MUST Qlindar || by Rajasthan Josh bend || sufi kawali song | The Rajasthan josh

Raag: Kafi

Note: This song, which has been popular in the Indian subcontinent for centuries, is based on a poem by the Chishti Sufi and musical genius Amir Khusro, which was later revised by the great Punjabi Sufi poet Bulleh Shah. The lyrics of the song honour and revere (but do not worship) 'Ali ibn Abi Talib, to whom almost all Sufi orders trace their lineage, as well as the famous 12th century Sufi saint of Sindh, Lal Shahbaz Qalandar.

*A qalandar is a type of wandering Sufi or dervish who often lives in the forest and wears tattered clothes.

Lal Shahbaz Qalandar was one such Sufi.

**Intoxication here does not refer to intoxication from alcohol, but to the ecstatic state of remembrance of God.

As the famous poem by the Egyptian Sufi poet Ibn al-Farid says:

“In memory of the beloved we drank wine;

We were addicted to it even before it was made