'Music' in Muharram?

'Music' in Muharram? – Debate Goes Without Any Effect on Admirers of Imam Husain

By Prof.Mazhar Naqvi

Follow @ProfMANaqvi Tweet Tweet #TwitterStories Music is not allowed in scriptural Islam as it distracts one’s mind and senses away. Yet it happens to be an integral part of Muharram ceremonies observed in Indian sub-continent to remember the most tragic event of Islamic history-Martyrdom of Prophet’s grandson Imam Husain at Karbala in 680 AD. Shahnai Wizard Bharat Ratna Ustad Bismillah Khan even used to play Nauhas in one of the most famous azadari processions of Varanasi every year till his death.    

The instruments performed during Muharram vary by location but dhol- tasha, or the cylindrical drum dhol, the shallow kettle-drum and cymbals, jhanjh nare commonly used ones at most of the places. Other important instruments include deep kettle- drums (naqqara), frame drums (dappu, especially in the south), double-reed aerophones with conical bore (shahnal), and sometimes bagpipes or Western marching band instruments. Some rhythmic patterns and melodies translate across different musical ensembles and exist in regional variants.

Being forbidden, music should not be used during Muharram rituals. This issue has been a subject of debate for centuries with a proper solution still awaited. In south Asia, "music" usually means the sound of musical instruments. Shias do not usually disqualify unaccompanied tuneful renditions of poetry on musical grounds if the textual genres are closely associated with Muharram. To perform such genres as marsiya, Soz, Salam or Nauha does not amount to singing as they are recited and not sung. But even these genres can be rendered too musically. In Hyderabad Deccan however, Soz failed to flourish, for   Hyderabadis consider it too musical. 

Drumming, like reciting, lies at the juncture of music and non-music, and may be interpreted as one or the other according to circumstance. Musical or quasi-musical events take place in two distinct types of contexts during Muharram: the mourning assembly (majlis) and processions (Julus). Drumming never takes place during a majlis usually held in Imambaras. All the forms of recitation associated with Muharram may be constituents of majlis. Nauha performance is common during processions, since this metric and tuneful recitation is performed in conjunction with matam. Most drumming takes place either during moving processions or outdoors in public gatherings. This important distinction between "music" and tuneful recitation of a sacred text is rooted in Islamic understandings of Quaranic recitation( Qirat) that shares somewhat musical parameters.

Abdul Halim Sharar, the author of ‘Guzishta Lucknow’ also describes musical contests during Muharram, in which skilled Tasha players performed for hours at a time "issuing challenges to all." Wajid Ali Shah, the last ruler of Lucknow, used to perform Tasha while  leading a procession on the 7th of Muharram in Matiya Burj, Kolkata.

Admirers of Imam Husain have always ignored the controversy over the use of musical instruments in Muharram rituals. They consider Muharram drumming as an indicator of pure Gham (sorrowful)." Tazidars like Shabban Khan and Nadeem explained to author at Makanpur, where each household keeps a Tasha and Dhol fur use in Muharram procession exclusively” There are two kinds of josh (fervor)-Masti (intoxication in the manner of some Sufi sects), when emotion builds up and  cause one to become behosh (crazy/unconscious/intoxicated), is haram (forbidden); the other type of josh occurs when drummers become so engrossed in playing that they feel propagating the message of Husain with tears in their eyes, it is Halal( Lawful) . In Makanpur, they play with the help of Tasha, Dhol, Drum and Casio “Aie Zameen-E-Karbala, Teri Jasarat ko Salam”( Salute to you the land of Karbala for your courage) whole day and night on 9^th and 10^th day of Muharram.

At other places , the experet drummers play "Today, in Medina, Sughra is crying with tear-filled eyes" (aj sughra yu n madTne men hain roff bhar ke nain).Another poipular Nauha they us is "when Fatima [Husain's mother, the daughter of the Prophet] came from paradise, saying 'oppressed Husain' " [jab fatmah firdaus se yeh kehti aai mazlum husaina].The performance of matam evokes for these drummers the impassioned grief of the Prophet's daughter for her son, Husain, who sacrificed himself for protecting the true tenets of Islam.

Mrs. Meer Hassan Ali's description of a Muharram procession, presumably from Lucknow and dating back to the period she spent in Awadh( 1816 and 1828) gives an idea about the use of musical instruments. She writes “  The whole line of march is guarded in each procession by burkhandhars (matchlock men), who fire singly, at intervals, on the way. Several bands of mu- sic are dispersed in the cavalcade, performing solemn dirge-like airs, peculiar to the style of composition in Hindustan, and well suited to the occasion, - muffled drums and shrill trumpets, imitating the reiteration of 'Hasan, Husain,' with Mortem [Matam] is performed. I remember a fine female elephant, belonging to King Ghauzee ood deen Hyder, which had been so well instructed, as to keep time with the soundings from her proboscis with the occasional Mortems . “

The details of this rich account call for attention. Mrs. Ali's twelve years' experience of Muharram as a mournful context probably influenced her interpretation of the band music as "dirge-like" She notes contrasting timbres, "muffled drums and shrill trumpets." The muffled effect of the drums - probably not Tashas, but Naqqaras - may have been a result of the instruments being performed with the hands, as they sometimes are and apparently were. More generally, when Dhols or Naqqaras are played in a procession, their upper partials dissipate over the distance, losing their reverberation in the mass of bodies.

 But is shrillness appropriate for Muharram or appropriate merely for the trumpet? Can shrillness be considered as iconic of human cries of woe, as Mrs. Ali's description indicates? If so, that might explain why shrill, bright timbres, unlike their percussive analogues, are not criticized when they are issued upon aero phones.

From his regular participation in Muharram processions for the past forty years at Makanpur where herds of children are seen drumming with Tasha and Dhol since the sighting of moon, the author has understood and his opinion is supported by Sajjada Nasheens of shah Madar’s Dargah that  three styles of Dhol-Tasha performance  refer to three phases of the battle of Karbala. The first, regular tempo indicates  marching of troupes, like  "left-right-left-right", the accelerated, loud, and feverish drumming signals the attack and finally, a regular, slow, calm and quiet style of drumming marks the  last moment when Imam Husain is martyred”