Shah Hasan Ali Shah.
Sir you deleted the words Imam Ali Shah and Imam Shah Hasan Ali Shah, Because you do not have dancing photos of our those Imams, instead you posted MSMS and Mata Salamat's dancing photo. Did you realized that bottles of champagne are visible, what message you are delivering!!
My question is did Mowla Murtaza Ali danced? May be I have blurred vision.
What is the point of knowing about previous Imams when you have information about the present Living Imam? Our tariqah places importance on the guidance of the Living Imam and not about the Imams of the past.mazharshah wrote: Sir you deleted the words Imam Ali Shah and Imam Shah Hasan Ali Shah, Because you do not have dancing photos of our those Imams, instead you posted MSMS and Mata Salamat's dancing photo. Did you realized that bottles of champagne are visible, what message you are delivering!!
My question is did Mowla Murtaza Ali danced? May be I have blurred vision.
-
mazharshah
- Posts: 263
- Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2015 5:08 pm
kmaherali wrote:What is the point of knowing about previous Imams when you have information about the present Living Imam? Our tariqah places importance on the guidance of the Living Imam and not about the Imams of the past.mazharshah wrote: Sir you deleted the words Imam Ali Shah and Imam Shah Hasan Ali Shah, Because you do not have dancing photos of our those Imams, instead you posted MSMS and Mata Salamat's dancing photo. Did you realized that bottles of champagne are visible, what message you are delivering!!
My question is did Mowla Murtaza Ali danced? May be I have blurred vision.
We believe our Imam is same ALI and same NOOR. Why we read history of previous Imams and quote them frequently. Just obey farmans of present Imam that what I say myself and forget guidance of previous Imams and stop quoting them, isn't it?
This is contradicting the very Farmans of each Imam whose first act has been to reaffirm that the Farmans of previous Imams are as valid as their own up to the time any of them is specifically replaced by another Farman.mazharshah wrote:Just obey farmans of present Imam that what I say myself and forget guidance of previous Imams and stop quoting them, isn't it?
We do believe in the continuity of the Noor of Imamat, there is no rupture of the Noor when the Imam changes the body in which his Noor manifest itself.
All this has been repeated umpteen times.
The thread is Dancing in Islam. Do not distract people from discussing this subject.
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mazharshah
- Posts: 263
- Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2015 5:08 pm
No, no I am not distracting. I was replying to argument of Kmaherali.Admin wrote:This is contradicting the very Farmans of each Imam whose first act has been to reaffirm that the Farmans of previous Imams are as valid as their own up to the time any of them is specifically replaced by another Farman.mazharshah wrote:Just obey farmans of present Imam that what I say myself and forget guidance of previous Imams and stop quoting them, isn't it?
We do believe in the continuity of the Noor of Imamat, there is no rupture of the Noor when the Imam changes the body in which his Noor manifest itself.
All this has been repeated umpteen times.
The thread is Dancing in Islam. Do not distract people from discussing this subject.
We always follow the guidance of the living Imam. If the Living Imam has said nothing about a particular issue then we may seek guidance from history or previous Imams. But in this case we know that the Living Imam danced so what is the wisdom in asking about what Hazarat Ali did 1400 years ago.mazharshah wrote:We believe our Imam is same ALI and same NOOR. Why we read history of previous Imams and quote them frequently. Just obey farmans of present Imam that what I say myself and forget guidance of previous Imams and stop quoting them, isn't it?
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shivaathervedi
- Posts: 1107
- Joined: Mon Feb 01, 2016 10:39 pm
Is Noor dancing or body?
More than a decade back, during photo discussion, one participant informed; in 60's during a dance in Africa, Imam asked photos should not be taken. But Qamber photos, garden Karachi who was present at the occasion did took the photos which were circulated later and on, learning that Imam was unhappy.
Looks like Imam danced in African countries but not in subcontinent.
What is wrong with the Imam dancing? He danced publicly in Uganda.shivaathervedi wrote: Is Noor dancing or body?
More than a decade back, during photo discussion, one participant informed; in 60's during a dance in Africa, Imam asked photos should not be taken. But Qamber photos, garden Karachi who was present at the occasion did took the photos which were circulated later and on, learning that Imam was unhappy.
Looks like Imam danced in African countries but not in subcontinent.
See photograph at:
http://ismaili.net/foto/6610131v.html
Ya Ali Madad:
IMAMS are absolute bearer of NOOR.
he is not tied into nor afraid to anybody orthodox view.
All shariati inclined areas are on way to prefectly defined hell in next 50 year.
It is said that a spring with water and fire nearing end of the world.I just got a video of that spring appeared recently in MECCA.can somebody inform furtheron that
Noor can take any form it wishes.
Allah/ALI is not locked to will of people but humanity lives under ALI+LAH= ALLAH's will.
IMAMS are absolute bearer of NOOR.
he is not tied into nor afraid to anybody orthodox view.
All shariati inclined areas are on way to prefectly defined hell in next 50 year.
It is said that a spring with water and fire nearing end of the world.I just got a video of that spring appeared recently in MECCA.can somebody inform furtheron that
Noor can take any form it wishes.
Allah/ALI is not locked to will of people but humanity lives under ALI+LAH= ALLAH's will.
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shivaathervedi
- Posts: 1107
- Joined: Mon Feb 01, 2016 10:39 pm
Diwanji lured the young Imam to play dhandia at his residence.kmaherali wrote:I am told that the dandia raas took place at late Diwan Sir Eboo's Nairobi residence.
Million dollar question: Who got those 2 sticks with which Imam was playing, may be worth millions!!
The Qamber photo story which Admin dubbed as fake is real, I confirmed it.