S.Ismail: Well it all depends
on ones environment to which he belongs. When I was a kid, there
used to live an elder person Mr. Haji Mohammad Yusuf Ashrafi near my
house who used to perform Naats. Along with my family, I used to
hear him too. I was much impressed by his personality and his
devotion for the Naats and got inspired by him. I started practicing
it & since the very beginning, I had this thing in my mind that
whatever field I would take up, I will definitely excel in it as I
would be able to give it with novelty. Keeping this thing in my mind
I devoted myself for Naat Khawani and never thought of doing
something else. I started off from Radio Pakistan through a children
program in 1967. In 1969 television was introduced in Karachi and I
was the first ever Naat Khawan on PTV. Since then, I have been
performing Naats regularly and it is still continuing.
Q: How does it feel when one
performs a Naat and how much a Naat Khawaan needs to be emotionally
stable while performing a Naat?
S.Ismail: We feel a lot of pride and immense
pleasure that we are presenting words of praise to our Holy Prophet
who has been praised by Almighty Allah Himself so many times in the
Holy Quran. We feel we are expressing the holy prophet a sense of
belonging and Ishq to the most beloved prophet of the Almighty
Allah. Therefore one can understand that how we feel when we perform
a Naat. To be very honest, I cannot exactly explain these feelings
since there are no words for such feelings which can support me to
describe them but they definitely ooze out from the bottom of the
heart. As far as the question of emotional stability is concerned, I
would like to say that in performing Naat the feeling of Ishq-e-
Rasool gets automatically involved. The Naat Khawan gets emotionally
involved while performing a Naat & it creates a deep impact on the
listeners as well. You must have seen that many a times, the Naat
Khawaans do not succeed in stopping the tears
to fall at the time of delivering Naat but still are able to control
their pitch & rhythm. I must say that this is all the mercy of
Almighty Allah. If a Naat Khawan feels that he is being watched and
heard by the holy prophet during his act of performing Naat, his
voice will definitely reach the Holy Prophet in his roza mubarak,
then it all happens that the tears start to fall and thus the
emotions get involved to a great extent.
But I must say that it does not
happen every time. So, the answer to your question is that emotions are
of course a part of the Naat Khawani since we praise the highest human
kind on this entire universe, the one and the only for the Almighty
Allah and for whom this whole world is created. So of course the
emotions get involved that gives a high degree of religious stability to
the body and souls
Q: Do you compose your
Naats your self?
S.Ismail: Yes I compose my Naats myself. I started Naat
Kahwaani since my childhood and when I joined Radio Pakistan, I got a
chance to meet some music directors there. Since Naat Khawani also needs
rhym and the rhythm, so I decided to get myself trained. Not that
because I wanted to join the music field but since Naat Khawani also
needs a good composition it was necessary. So I received proper training
from Mr. Qudrat ullah Khan who was one of the leading music director of
his time, and thus I was able to compose my Naats myself.
Q: Many of the Naat Khawans especially these days compose Naats on song
tunes; do you think that it is a good trend?
S.Ismail: Yes you are right. But I would like to say
one thing in this regard that such kind of copy work is being done by
the Naat Khawans who are not trained and they don't want to put their
original efforts in the work that they are doing. If you hand over to me
some non-composed Naat, I will try my level best to compose it making
use of what I know and what I have learned. I will never go for
listening to a song and copy its composition. In my view, a Naat should
not be a copy of some already performed Naat; it should not match the
composition of any song. But this requires a lot of hard work and proper
allocation of time. It is very easy to re perform a Naat or to copy the
tune or composition of some old Naat or song, but, very sorry to say, it
never creates a long lasting impression. Although, how well the copied
Naat is performed, when you listen to it, your mind always goes to that
song or Naat on which it is based which I think does not reflect the
right approach. I admit that many of the senior Naat Khawans are also
following the same practice which is certainly not good and due caution
is required in this connection. I feel very sorry for those Naat Khawans
who have introduced and are practicing this trend.
Q: There are hundreds of good Naats but the question is that are they in
the form of audio, video and books? Have you composed any book yourself?
S.Ismail: Well to be very true all the good Naats are
being preserved mostly in the form of books. Lots of books are being
published these days. I have also contributed in this regard. I have
composed a Book by the name of 'Anwar-e-Haramain. Gen. Zia Ul Haq got
this work done by me. He told me to arrange all my popular Naats at that
time in the form of a book. I selected almost 215 Naats for this book. I
have already released 3000 copies of this book. I was honored as Gen.
