Day 21

W. Virginia

08/22/2011

6 Comments

SINGING SONGS OF PRAISE
by Bassam Tariq

Singing songs of praise in West Virginia.

South Charleston is West Virginia’s largest Muslim community. After prayer, the imam sang a few nasheeds, Islamic songs of praise, with us in Arabic.

Khaldun Basha is a hafiz, someone who has memorized the entire Quraan. The mosque here brought Imam Khaldun from his native Syria to the community to lead them in prayer during Ramadan. When there are larger crowds at the mosque, the Imam said he likes to do some mawlids, songs that sing the praise of God and Prophet Muhammad.

“Whenever you say the name of Allah and Prophet Muhammad in a chanting way, these words become close to your heart and you’re able to make a connection to them,” the imam said.

We don’t speak Arabic, so if any of you guys do speak Arabic and would like to provide a rough translation of what the Imam is singing in a comment below, it would be greatly appreciated by us and our readers!

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  • DrSuad

    Wonderful!

  • hena

    feeling the sufismo action. and i was watching this vid when i felt the earthquake. whoa! 

  • Farzan

    Beautiful voice and beautiful verses…Syrian nasheeds come from the soul…Thanks Bassam and Aman for filming this.

  • Ahmed

    First Nasheed:
    It’s difficult to find an online translation of the first nasheed. But the Arabic lyrics are easily found online if one googles the following Arabic text:
    يا حادي سر رويدا

    I don’t want to attempt a translation with my limited knowledge of Arabic, but I think the gist of the nasheed is about a lover telling the leader of a departed caravan to travel gently and slowly because the caravan is carrying his “heart” which probably is a metaphor for the beloved.

     Second nasheed: 
    Here’s the translation of I found online, for the second nasheed in its entirety (the above rendition is partial) from this website http://www.sacredknowledge.co.uk/seekers-of-knowledge/poetry/the-syrian-munshids which also has a more complete rendering of it by a professional group. The title of the nasheed is “Ataynaka” (“We have come to you…”)

    We come to You poor and needy(Traditional qasida – Author unknown)We come to You poor and needy, O You Self-sufficientYou, who never cease doing us good.We became used to receiving all favours from You,hoping that (the favours) we used to receive from You will ever continue.Your dishevelled paupers are driven out of their witsby love for You, the ultimate end (desire).For there is none like You in richness and self-sufficiency,and in poverty and neediness there is none like our lot.We see You revealed in every thingwhile we have no share in any thing.If You were in all circumstances with meI would not need to take provisions with me (for my travel).I concealed Your name out of jealousy1,here I go camouflaging along curved and steep mountain tracks 2For You are al-Haqq, none but YouIf only I knew (the meaning of) “I”!O Lord send blessings upon the Chosen One,blessings that will make for safety for us.O Lord send blessings over the Chosen One,blessings that will serve as a cure for us.

  • Ibtesam

     I am syrian who lived in this country for 40 years, Imam Basha anasheed brought me back to my childhood and ramadan back in damascus, when my mom used to always listen to anasheed at iftar , after quarn reading. His voice comes from the heart and he is right, it goes straight  to your heart and stay with you. 

  • MB

    Maa shaa Allah his voice is strikingly similar to the voice of the famous Syrian munshid Hassan Haffaar!


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