Qasida Burda Shareef by Muhammad Al-Husyan

Wanted to share this recitation of Burda Shareef by Muhammad Al-Husyan for many days. if you want an introduction to what Burda is all about, and more importantly, its significance for Islamic world, of which many, many Muslims are ignorant, watch the second clip.



Introducing the Burda of Imam Al-Busiri

Soul's yearning

After listening to the strange rhythmic lines in the preceding video, reader/listener may be wondering what sense does it make? Partially because, as it proves, you don't know Arabic, which neither do I; and partially: if I don't understand Arabic poetry - then? So what? For my ears detect harmony in these words recited by Abdul-Hakim Murad. I listen to these short melodic lines again and again, its very pleasant for my soul. May be there is a treasure hidden in these lines that awaits me to unlock it...

The Overthrowing

Quran declares:

And when the infant girl, buried alive, is asked;
For what crime she was slain

Surah At-Takwir, Ayah # 8-9

I have been mesmerized by the recitation of this particular Surah, whose two verses have been just quoted, by this little boy (see the following video), and by its meaning - with little imagination you're forced to tremble before your Lord who alone is worthy to be worshiped.


Read translation and tafsir (explanation) here.

A Poem of the way sung by Mufti Taqi Usmani

How many times can we get to a hear poem sung with rhythm in melodic tunes by a scholar of the stature of Maulana Taqi Usmani! And what is more important is the content, the prayer itself, the yearning of the poet... The way of expression of submission to Allah, S.W.T... All beautiful...

Heart's Supreme Desire

My friend introduced this "naat" to me by Junaid Jamshed. Although I'm not so pure to have such a high desire the poet has expressed in this melodic poem of him, but I felt that such a desire must be of the highest kind. Unfortunately, it's in Urdu without any subtitles in English.

Experience the Transformation of Sound into Visual-Patterns

Magnetosphere revisited (audio by Tosca) from flight404 on Vimeo.

I don't know what's the phenomena is called and how to create it, but people learning interactive media study it and create such things - wonderful things. You can read all about it here.

Ek Khalish ko Hasil-e-Umr-e-Rawan

Faiz: A Legend of Letters

Sometimes, we need a voice, not of our own, but of a great master that may resonate with the electric-meter of our heart; and, it'd be equally the mastery of that voice which can make it to dance. A voice of compassion, of love and friendship. A voice which fulfills the most rudimentary need of man - sympathy and human relationship, a need transcendent to bodily necessities. Faiz Ahmed Faiz, the Urdu poet and critic of art, is that voice for many. Many - not including those close to him geographically, but also those who share the pathos of oppression, sickness, suppression and loneliness. He spoke for human beings, for Palestinians, for the victims of the hatred of ignorant dogma - do I need to present you an unimaginably lengthy list of strange creatures in the guise of humans, who benefit from this source of healing, Faiz?

A few days before yesterday, was Faiz's birthday. You may be asking, why at this late hour - remembrance? I am more than just happy to tell you the reason for it, because that would not be a reason, rather a matter of (childish) proud. I am lazy, so was Faiz. I am weak in Mathematics, and so was he. I am happy I have found two ample reasons to relate myself to that soothing voice. And I did wrote something in time to celebrate for God's mercy and Faiz's courage, conscious human endeavor. But I have lost that nice essay I wrote on him, as it was but a fledgling set of intuitions. And roaring, creative intuitions often do fail to crystallize themselves if not gripped with iron hands - their spontaneity is simply uncontrollable.

Therefore, having lost an original piece of work, I still wish to celebrate the legend and in order to relive the legend I can only reproduce a few magic words of pain and healing, of yours and mine - Faiz. The Faiz of Faiz. All Hail.


(About this poem 'City of Lights'. Once Faiz was imprisoned for his political beliefs. He wrote this poem on Lahore's lights from his prison cell, during that certain period.)

The greenery is drying in a pallid afternoon;
Parched walls are wet hued with a lonely prison.
Far to the heart's horizon shrinks, rises, falls again
The fog of an undimmed grief, a heavy tide;
And yet behind this fog rises the City of Lights.
-O, City of Lights-
Who can tell how to attain your illuminated paths?
Here, in broken light, in nights of separation,
Listless you see sitting the soldiers of desire.

-Translated by Sara Suleri Goodyear

Upward Celestial Continuity

Good night, sweet prince,

And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!

Horatio's farewell prayer for Hamlet.

Hamlet V, 2, 37.

The suggestion expressed in the 'title' of the post is not self-explanatory. Till now, I've only mentioned Horatio bidding farewell to the dead prince Hamlet. However, it becomes very clear if one just knows the whole context and events happening simultaneoulsy in the background.

The moment Hamlet dies Fortinbras immediately enters as a prince. Thus it 'marks a continuity between the dead prince and the living one', interprets M. Lings. The thing that I felt too very intuitively has been well put in the following sentence by M. Lings 'that Hamlet is mysteriously reborn in Fortinbras'. Lings doesn't see this alchemy as 'an earthly horizontal succession, but on an upward celestial continuity'. This isn't actually fully indicated by Shakespeare, yet of which the reader somehow becomes aware of. Of continuity. Of cycle of life!

It was Post Script...

Highest Function of Soul

Each faculty of ours delights in that for which it was created: lust delights in accomplishing desire, anger in taking vengeance, the eye in seeing beautiful objects, and the ear in having harmonious sounds. The highest function of the soul is the perception of truth.
- al-Ghazzali