Their introduction to music included mentorship by Ustad Ramzan Khan, Ustad Fatehdin Khan, and Ustad Latafat Hussein Khan Bareilly Sharif, and their spiritual master Hazrat Hairat Ali Shah Warsi. That same year Maqbool formed the Bacha Qawwal Party with the help of his father. His first public performance was in 1955 at age eleven. Maqbool Ahmed’s talent was spotted by a schoolteacher, who encouraged Inayat Hussain to direct the boy into a life of music. Ghulam Farid joined the Ustad Kallan Khan’s Qawwali party in India and performed publicly for the first time in 1946 at the age of sixteen, before the family’s relocation to Pakistan. From a young age, both showed musical promise. Maqbool Ahmed, many years his junior, was not yet of age to labor. However, with time, prayer, and commitment, he persevered and recovered his incredible voice.

He had to take on a job carrying bricks to help provide for his family. Continuous physical exhaustion did not agree with his health, compromising his singing ability. Conditions in the camp were dismal, and life was very difficult for the elder brother, Ghulam Farid. They were joined in this training by their brother Kamal Ahmed Sabri. After the Partition of India in 1947, the Sabri’s were transported to a refugee camp in Karachi, Pakistan. Ghulam Farid Sabri, born in 1930, and Maqbool Ahmed Sabri, born in 1945, were trained in both qawwali and Indian classical music by their father, Inayat Hussain Sabri. The Sabri Brothers were part of a Sufi family of singers and instrumentalists, originally from Kalyana, East Punjab, India. They also performed at various special events and spiritual ceremonies. They are notable in the history of qawwali music as the first Sufi musicians to perform in the United States and other Western countries, leaving a lasting mark on the qawwali music industry. Together with this, the Sabri Brothers received numerous prestigious awards in honor of their artistry, including the President of Pakistan’s coveted Pride of Performance award in 1978. Hailing from Pakistan, the Sabri Brothers are famous for their soulful vocals, mesmeric harmonium drones, rhythmic percussion, and thudding tabla compositions, brought forth in praise and devotion to God. Here is a video of the group in performance.The Sabri Brothers are undoubtedly one of the most influential qawwali groups the world has ever known, and their stature prevails throughout the culture of Sufi music. Led by Ghulam Farid Sabri (lead vocals) and Maqbool Ahmed Sabri, the Sabri Brothers, closely tied to the Chishtī Order, performed devotional Sufi music for over thirty years. I hope the group will continue despite this tragic murder of a man of peace. There is Ya Habib on Peter Gabriel’s Real World records in 1990, and Ya Mustapha on the Xenophile label, the world music arm of the Green Linnet celtic music label. Fewer Sabri Brothers CD’s came to the west. Khan recorded many albums, and experimented on various crossover albums with producer Bally Sagoo and Massive Attack (“Mustt Mustt” remix). The Sabri Brothers were an amazing group of performers, though they never toured as much as qawwali superstar Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Now he has been gunned down by fanatics in Karachi at the age of 45.

In 2014, blasphemy charges were brought against him by an Islamabad high court.

It is music of peace and love, the opposite of the Islam of ISIS and other groups who hate and forbid music. Qawwali has been called the “trance-inducing music of the divine.” I have heard it live many times and it indeed spins the mind and soul into a state of ecstasy. The band was founded in 1958 by the late Ghulam Farid Sabri, whose periodic repeat use of “Allah” during songs was to become become a Sabri Brothers signature refrain. Qawwals are singers and performers of qawwali music (the word ‘qawwali’ means ‘utterance’ in Urdu), sufi devotional music by a mystical sect of Islam. Amjad Sabri, who was part of the Sabri Brothers qawwali family in Pakistan.

Gulam sabri brothers qawwali