Shi'i Piety: A Song in Praise of Imam Ali
This is a rendition of a qawwali often termed as qaul "saying". It is the basic ritual song of Sufism in South Asia; indeed, it has been called the Opening or Closing Hymn of qawwali. At the famous shrine of Nizamuddin Auliya in Dehli, it is recited at the beginning of every qawwali performance, while elsewhere in India and Pakistan it serves as a conclusion. The hymn expresses a basic Sufi tenet, that the principle of spiritual succession in Sufism was instituted by the Prophet himself when he declared Ali to be his successor with the saying man kuntu maula fa hadha ali maula "he whose master I am, Ali is his master." It is this Arabic saying which constitutes the main text of this qawwali, which is therefore called qaul ("saying" in Arabic). (Shii Muslims also cite this saying as proof for the Prophetic declaration of Ali as the first Shii Imam). According to Sufi tradition, it is the famous Persian poet Amir Khusrau (d. 1326) considered to be the founder of the qawwali tradition, who set this Prophetic saying to music, extending it with zikr formulae and Arabic and Persian phrases extolling the virtues of Ali, such as shah-i mardan, "king of men" sher-i yazdan, "lion of God" quwwat-i parwadegar, " strength of the divine" la fata illa Ali "there no hero except Ali" Ali imam-i man ast tu, "Ali you are my leader" manam ghulam-i Ali, "I am the servant of Ali" hazar jan-i girami fidayi-nam-i Ali "may a thousand precious souls be sacrificed in the name of Ali." These phrases alternate with improvisations on the scale with the recitation of the musical notes or "nonesense" syllables.
This rendition is by Abida Parveen, a woman who is reknowned as the foremost
singer of Sufi folk music in Pakistan.
From: Chant Soufi du Pakistan, May 30, 1995, Inedit (Fra).
