Okay, I know I said I will not post till after exams, but this is a special case! Just a quick news - and no more, inshaAllah! A few days ago, I emailed a few of my favourite nasheed artists with some lyrics. One of the emails bounced back and I have not heard any replies from Dawud Wharnsby's facebook message. Of course, these people are very busy and I do not expect a quick reply!
But, to my surprise, when I checked my email this morning, a reply to 'lyrics for Zain Bikha' was sitting there. My heart jumped as far and as fast as it could.
This was my email:
Assalamu Alaikum Zain Bikha,
The first time I have heard your songs was when I came to Australia at the age of 11. I loved your songs for a while, for 2-3 years. Then, I moved away from Allah (swt) and stopped a lot of my previous practises, for example, listening to nasheeds. Recently, I have, alhamdulillah, returned to Him again and one of my friends gave me the link to First You Need the Love. I must say, there have been a tremendous improvement and I started to love your songs again! I often listen to First You Need the Love, Who I am, I Remember Your Smile and Mum and Dad. Now, at 19, along with Dawud Wharnsby Ali and Talib Al Habib, you are again one of my favourite nasheed singers.
I have recently started to write songs myself. Since I am a female, there is no way that I can publish any songs. I was wondering if you take lyrics and sing them? I would love to get a response from you! Here is my most recent lyrics. I sincerely hope and pray that Allah (swt) accepts your dawah, and that I can help you to do so! I know you are a very busy person, but I would really appreciate a feedback on these lyrics! :)
Verse 1:
A thousand words clog my head, as a
Million thoughts suffocate my mind;
I cannot sleep, I cannot wake up,
I know its too late to look behind.
Pre-chorus:
I wonder, I'm fearful,
About what the future holds here,
I don't know if I am enough
To bear it on my shoulders.
Chorus:
Oh Lord, give me strength,
Allah, make me brave,
Let me remember
You're there to save me.
Let me gather up these negative thoughts,
Light a fire and burn;
Oh God, give me faith.
Let me return.
Verse 2:
I try to clear those letters up, I,
I pick them up to throw away,
They cling to me like frustration, and
Like a broken record, they play
Pre-chorus 2:
They stay, won't let go,
I utter hateful nonsense still;
Then I realise the only way
Those words would leave would be
If I killed, I murdered them
With words.
I raise my hands.
Chorus.
A thousand words clog my head, as a
Million thoughts suffocate my mind;
I cannot sleep, I cannot wake up,
I know its too late to look behind.
Pre-chorus:
I wonder, I'm fearful,
About what the future holds here,
I don't know if I am enough
To bear it on my shoulders.
Chorus:
Oh Lord, give me strength,
Allah, make me brave,
Let me remember
You're there to save me.
Let me gather up these negative thoughts,
Light a fire and burn;
Oh God, give me faith.
Let me return.
Verse 2:
I try to clear those letters up, I,
I pick them up to throw away,
They cling to me like frustration, and
Like a broken record, they play
Pre-chorus 2:
They stay, won't let go,
I utter hateful nonsense still;
Then I realise the only way
Those words would leave would be
If I killed, I murdered them
With words.
I raise my hands.
Chorus.
JazakAllahu Khairan! May Allah increase your rewards by manifold!
And this was the reply that I got:
In the name of God, The Beneficent, The Merciful
As-Salaam-u-Alaikum
Thank you so much for your e-mail and wonderful words of encouragement. We, at Zain Bhikha Studios truly appreciate your support and the sole purpose of all our productions is to inspire the hearts towards Allah / God.
The lyrics you have sent through are very good Masha-Allah and we will definitely keep this in mind for future productions.
As a gift to you, we would like to send you a complementary set of all Zain Bhikha's CDs. Can you please provide me with a physical address to send this to you?
Please remember us in your prayers and keep in touch. May Allah grant you happiness and peace, always.
Please stay in touch on our official website www.zainbhikha.comand do not forget to become a fan on www.facebook.com/
You can also purchase all Zain Bhikha’s songs from www.cdbaby.comor http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/
Sincerely,
--
Now, of course, I realised it probably wasn't written by Zain himself, but hey! Its a wonderful email! Maybe, after all, there is a chance that something will be done with my work? Maybe my dreams will come true!
Just had to put it out there.
Congratulations :)
ReplyDelete"I know its too late to look behind" ei line ta amar kase khub valo lagse
thanks!
ReplyDeleteL,
ReplyDeleteYour lyric is really nice (like I always say, all of your writings are) but is there any reason to think you can't sing a song? I think not. You can sing even if you are a female. What's so wrong in that? I think any song with a good lyric is worth singing (be it by a male vocalist or a female). As to the matter of Islamic restrictions, I think it's not quite an order from Allah that no female can give a vocal in a song, I thing there's a lot of debate on that subject. I don't know for certain, but I thing singing a 'good' song is ok. What do you think? I must confess, I'm not as virtuous as you :D perhaps, but I think songs are source of great joy and it really sounds partial on Allah's side to permit it for men and not for women. As far as I know, there's no law from Allah that could appear unfair to human understanding.
anyway, nice post and about your lyrics- KEEP IT UP!
Oh I forgot I wrote that in the email!
ReplyDeletelol I don't have singing voice anyway, so even if I had no objections to it, I couldn't!
Um... to be completely honest, I have never researched about it, because I have never questioned it. Having grown up in a religious family, I have never seen female singers. I have come across a few hadiths about professional female singers, but I will not comment on them because I haven't 'studied' them.
I would not say anything to any other female singers out there, because I am not clear on Islam's stance and reasonings on this. But at the same time, I don't want to say its okay because I don't know if it is! I don't want to give any opinion as "Islam's" opinion, because I don't know everything Islam says about this subject! I might research and tell you later. :)
But, for me, at this point, its a personal choice. And, part of the reason is that, like I said, I have grown up with a religious background. Some things were never explained to me, but I never questioned them, because it came so naturally to me anyway. And I assumed that Zain Bikha, as a nasheed singer, would be able to see it from my point of view too. But of course, thats not an excuse not to know and understand why so. I just haven't gotten round to it yet.