The song is in praise of Khwaja Baba of Ajmer Sharif (the founder of the Chishti Sufi order of India) who, according to common belief, brought the tradition of qawwali to the Indian subcontinent. The above song does not have these features but due to some other characteristics, it cannot be categorized under any other genre of Bengali songs connected to Islamic society or religiosity like Karbala-Jarigan, Muslim marriage songs, Fakiri and Marfati. Apart from musical instruments like the harmonium, tabla and bulbul tarang, clapping is used in qawwali as a rhythm instrument. Traditionally, qawwali comes under the category of semi-classical music where the lead singer improvises the melody in certain ragas supported by an echoing group of singers. Although this song was not composed by any Sufi master or performed by any traditional qawwali singer, it can be helpful in understanding Bengali qawwali in terms of its lyrical structure, melody and musical accompaniment. Debaprasad Chakraborty was the lyricist of this song and Mrinal Banerjee the music composer. The lines above are translated and quoted from a Bengali qawwali song released in 2004 in the album Bharat Tirtha sung by the late Manna Dey, who made a great contribution to the music of Indian films, in Hindi as well as numerous regional languages. O naive soul, keep chanting the name of Allah’ Will bear the same fruit as visiting MeccaĪt the Dargah (mausoleum) of our beloved Khwaja
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