I HAVE just seen a small book by Muhammad Islam Shah, titled, Sufiana Mausiqi aur Hamaray Qawwal (mystic music and our qawwals). The author has served in the Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation for about 31 years and has been associated with its music cell. His mystic bent of mind has instilled in him a love for devotional music and he has been a regular visitor to the qawwali sessions held at the shrine of Hazrat Data Ganj Bakhsh in Lahore.

He has written some books earlier as well about music and musicians but in the present volume, he has traced the history of mystic and devotional music and given a brief introduction of those who excelled in the field. However, he has confined himself to those who appeared on the scene after independence. The book is profusely illustrated as the author has painstakingly collected pictures of almost all the qawwals from the earliest times.

The qawwali was introduced in the sub-continent by Amir Khusrau with the sole objective of “creating spiritual ecstasy and providing the purest aesthetic pleasure to his mentor, Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia by way of expressing praise to his Creator.” It did not take long for the qawwali to be accepted by various schools of thought in Islamic mysticism and the sufis all over the sub-continent and was regularly practised at various shrines.

Looking at the pictures of some qawwals of the pre-independence days revived many memories in me. Once at Junagadh when both Ustad Fayyaz Khan and Azim Prem Ragi happened to be in town, the Dewan (prime minister) of the state invited both of them to his residence for a musical evening. Ustad Fayyaz Khan started with his favourite Raag Darbari but when he continued with it for quite some time, a guest from the local royal family interrupted him with the request for a ghazal. The Ustad stopped singing and got up. Pointing towards Azim Prem Ragi he said in Urdu, “You can hear that from him who has wasted his life memorizing verses.” With that he walked out of the room.

Azim Prem Ragi was a bit of a poet as well. A regular at the shrine in Ajmer where his audience included both Hindus and Muslims, he composed some lines to please them both. I reproduce some which I remember: