CAIRO

– Today, February 14, coincides with the death anniversary of the most famous chanter, Sayed al-Naqshbandi, who died in 1976, and who is considered the chanter of “the greatest divine love” with an expression loving his voice and his prayers.

It is not only religious chanting, which is full of love for God, that links the famous chanter with Sufi love. The Persian word “Naqshbandi” translates to an inscription of God’s love on the heart, and it is made up of two syllables (inscription, bundi).

Ramadan arrives, so that Naqshbandi is most present in his supplications that precede the call to prayer for dawn and sunset.

And in other than Ramadan, he is present by explaining between the paragraphs of the Holy Quran Radio, where the late Sheikh gave the holy month a delicious spiritual taste, and it became one of the requirements of the holy month.

Al-Naqshbandi’s voice is one of the unique voices, as the eight layers of his voice made his voice rare, so he used to say the answer and the answer to the answer, and his voice oscillates between mezzo-soprano and soprano, as “he used to improvise from his sense of melodies that we hear compounded on his vocal layer. After he improvises, a sound is installed.” The choral, and it was difficult to adapt his voice to the melodies, and therefore the melody was adapted after he sings and improvised, then the composition of the melodic sentences, to take advantage of all the vocal capabilities of Sheikh Naqshbandi,” according to the description of the musician Hilmi Bakr.

The composer Hani Shenouda revealed his admiration for the sheikh since his childhood, to the point of going to him in the courtyard of the Ahmadi Mosque in the northern city of Tanta, saying in press statements, "The sheikh was one of the heavenly angelic voices, who made our childhood happy, full of melodies full of love, Sufism, transcendence and loftyness."

launch

From Tanta, where the shrine of Sayyid al-Badawi, who is considered one of the most famous imams of Sufism, Naqshbandi began as a reciter of the Holy Qur’an, a muezzin and a vocalist, and he had reached the age of 35, specifically in 1955.

He started singing with his golden throat, his fame spread across the horizons and crossed the borders of Egypt to the Arab countries, and Arab presidents and princes invited him to sing in their capitals, and Saudi Arabia was one of the countries he visited most, happy with the opportunity to perform the Hajj ritual 5 times.

The sheikh did not refuse any opportunity to perform a prayer or narration in his voice on the Egyptian radio, which he entered in 1967.

Al-Naqshbandi continued to pray for a position that no one had attained before him or after him, according to musicians, refusing to rely on music and content with the majesty of his heavenly voice, until the milestone in his career came, which put him in a high position, although he rejected it at first, had it not been for the late President Muhammad Anwar Sadat forced him to do so.

Listen to My God is from you, my happiness and my goodness - Naqshbandi by hazem omara on #SoundCloud https://t.co/1qqtloYsdp

— Muhamed Sharabi (@muhamedhameeed) February 13, 2022

Al-Sadat recommended the necessity of cooperation between the two heads of sensual pleasure that possesses the conscience through the ear, and the head of the chant was the Naqshbandi, and the head of the music was the composer Baligh Hamdi, at that time.

Al-Naqshbandi tried to avoid cooperating with Baligh, saying to those close to him, "It is not correct (it is not correct) at the end of time. I collaborate with the composer of Bahia and Adawiya songs (he means the songs of famous singers at the time)."

The famous radio broadcaster Wajdi al-Hakim intervened to convince the sheikh to cooperate, and in a funny sign that aroused his appetite for defiance, he asked him to listen to the melody first in the radio studio, and agreed with him that if he liked the melody, the sheikh would take off his turban.

The sheikh was reluctantly convinced, and accepted the challenge, confident that he would win it, and listened to the melody of "My Lord, I am in your door" written by the poet Abdel Fattah Mustafa.

Radio in Ramadan at breakfast time has a special charm.

Al-Naqshbandi’s tawasir and then Fawazeer Amal Fahmy ❤️ https://t.co/aRF0P2VZxB

— Hanan Shahin (@nonahsh) February 13, 2022

Lovers of the sheikh describe this supplication as almost wiping the minds out of its beauty, and it flies with hearts to a heavenly kingdom every time it is broadcast.

The world perishes and what is on it, and nothing remains of it but you and a vast sky, in such a silent night, and the voice of a Naqshbandi calling out:

O He who has a beautiful veil over me, may I accept your apology if I apologize?

Gosh!

These moments cannot be from this world, and this feeling is unimaginable that you may not care about it.

— H a SS an 👑 (@hassan_hmdy) February 13, 2022

Al-Naqshbandi, may God have mercy on him....takes me to another place, especially when I hear it pic.twitter.com/eFguY2HHPZ

— 🌻 I love you, my Lord, Nada (@nadaes_74) February 13, 2022

Baligh finished listening and entertaining the sheikh with the melody, so he faltered before him and took off from his place, so he took off his turban, and increased and took off his robe.

After the resounding success of the anthem, the duo together presented several works, as it was composed by Mahmoud Al-Sharif, Sayed Makkawi, Ahmed Sedky and Helmy Amin, and most of his songs were broadcast during the month of Ramadan through a program specially prepared for that called "Rhythms of the Spirit".

The distinguished anthem "Mawlay I Babak" crosses a little less than 5 decades, causing a crisis between the grandchildren of Naqshbandi and rapper Marwan Pablo A, who sang at a concert in Cairo, "Marawan I Babak", so the sheikh's fans were frightened, and his family threatened to resort to court against the singer.