though the quiet stance and introverted demeanor of the listener in the proto-

typical Western case and the Hindustani listener are similar, the understanding
and interpretation of what is supposed to happen in each case differs. In one
case, the listener may be exploring the affective nuances of his/her inner self or
identifying with the affective interiors presented by the music: In the other, the
listener is trying to bring about a kind of sea change, a different self altogether,
one that comes closer to divinity,

Music and Ecstasy: The Sufis of the Nizamuddin Shrine, New Delhi
The knowledge ofthe cause why souls receive impressions through sounds belongs
to the most subtle of the sciences of the Revelations which Sufis are granted, and
the foolish, the frozen, the hard of heart, who are shut off from the pleasure of
music and poetry, marvels how he that listens takes pleasure and at his ecstasy and
state of emotion and change of colour, as a brute beast marvels at the pleasure
of almond-candy and the impotent at the pIeasure of sexual intercourse and the
youth marvels at the pleasure of governing and at the pleasure that lies in breadth
of reputation, and as the foolish marvels at the pleasure of the knowledge of God
Most High and the knowledge of His majesty and might and the wonders of His
creation. (al-Ghazzali 1901: 230)

The tomb of the Sufi saint Inayat Khan sits in the middle of a room off the
second -story terrace of a square compound surrounding and opening onto
a central garden courtyard at the Nizamuddin shrine in New Delhi. The archi-
tecture recreates the Mughal-Indian traditions though the building was con-
structed in the twentieth century. As one enters the spiritual sanctuary of the
tomb, one first sees the tomb itself, raised about two feet off the ground, covered
with a golden shawl and littered with flowers. Muslim devotees bow down be-
fore the tomb on entering the room, before moving to the side and sitting on
the floor along the walls to await the beginning of a sama; a concert of sung
religious poetry. On three sides, latticed walls let the light filter through, illumi-
nating the marble floor, the tomb itself and the one solid wall on which are in-
set green marble panels. This is a place of peace, of reverence, an akasha (Iit.,
heaven) where "everything can find its place:' The musicians, called qawwals
in Pakistan and north India, assemble, and begin to sing their songs of devotion
that may move sorne of the assembled devotees to a sense of communion with
Allah, a deeply emotional experience called simply hal, "state" (See Plate 2.)
The leader of the small group of musicians plays the harmonium and is the
lead singer. Although his voice has lost the power it had when he was younger,
he is still a master of the old Farsi (Persian) texts, as well as knowing a large
repertoire of Urdu and Hindu songs. His songs are supported by strongly ar-
ticulated drum patterns played on the dholak. Five other singers form a chorus
that joins him after each new line, repeating the line several times for emphasis;
occasionally one of the other singers will assume the lead and introduce a new
verse, or sing an extended girah, or inserted verse.
Perhaps the first line of the poem has sorne important spiritual association

Habitus of Listening 77
for the listener and he feels moved to rise from his seat, approach the presiding
pir and make a money offering (Qureshi 1986: 201). Incipient arousal at hear-
ing a personallypertinent line or verse may further move the devoteeto strong
swaying or head shaking. On seeing this, the lead qawwal will likely repeat
that line over and over to further stimulate the worshipper to deeper levels of
arousal.A more deeply aroused Sufimay raise his arms, weep, or shout. At this
point, the qawwals mayadd intensifiers"such as extra weight on accented beats
by drums or handclaps, clapping 'double' on half-beats, or gradually increasing
tempo" (Qureshi 1986: 204). If emotional arousal continues to intensify and the
worshipper reaches ecstasy,he will stand up, walk, or dance while the arousing
musicalverse will be repeated loudly in the upper range of the musicians'voice
accompanied by maximum-volume clapping, singing, and drumming. In ac-
knowledgment of the attaining of the ecstatic state by one of their fellowwor-
shippers, first the pir and then all present will rise to their feet. The qawwals
continue playing at high intensity until the ecstasysubsides, believing as they
do that without musical support, the ecstatic might die.
They call such a condition Hal. Ha! means the same as condition; it is an appropri-
ate term for it, because by hearing the drum they think of that condition and then
they enter into it. They need not be very educated to go into that trance, nor very
evolved; sometimes they are very ordinary people, but sound can have such effect
upon them that they are moved to a higher ecstasy. (H. 1. Khan 1994: 107)

Sufis are the mystics of Islam; they are expected to renounce worldly gain,
the pursuit of power in favor of the development of an inner vision, a tuning
of one's sensual and intellectual being to the gnosis of a higher power. For
the saintly Sufi, death is the ultimate union with Allah. Thus it is the death
date, the urs' that is the focus of celebration of a saint's final union with Allah.
Around the final resting place of the body of the saint, a field of possibilities
arisesfor similar seekers.Gravesitesbecome favoriteplacesfor specialinterces-
sory prayers,for meditation, for Qur' anic readings,and for the spiritual concert
sama.
Bythe twelfth century, Sufismhad become an integral part of Islamic socie-
tiesoOrders of Sufi devoteesgrew around the tombs of saints, and missionary
work established Sufi shrines and monasteries from Morocco to the Philip-
pines. The emphasison the power of music to help devoteesattain transcenden-
tal states has alwaysproduced ambivalenceor even opposition among more or-
thodox Muslim clerics.Al-Ghazzali'sextended justification of the use of sama;
The Alchemy of Happiness, written in the early twelfth century, attests to the
felt need of such an apologia. The same defensivenessis encountered today
when speaking with the learned Sufispiritualleader of the Nizamuddin shrine
KhwajaRasan Sani Nizami. The Khwajalikes to tell the story of Aisha,the wife
of the Prophet, who wished to see and hear the musicians playing outside the
wall of their compound. The Prophet himself lifted her up and held her so
she could better enjoy the musical entertainment. Khwaja Rasan Sani Nizami
has other stories, too-pointedly directed to those who oppose his musical re-