Zia Ul Haq also gave his personal message in the same book. His remarks
were:
'Yeh Mere Khwahish Ki Takmeel Kay Taur Par Kaam Hua Hai.
Gen. Zia Ul Haq sent five copies of this book
to every Embassy of Pakistan abroad with special instructions. The
banks were also asked to buy this book and also to distribute
amongst their people. I published three editions of this book and
within 6 months, 9000 copies were sold. Two years back I wrote
another book by the name of 'Rang-e-Raza. Almost 450 Kalams have
been presented in this book. It was greatly appreciated by the
people and is available in market. Kalams have 10 to 15 stanzas but
I have shortened the Kalam to 7 or 8 stanzas for the convenience of
the new 'Naat Khawans. On the other end, Naats are also being
preserved in the form of audio and videos. Lot of work has been done
in the past and is being done in this connection. Naat Khawans are
now releasing cassettes and CDs, which is a way to preserve of what
they are doing. It is certainly a treasure and it is preserved for
our youth and the coming generation as well Alhamdullillah.
Q: Presently it has
become a trend that loud speakers are used for Naat Khawanee Mehfils and
it is done till late at night. Do you think that it is a healthy
tradition?
S.Ismail: (Laughingly) A very interesting question. The
same question is never put up when a Musical Programme is going on but
when a mehfil is going on, every body has an objection. Secondly it is
true that the Mehfils should be held at places where there is no chance
of the people or residents getting disturbed. But it's also a fact that
'Zikr-e-Rasool is the cure of every ailment whether it is psychological
or physical. A person can feel automatically cure of the illness,
tensions or depression if he or she gets truly involved what is being
delivered. So people should not mind these things but of course if
somebody is sick or there is some other issue, then special care should
be taken.
Q: Are you satisfied by the way some videos like Tala ul badru Alaina
and Qaseeda Burda Shareef are being made? Do you think that these videos
should have been made the same way?
S.Ismail: Yes you are very right, these videos are not
impressive at all and should have been made keeping all the ethical &
ritual values of performing a Naat. I am not satisfied by such videos at
all. Such videos depict disrespect to the reciting of Naats and
naazo-billah to our holy prophet as well. We, the senior Naat Khawans in
spite of wanting to do something cannot do such thing, although his has
now become a desire of a certain class of our viewers. They want glamour
in all the things they do and see. We ourselves are against the making
of such videos but we can't say much about it because the television
focuses on the needs and interests of its viewers. So we can just be
patient and pray that such videos should focus on paying homage and
respect to our Holy Prophet (PBUH) rather than showing glamour and
acting.
Q: Do you think that Naat Mehfils are still held the same way in which
they were during the times of the Holy Prophet?
S.Ismail: Yes I think the concept is more or less the
same as it was during the times of Prophet (PBUH). I would like to
narrate a related incident about Hazrat Sheik Sa'adi. When Hazrat Shaikh
Sadi wrote a famous Naat, he had only written 3 verses of it when he
fell asleep. While sleeping he dreamt he was in a Na'at Mehfil where the
Holy Prophet was there amongst various companions. The Prophet prompted
to wards Sheikh Sa'adi and said this is my guest from Shiraz and told
him to recite his incomplete poem. When he did, one of the Prophets
companions spontaneously completed the last misra of the stanza. Thus
what I m saying is that even at that time a similar kind of Mehfil must
have been held and people would have recited in the same manner as
today.
Q: Do the Naat Khawans have to give any audition to appear on
Radio and TV like the Actors or Singers do? How one can approach media
as a Naat Khawan?
S.Ismail: Yes of course on PTV and
Radio Pakistan, one has to give audition as per its policy but as far as
the private channels are concerned, they don't have such standards.
Q: What is the ratio of luck and hard work in one's life?
S. Ismail: It's a very vast
topic itself. Every body wishes for better luck, there is luck
involved in one's life but he shouldn't give up the struggle. I will
give you an example. If you have to go abroad and you are all
prepared from passport making to visa confirmation but when you get
to the Airport, you come to know that the flight is not going. It's
your luck. You have done your struggle for going abroad but if the
flight is not going, you can't help it. So hard work is very
important in one's life along with luck.
