Amazing grace

SHEIKH Yassin El-Tohami, performing in Cairo this week, is one of Egypt's finest munshids, a singer of devotional songs (madih) that praise the Prophet Mohamed and that serve, above and beyond such praise, to enable the remembrance of Allah, writes Nur Elmessiri.
Back in the late 11th and early 12th century, mainstream canonical, learned Islam -- as embodied by genius of his times Imam Al- Ghazali who till today is called Hujjat Al- Islam -- declared samaa (the remembrance of Allah through listening to music and words set to music composed with this specific purpose in mind) as perfectly, orthodoxly Islamic. Drawing on the Qur'an, the hadith (reported sayings of the Prophet Mohamed) and the pronouncements of the religious scholars who had preceded him, Al-Ghazali provides, in the second volume of his magnum opus Ihyaa Ulum Al-Din which continues to be part of Al-Azhar syllabus, incontestable refutations of the kind of misconceived kill-joy arguments (still around today) that would see madih/samaa as un-Islamic. Apart from its aesthetic value, samaa, Al-Ghazali insists, is spiritually beneficial and good for the heart.
Together with the musicians who travel with him on an almost daily basis throughout Egypt (El-Tohami's home base is in Upper Egypt where madih today has its strongest roots), Sheikh Yassin gives beautiful voice to songs drawn from the highly sophisticated body of Sufi poetry -- particularly poems by late 12th/early 13th century Omar Ibn Al- Farid, who was born in and died in Egypt, and who was a contemporary of Sufi luminaries Jalaluddin Al-Rumi and Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi. Gifted with the ability of giving expression to al-ishq al-illahi (divine love, love of the divine) Sheikh Yassin sings in "Al-Quds":
"My fasting is abstention from seeing any other,
My iftar is that I am towards your Face returning": the Face of the Beloved, the Face that remains when all else perishes, the Divine Face to which all Beauty and Glory belongs, Allah Al- Hayy (Allah the Living).
Thus chant those in attendance swaying to the samaa, heart moved by the love of Allah.
Sheikh Yassin takes the willing listener to realms evoking primal memories of a paradise which we have lost in temporality and at the threshold of which -- while the songs lasts -- the listener attends. From the perils of darkness and the possibility of irrevocable despair on the straight and narrow, to the expansive joy of return, the bliss of Paradise Regained; the spiritual terrain travelled in an hour or two of attentive listening.
Sheikh Yassin's brilliance as a munshid lies in his ability to deliver the memory of profound (often difficult) Sufi poems straight to the heart.
Language, class and creed are transcended. Sheikh Yassin's inshad is living proof of the Egyptian expression "Hearts are with each other."
Though he is perhaps Egypt's most sought after munshid today, Sheikh Yassin El-Tohami is not a modern "star." Whether performing at a village wedding, at the attended by millions moulid of Al-Hussein, or at a concert hall in London or Paris, he wears the traditional Upper Egyptian galabiya, turban, and talfiha (scarf) and his demeanour is that of the traditional "man of God." No matter how much his fans idolise him, Sheikh Yassin has a dignity that is grounded in his being a simple servant of Allah, a man who has put the voice with which he has been gifted in the service of opening hearts to the love and grace of Him whom he serves.
Performances: Cairo Opera House, Small Hall, 11 December, 9:30pm; Beit Al-Harrawi, behind Al-Azhar Mosque, 12 December, 8pm
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