This qawwali was sung by Farid Ayaz and Abu Muhammed, a prominent qawwali group in Pakistan. Farid Ayaz and Abu Muhammad trace their lineage back to Mian Samat bin Ibrahim who was mentored by Hazrat Amir Khusro of Nezamuddin Aualiya of Delhi, 750 years earlier.
Natasha Baig performed Mohammed Iqbal’s Shikwah (complaint) part and the qawwal group performed the Jawab-i-shikwah (response to the complaint) part. In the Jawab-i-shikwah part Maulana Rumi’s couplet in Persian was mixed:
“Baaz aa baaz aa har ja keh hasti baaz aa
Gar kafir wa gibar wa but parasti baaz aa
Ein dar gah e maa dar gah nommedi neest
Sou baar agar toba shakasti baaz aa”
(Turn to you Lord, no matter how much you have transgressed, turn to Him,
If you have become a kafir, or you have started worshipping idols, just turn to Him,
You wouldn’t be helpless or sad here,
If you have failed to remain away from sins 100 times, turn to Him and you will find Him with you)
Mohammed Badiuzzaman saheb has said in his book (Kee jou Mohammed se wafa tou ne tou hum tere hain) that Iqbal always considered Rumi his “peer-o-murshid”. Iqbal in one of his ghazal in Bal-e-Jeebril said about Rumi that:
“Usee ke faiz se mere nigah hai roshan
Usee ke faiz se mere sabou mein hai Jehoun*”
(Maulana Rumi name was Mohammed and laqab was Jalaluddin. His lineage connects to Hazrat Abu Baker. Maulana’s grandfather was a Sufi and married to the daughter of King of Iraq. His place of birth is Balakh. Maulana’s Mausoleum is in Konya, Turkey. I had been to Konya in 2015 to say Salam to Maulana)
*Jehoun (जेहूँ) is a river near town ‘Balakh’ in Afghanistan. There is a place called ‘Tirmiz’ near this river where Mohammad Ibn Essa was residing. He was famous as Imam Tirmiz and wrote a famous and valuable Islamic book ‘Jamai Tirmizee”.