I heard Abu Qasim al Baghdadi say: ‘Audition is of two kinds. One class of
man listens to discourse, and derives therefrom an admonition: such a man
listens discriminately and with his heart (as the seat of the intellect) present.
The other class listens to music (melody), which is the food of the spirit:
and when the spirit obtains its food, it attains its proper station, and turns
aside from the government of the body; and then there appears in the
listener a commotion and a movement.’ Al-Junayd said: ‘The mercy (of
God) descends upon the poor man on three occasions: when he is eating,
for he only eats when he is in need to do so; when he speaks, for he only
speaks when he is compelled; and during audition, for he only listens in a
state of ecstasy.’”
25
Like all the other Sufi practices
sama’
too is performed under the
leadership of the shaykh or the teacher, who initiates and ends it with the
recitation of
Fatiha
or the opening chapter of the Qur’an and controls its
every stage as well as its duration. Often it is performed on a Thursday
evening and today’s
qawwali
recitals at the shrines of the saints are a
continuation of the same traditional practice. It must be remembered that
all Persian and Urdu poetry, including the mystical, is intended to be chanted,
either to a regular tune or in free musical improvisation. The best
performers (of the contemporary: the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Abida
Parveen) combine a formal chant with occasional outbursts of improvisation,
stirring themselves and their listeners to an ecstatic state. In Iran the
Masnavi
of Maulana Rumi is often used on such occasions and on the Indian
subcontinent, the poetry of Amir Khusraw, Bhule Shah (who wrote in
Punjabi), Shah Latif (writing in Sindi) as well as others.
25
Tr. by AJ.Arberry as
The Doctrine of The Sufis
, Delhi, 1994 reprint of 1935 edition; quotations are
from Chapter LXXV o
f Audition,
pp. 163-165.
Th e Su f i C on c e p t o f Me d i t a t i on 214
