Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan: Journey from Qawwali to Emperor Qawwali at Lasori Shah Darbar


World Alzheimer's Day is celebrated around the world on September 21 and this year the launched a special campaign called 'Music Memories' to try to bring back memories of dementia sufferers through music. Is being done. In the same series, covers the early years of the career of Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, the owner of Pakistan's most popular voice.





A young man recites Natia and mysticism at the court of the Sufi saint Sai Muhammad Bakhsh alias Lasori Shah of Faisalabad in the 1960s. This is not unusual. But did anyone know that this boy from Punjab would become the 'Emperor of Qawwali' in the world of music.


He belonged to the Qawwal family. Many young people like him were taught the syllabus of melody, rhythm and rhythm from their childhood, whether they like it or not.


But this young boy was so skilled at the maturity of his voice and the lifting of the strings that his listeners were lost in his fascination.


Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was the name of this grandson of the Patiala family who migrated from Jalandhar, India before the formation of Pakistan.


But this was a time when no one knew Nusrat. Yes, everyone knew that he was the son of the famous Qawwal Ustad Fateh Ali Khan of that time.


Nusrat had been obsessed with music since childhood and at just ten years old, he had mastered the tabla.


After the death of his father Ustad Fateh Ali Khan in the early 1960s, he began to receive regular training in Qawwali from his uncles Ustad Mubarak Ali Khan and Ustad Salamat Ali Khan, and Ustad Mubarak Ali Khan died in the 1970s. After that he headed his Qawwal family.


Starting his artistic journey from a court in the famous Jhang Bazaar of Faisalabad, the diamond was spotted by a jeweler named Mian Rehmat who had been the owner of a gramophone record shop in Faisalabad since the establishment of Pakistan.


Nusrat's father had already had a ceremony with Ustad Fateh Ali Khan.


The singer got tired, Nusrat's drum did not stop


Mian Asad, the son of Mian Rehmat, the owner of Rehmat Gramophone Recording Studio, says of Nusrat that he has many memories that are still fresh in the windows of his mind.


He says his father has known Mian Rehmat Nusrat's family since the 1960s.


Mian Asad says that in the beginning, a Sufi saint of Nusrat Faisalabad used to recite Naat and recite Qawwali at the court of Sayyid Muhammad Bakhsh alias Baba Lasuri Shah. His residence was also in front of this court.



According to Mian Asad, Ustad Nusrat was trained to play the tabla before Qawwali and he played the tabla with great skill.


Referring to an incident he heard from his father, Mian Asad says, "When Nusrat was ten or eleven years old, there was no drummer at a Qawwali party and he asked Nusrat to play the drum." Gone There he gave such performances that the singer got tired but Nusrat did not get tired and he cast a spell on the listeners.


Nusrat teaches reading and writing


Mian Asad says that since his student days, a series of meetings with Nusrat had started at Rehmat Gramophone Recording Studio or at home. 



According to Mian Asad, his father, Mian Rehmat, brought Nusrat to his recording studio in the late 1970s and early 1980s, from where he began recording his poems and ghazals, and then reached the milestones of growth and fame. gone.


Mian Asad explains that one of the first few verses of Nusrat recorded on Rehmat Gramophone was 'Yaad Vachhare Sajn Diyan' and the other was 'Ali Maula Ali Maula' which became very popular all over the world.


Hundreds more were recorded, he says.


According to Mian Asad, Rehmat Gramophone House Recording Company recorded more than 100 Nusrat music albums and released them in the market.


Another such person is Ilyas Hussain who has been serving as a prompt in Nusrat's students and his Qawal party since his youth.


It should be noted that a prompt is a person who, during a show or recording, holds a book of words or ghazals behind the main verse and recites or recites the next verse.


"Our family has been serving Fateh Ali Khan's family for many generations," said Ilyas Hussain, 58, recalling his memories. I have known Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan since 1975, when I was a child going to school and going to work at his father's house. I was his student, from 1983 to his death in 1997, he was a member of the Qawwal Party.


He says that when I started going there at the age of ten, shortly after, Ustad Farrukh Fateh Ali Khan, the father of Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, told me to learn to do prompt work. Gradually Ustad Nusrat and Farrukh Fateh Ali Khan started teaching me this.


He later says, "I was taught by Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan to choose and read and write the word."


Ilyas Hussain recalls that among the famous verses recorded in Rehmat Gramophone, 'Lajpal Nabi Mere Dardan Di Dawa' and among the ghazals, 'Yaad Vachhare Sajjan Diyan Ayan Ankhyaan Cho Mehna Wasda' are also included along with hundreds of others.



Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was upset at first but then at my father's insistence he became supportive and immediately wrote a ghazal from a poet in the studio and he started recording solo for the first time.


Mian Asad says, "The most popular of his early solo recordings was 'Sun Charkha Di Mithi Mithi Cook'."


When this ghazal came on the market, his singing got a new lease of life. On the contrary, many singers and sympathizers were angry with us because Khan Sahib may not need them now.


Nusrat's special sofa in the studio


Mian Asad, the owner of Rehmat Gramophone, recalls that Nusrat had a deep and friendly relationship with his father, as he was eager to talk and often came to the shop.


It was not possible to find this sofa but now whoever is sitting on this sofa will be a very lucky person.


Mian Asad says that if I analyze the experience of professional relationship with Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, I can say that he is probably the only qawwal who has no words, no ghazal that is playing somewhere, then the music listener. Ask them to forward it.


