Sufi Music of Islam | Arts & Culture

On Saturday, September 22 from 8:00 – 10:00 p.m. Sufi singer, Shabnam Merali will be performing at the Ladies Literary Club of Grand Rapids. Of Pakistani descent, she currently lives in Canada and is a Qawwālī & Ghazal singer, Ginan and Qasida reciter, radio-host and poet. She has performed in Canada, Europe, Pakistan, Dubai and Africa and has produced two ghazal CD’s: Lamhe and Chaahat.

Four musicians will accompany her on the tabla, harmonium and sitar. The tabla is a percussion instrument consisting of a pair of hand drums of different sizes and reverberations; the harmonium is a free-standing keyboard instrument much like a reed organ, whose sound is created by air moving through sets of reeds resulting in an accordion-like sound; and the sitar is a long-necked plucked stringed instrument.

Like all religious, and many non-religious, occasions, the Sufi assembly begins in the name of God, with recitation of a passage from the Qur'an. Unique to Sufi recitation, the name of God is also uttered musically. As a prelude to singing hymns, the lead Qawwālī performer intones the dhikr phrase Alliihu in a melodic sequence on the harmonium to focus the attention of the listeners on the purpose of the Sufi assembly: finding a connection with God.

Then a succession of powerful and moving hymns is drawn from a diverse repertoire that includes venerable foundational poetry in classical Persian and Hindi, but also in contemporary Urdu. Qawwālī texts emphasize and evoke mystical love; they also extol the hierarchy of Sufi spiritual personages from living spiritual guides (sheikhs) to saints, to Hazrat Ali, and finally to the Prophet Muhammad, who is ( in Islam,  believed to be) the human being most closely connected with God. (Beck, Gary L., ed. Sacred Sound: Experiencing music in world religions. Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2006.Page 99. Print.)

This is an Interfaith 2012 event co-sponsored by:

Catholic Information Center, West Michigan Hindu Temple, Westminster Presbyterian, Fountain Street Church, Plymouth Congregational, Baha'i Community of West Michigan, Dominican Center at Marywood, Self-Realization Fellowship, St. Andrew's Episcopal and the Islamic Center & Mosque of Grand Rapids. For more information on 2012 Year of Interfaith Understanding and additional scheduled events go to the website at: http://www.gvsu.edu/2012interfaith/

COST: $10.00 per person. Tickets are available through the Calvin Box Office online at www.calvin.edu/boxoffice/  or by phone at 616.526.6282.

submitted: Rosemary Steers, Dominican Center at Marywood