Al-Ghazali was one the foremost Sufi saint-poets of Persia and the genre of ghazal, the Indo-Persian love song, had been developed after the style of poetry he initiated (Bhattacharjee & Alam 2012 Viitamaki 2008 Harder 2011).ДЄmong the different Sufi orders of medieval Persia, sama became an important practice within Mevleviya and Chishtia orders. Some of the important books were al-SarrajвЂ™s Kit a b al-luma (before 988), al-QushayriвЂ™s Risala (before 1043), HujwiriвЂ™s Kashf-al-ma бёҐju b ( c.1050вЂ“70), SuhrawardiвЂ™s Aw a rif-al-ma Кїa rif (before 1234) and al-GhazaliвЂ™s (AD 1058вЂ“1111) Ihya Ulum al-Din. The Sufis, at the same time, had written a number of books on the legitimacy of sama in Islam. The orthodox scholars like Ibn al-Jawzi (d.1200) and Ibn Taymiya (d.1328) were against the practice of sama or any kind of music. Rabia(d.801) of Basra, Dhu-ul-Nun (d.861) of Egypt and Mansur al-Hallaj (d.922) of Baghdad were a few of the foremost exponents of Sufi poetry. The Ulemas had great political power and influence all across Persia and the Indian subcontinent throughout the medieval period of Indian history.ДЄlthough music was forbidden in orthodox Sunni ideas, sama became prominent in the Sufi khanqas and Sufi mystical verses started to be written in ninth century Baghdad. By establishing a new educational system, the Caliphate state created a number of scholars called Ulema who could run the government according to the orthodox Sunni ideas. Sufism emerged in Persia against the orthodox government of the Baghdad Caliphate state in the ninth century. Qawwali was born in north India but its origin can be traced back to eighth century Persia, present-day Iran and Afghanistan. A qawwali gathering is generally called вЂ Mehfil-e-SamaвЂ™ or вЂassembly of listeningвЂ™.

вЂ SamaвЂ™ in Arabic means audition, but in Sufi discourse, it is the act of listening to spiritual music. The origin of qawwali is linked with the history of sam a. Traditionally qawwalis began with the word of the prophet (qawl) and were sung in Sufi shrines, but in the past hundred years or so they have become increasingly popular in household celebrations, musical concerts, commercial recordings, and even South Asian films.вЂ™ (2009) Frequently, qawwalis combine various genres of devotional literature: hamd (praise of God), naвЂ™t (praise of the Prophet), and manqabat (praise of revered Islamic personalities). Many qawwalis use a mixture of languages, and they often sprinkled with QurвЂ™anic verses or saying of the Prophet (hadith/qawls). вЂQawwali are songs of devotion and supplication, mostly written in Urdu, Hindi, Persian, Punjabi, and Sindhi. It is the rendition of mystic verses composed by the Sufi masters. Qawwali is a form of oratorio performed mainly in Sufi dargahs (shrines) and khanqas (place for spiritual retreat) in the Indian subcontinent. The song is in praise of Khwaja Baba of Ajmer Sharif (the founder of the Chishti Sufi order of India) who, according to common belief, brought the tradition of qawwali to the Indian subcontinent. The above song does not have these features but due to some other characteristics, it cannot be categorized under any other genre of Bengali songs connected to Islamic society or religiosity like Karbala-Jarigan, Muslim marriage songs, Fakiri and Marfati.

Apart from musical instruments like the harmonium, tabla and bulbul tarang, clapping is used in qawwali as a rhythm instrument. Traditionally, qawwali comes under the category of semi-classical music where the lead singer improvises the melody in certain ragas supported by an echoing group of singers. Although this song was not composed by any Sufi master or performed by any traditional qawwali singer, it can be helpful in understanding Bengali qawwali in terms of its lyrical structure, melody and musical accompaniment. Debaprasad Chakraborty was the lyricist of this song and Mrinal Banerjee the music composer. The lines above are translated and quoted from a Bengali qawwali song released in 2004 in the album Bharat Tirtha sung by the late Manna Dey, who made a great contribution to the music of Indian films, in Hindi as well as numerous regional languages. O naive soul, keep chanting the name of AllahвЂ™ Will bear the same fruit as visiting MeccaДЄt the Dargah (mausoleum) of our beloved Khwaja

Hindi qawwali song