Party time - Nach Malanga

Tahir ul Qadri saheb promotes a moderate vision of Islam, and wishes to help create a better understanding between communities and religions. He argues that terrorists have left the true, classical teachings of Islam and have grown out of religious extremism and is one of those Islamic religious leaders who condemned the terrorist attacks of September 11.

This message of peace obviously has quite an appeal to the average Pakistani who can be seen dancing at this gathering. Qawwali or Sema has also been known to have a healing affect on human suffering and minds that seek peace.

At 4.50 you can witness one of the listeners in hal.

"One of the objectives of a qawwali is to induce trance in a group of listeners in a communal ritualized setting. ..... Trance can also be experienced as a result of one's own action, such as singing, dancing, chanting, etc. ..The dialogue between the musicians and the listeners is initiated by the musicians, whose goal to induce trance is based on their own competence to evoke hal and on the receptiveness of the listeners. ...

Like other forms of Islamic vocal meditation, qawwali transports the audience into another plane of consciousness, bringing to the common people the complex and elusive ma'rifat. Regular attendees of qawwali sessions often use the concept of travel when they speak of their experience during a qawwali. They feel as if they are travelling to another domain or plane. The external manifestation of this transportation is the hal, literally meaning "state of mind", often used to denote musically induced ecstasy. This ecstasy can range from rhythmic moving of the head, dreamy dancing to such extremes as violent convulsions of the body, depending on the person affected.

This musically induced state of ecstasy is closely watched by the qawwal, who find the combination of music and content responsible for the state, repeating it with increasing intensity until a climax is reached, often creating enough resonance to pull in other members of the audience. The skill of the qawwal is severely tested before an audience not familiar with these concepts, but a master is able to move entire audiences to a hal, even if they do not understand a single word. The thoughts of the person experiencing hal go beyond the rational plane. The society around the individual accepts this ritualised loss of control and it is not uncommon in qawwali sessions for members of an audience to tolerantly embrace and hold an individual concerned spasmodically in a state of hal.. No stigma is attached to this state and after recovery, the individual carries on as if nothing had happened. The last stage of Sufism is fana , the closest analogue in the Buddhist faith being Nirvana. In this stage, the plane of worldly consciousness is dissolved and the ultimate union with the eternal is achieved. The qawwali session may strike a sympathetic chord in the listener, bringing him to this state. Even today, cases of death during a qawwali session have been recorded, whereby the individual so dying is said to have achieved this final stage. It is said of one who dies during a qawwali that his soul has travelled to other places, leaving the shell of his body behind. " - The Art of Qawwali

Recital: Badar Miandad Qawwal(February 17, 1962 – March 2, 2007)
Youtube: GhauseAzamKaGhulam


------------

another part of the same mehfil