His dear friend, student and sympathizer Ilyas Hussain says, "Khan Sahib, no matter how long he performed in any part of the world, when he came back to the hotel, he would tell us to put my harmonium in my room." If we woke up after completing our sleep, we would see that they were doing Riyadh on it.


According to Ilyas Hussain, "he used to sleep with his harmonium on the bed and put a finger on it even in his sleep."

Mian Asad narrates an incident about Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's understanding of music and heads that 'Nusrat Ali Khan was performing in a very large private gathering where he was also present and people were mad at his melodies and verses. As he was swinging, he was showering them with the shape of a whale. Suddenly, he signaled to his composer that the harmonium heads were not in order. Let's see what the problem is. There was a thousand note stuck, which was suffocating. '

"Do you know who they are?"

Mian Asad praises Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and says that he was a devout man, a very sincere and respectful man.

According to Mian Asad, "Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was fond of gathering friends and sitting and liked to gossip, but most of his conversation was music."

Mian Asad says that he was a very honest and caring person. He was a very sensitive person.

Mian Asad says that "Nusrat also got a lot of fame during this period, so the name of Rehmat Gramophone also went up a lot."

When Nusrat came to know about this, he immediately got up from the meeting with the delegation and came out barefoot and immediately took my father and elder brother inside and said to the staff, "Do you know who they are?"

The one sitting on the ground is not greedy for money
Mian Asad says that Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was not greedy for money like many other artists.

Elias Hussain also confirms that "whoever came sincerely and asked Nusrat for a Qawwali ceremony or program, they accepted this demand without any money."

According to him, when a middle-class fan invited him, he "regularly urged his secretary and us not to harass him for money and not to make any argument there."

Elias Hussain says, "My teacher was a dervishes. I didn't even know how great a man he was when I lived with him." If they were to sit on the ground, they would sit. '

Ilyas Hussain says, "My teacher helped Imran Khan a lot in the hospital and did several shows for him absolutely free."

Imran Khan is also one of the big fans of Nusrat. In one of the footage, it can be seen that he is making a special order from Nusrat and listening to his verses with pleasure.

According to Mian Asad, whenever Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan had to go for a Qawwali ceremony or recording, he would come to the shop two or three hours before the scheduled time, while his Qawwal party members would make him wait a long time. He would have been upset but I never saw him say anything.

While Ilyas Hussain says that 'Ustad Sahib used to scold only during rehearsals at home, now do Riyadh properly, whatever is wrong here is here, not in front of people but never during a show or during recording. No reprimand. '

Mian Asad says that most of the time after recording, he used to gossip and joke with his comrades and point to one of them and make fun of the other, but his sense of humor was very good and polite.

Elias Hussain also confirmed this, saying, "Yes, they were keen on jobs and kept asking us to take each other's 'things' and keep smiling, but they never made fun of any immoral thing."

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan freed music from the shackles of color, race, religion and language and set it on fire. Everyone became obsessed with their tunes, melodies and music.

Everywhere in Asia, Europe and America, he came to be called the uncrowned king of music and the emperor of poetry.

Elias Hussain says that the spiritual effect of the Sufi word on Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan would have been such that he would have gone into a state of ecstasy and his eyes would have become wet during the praise of Allah.

Elias Hussein says that "when he sang 'Allah ho Allah ho' on a tour of Europe, whites did not understand, but he kept swinging like crazy. People in France called him Mr. Allah ho."

According to Ilyas Hussain, wherever he went in Europe, people would call Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan 'Mr. Allah Ho'.

In Japan, when he performed at a music festival in Fukuoka, the Japanese people called him the "Singing Buddha" for his melodies and singing.

Elias Hussain explains: "Whenever he went to Japan for a show, as soon as he entered the hall, everyone would get up from their seats and there would be at least a minute's silence in his honor before the show started. '

Elias Hussain says he had many students in Europe.


These include the words of Sufi saint Baba Bale Shah, 'Who is in my life' and many other words.

Mian Asad narrates one such incident that 'at the wedding of his elder brother where famous singers, musicians and artists from all over the country were present, an atmosphere was created where Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was singing' Wariyan Saiyan Tere Wariyan 'and Atta God Isa Khilvi was pouring.


Elias Hussain narrates the story of Nusrat's famous song 'Meira Piya Ghar Aaya' during a live show in the United States in the nineties. He started pouring. One of the women started pouring so much that her legs started bleeding.


Rare recording of fifty hours


Asad, the son of Rehmat Gramophone owner Mian Rehmat, claims that even today he has a rare 50-hour recording of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's songs that never came on the market.


He says everything has been shut down since the death of his father and older brother Mian Arshad, who was more involved in the business, and the closure of the Rehmat Gramophone Company.


He claims that even today he has a rare recording of fifty hours of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's verses and songs which has not come in the market at any level till date.


The arrival of 'Mast Qalandar' and 'Haq Ali Ali'


According to Ilyas Hussain, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan liked the words 'Mast Qalandar', 'Allah Ho' and 'Haq Ali Ali' so much that he cried uncontrollably while singing it.


He says that the words of 'Haq Ali Ali' would have come to him in such a way that she would not have even known him.


"My teacher was like a saint," he recalls.


Elias Hussain says that despite Nusrat's popularity, he did not forget other artists. He says that Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan lost the country's famous solo ghazal singer Ejaz Qaiser from Faisalabad by giving his own melodies, styles and words and gave him a lot of encouragement.


According to Ilyas Hussain, he used to record them and tell them to overseas promoters so that they too could have the opportunity to perform abroad.