What Is Qawali

Repetition of verse or even a theological phrase, or the adjectives descriptive of the powers of the Almighty are not confined to any one religion. What we call Zikar-the tradition of repeating such phrases for a very long duration, is part of the mystical tradition as well as of daily worship and service of nearly all the religions. Its one purpose is to train the mind in concentration on the faith and religion, to the exclusion of all other mundane matters from the mind.

Qawali is Also used as a part of fun. Like that its example is given below in the shape of video.
Only the Gregorian Chant had a very functional purpose. The monks of this particular order employed the method to memorize and pass on the scripture and prayers to the next generation and they repeated the chant lest these be forgotten or distorted as most of these were not written down. Writing something on skin or on stone was something they could not afford, in money, material or time. In Muslim history, the tradition of memorizing the Holy Quran by qaris, we call them Hafiz-e-Quran, can be presented as the parallel example.

This practice of continuous chanting by mystics in Islam owes much to the practice among Christian monks. The mystics and those who devoted all their time in prayers and worship of God, during the lifetime of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) were called Ashab-e-Suffa. They remained stayed at a platform, in Masjid-e-Nabavi, which in Arabic language means Suffa. But the history of the practice cannot be traced from year to year. There are gaps of centuries before we came across an authentic mention of it.
The persons who followed this style of prayers and worship of Almighty adopted by Ashab-e-Suffa named as Sufi. To enable the general people to join with them the Sufis has started the gatherings in which one person, chants the poetry in praise of God, Holy Prophet and his disciples and the others people listen him which mentioned by Hazrat Imam Ghazali, the great Muslim Thinker, as Sama. With this word, a change is indicated. While Zikr means chanting, Sama means a listening to it.

Since mysticism stipulates a subjective condition in which one person establishes a personal and highly individual relationship with the being, Sama brought a shift in the experience. Though, intrinsically the experience is still subjective and individual, the emotion is induced and heightened by a source outside the mystic. The evidence is that the chanter could not chant the words without the help of any musical instrument.

With the advent of Islam in Indo-Pakistan new cultural values were introduced, the taste of which was never familiar to the local people. It is true that Indus-land had long been a centre of traffic from Central Asia and western lands, but Central India kept its Aryan Tradition and alien winds found the door closed.
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Historically we have precedent of qawali being sung by qawals in the time of Mehmood of Ghazna. Before Khusrou the famous mystics promoted and patronized qawali. Hazrat Khwaja Qutbuddin Bukhtiar Kaki died in ecstasy while listening to qwali. Masood Saad Salman Lahori has mentioned a duo of qawals, namely Mian Hisamuddin Nigahi and Mian Salahuddin Dargahi-companions and disciples of Hazrat Khwaja Ghareeb Nawaz, about a century before the birth of Amir Khusrou.

But from this the authenticity of Amir Khusrou as Originator of Qawali is not challenged. He was disciple of Hazrat Khwaja Nizamuddin Auliya (Mehboob-e-Elahi). He played a basic and very important role in the formation, regulation and proliferation of Qawali in the sub-continent, introduced Qaul and Qalbana along with other ragas and coined the word Qawali for the Hindostani form of Sama as it exists today. Actually the word Qawali-literally means Repetition of Words/Phrases, derived from Qaul, is a form of singing various musical compositions set to tune and suit mystic gathering. According to the author of Maadan-il-Moseeqi, Nawab M. Karam Imam, Amir Khusrou composed almost all the qawalis in four Ragas namely Bageshri, Sohni, Bahar and Basant. Now qawali can be composed in any raga.

Qawali as a form of music always remained matter of debate in Sultanate period between exponents of Sharia and mysticism. In the time of Ghayasuddin Tughlak it was finally decided, that moral side of Sama depends upon the subjective inclination of the participants and listeners, the Qawal should be male, no erotic poetry and instruments were allowed.

The qawals tend to link themselves with mystic orders. Therefore we find them with names such as Sabiris (with Hazrat Alauddin Ali A. Sabir of Kalyar Sharif) and Faridis (with Hazrat Baba Farid Shakar Gunj of Pakpatan Shareef) and others. It should however be kept in mind that though qawali owed its development in a religious and mystic tradition, technically it acquired its base in the classical music which is not only the accepted and patronised form of art but also has its roots in the religion of Sub-continent.

Qawali in a way therefore is a leveler of social difference, as it deals with a non-material, spiritual theme. But through the passage of time the qawal himself has come to observe certain rules of the art. Since he knows that his theme is spiritual and his words and music are to appeal, not to intellect, but to the intuition of the listener, he has to know the precise effect of his performance on the listener. Every qawal knows that the magic of his performance resides as much in the verse as in its rendering. The words are largely responsible for creating a state of transport. The continuous repetition of certain words is therefore imperative, if the words have to produce the effect.

A good qawal, in this way establishes his communication on two levels; he reaches his listener through intuitional, non-communicative and individual experience, yet he reaches not one but many individuals at the same time. This combination, of the personal with the universal, makes qawali unique in its appeal

Other Qawalis are available at:

http://www.drama.smarttvweb.com/

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