78 Deep Listeners
ligious practices. Re tells of camel drivers who sing to their camels to help them
keep traveling without food, water, or rest. With a smile, the saintly Khwaja
Rasan Sani Nizami remarks that sorne camels have more sense than sorne people
(interview with K. R. S. Nizami, Ianuary 1996).
Occupying the low rank of servants to the shrine, like those who sweep the
premises, the qawwals sit farthest from the places of honor, the seat of the spiri-
tualleader or the tomb of the saint. Devotees are not expected to look at the
qawwals while theyare playing but, rather, cast their eyes downward in deep
concentration. When moved by a particular line of poetry, a money offering is
made to the Sufi spiritualleader. Eventually the offering may go to the qawwals,
but not directly. Offerings are indications of homage and love to the Sufi saint,
not payment for musicians. Thus, while the music and poetry of the qawwals
is revered, the qawwal himself is noto The qawwals remain poor and low cast,
although their music may send others into flights of rapture.'
The strongest version of happiness in relation to musical listening and an
example of extreme arousal is ecstasy. Usually associated with religious rituals,
ecstasy, as extreme joy, almost by definition involves a sense of the sacred (al-
though musical ecstasy can justly be claimed by sorne attendees at secular mu-
sical events such as rock concerts). The degree to which Muslim Sufi orders have
formalized and institutionalized musical ecstasy has seldom been exceeded. The
works of al-Ghazzali about music and ecstasy are still basic pedagogical texts
for contemporary Sufisin Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and north India.

Lo! Hearts and inmost thoughts are treasuries of secrets and mines of jewels....
There is no way to the extracting of their hidden things save by the flint and steel
of listening to music and singing, and there is no entrance to the heart save by the
ante-chamber of the ears. So musical tones, measured and pleasing, bring forth
what is in it and make evident its beauties and defects ... and that it bears as fruit
a state in the heart that is called ecstasy; and ecstasy bears as fruit a moving of the
extremities of the body, either with a motion that is not measured and is called
agitation or with a measured motion which is called clapping of the hands and
swaying of the members. (al-Ghazzali 1901-02: 199)

Sufi doctrine interprets the music as supportive, as secondary to the all-

important text, the religious poetry (Qureshi 1986: 83). Yet the question re-
mains: To what degree is the arousal stimulated by the sensual overload of in-
tensifying rhythms and soaring phrases sung over and over again at the top of
the qawwals ranger' If Western deep listeners feel that their secular listening
experiences bring feelings of the sacred, they are likely to feel they have been
blessed in sorne way. The holy feelings are experienced as a special bonus. If a
listener from a community of believers feels blessed by the extraordinary beauty
of the song and his emotional reaction to it, he may worry about the source of
his pleasure: Is it the Holy Spirit or the consummate skill of the very human
musician? The habitus oflisteningfor the devout Sufi, as for the Christian Pen-
tecostal, includes the hope that his emotion derives from spiritual communion,
not simply from a terrific performance. This worry is at least as old as Plato

Habitus of Listening 79
(Timaeus 28 A, B; Republic 401 D) and finds a poignant expression in the Con-
fessions of StoAugustine (fourth century C.E.):

1feel that when the sacred words are chanted well, our souls are moved and are
more religiously and with a warmer devotion kindled to piety than if they are not
so sung. All the diverse emotions of our spirit have their various modes in voice
and chant appropriate in each case, and are stirred by a mysterious inner kinship.
But my physical delight, which has to be checked from enervating the mind, often
deceives me when the perception of the sense is unaccompanied by reason, and is
not patiently content to be in a subordinate place. It tries to be first and to be in
the leading role, though it deserves to be allowed only as secondary to reason. So
in these matters 1 sin unawares, and only afterward become aware of it. (Chadwick
1991:207-08)

Blurring the boundaries between secular and sacred, the pure aesthetic plea-
sure of melodiously sung poetry, the profoundly sensual appeal of soaring voices
and captivating rhythms have been and remain a problem for Sufis. In a manual
about Sufism, Kashf-ul-Mahjub "Unveiling the Hidden" written in Persian by
Hazrat AH Hujwiri (died 1072 c.s.), the author complains that there are two
kinds of people who attend a sama': "those who concentrate deeply upon the
objective and morallessons and the true meaning of Sufi poetry and those fond
of musical concerts" (Siddiqui 1979: 54). The distinction Ali Hujwiri hoped to
make may be problematic.
Between 1737 and 1741, a twenty-year-old nobleman, Dargah Quli Khan
from Hyderabad, was stationed in Delhi as a representative of his home govern-
ment. He wrote a diary in which he describes festivals at Muslim shrines as well
as vivid sketches of many prominent musicians of his day. The language of the
diary is Persian, the court language and the language of the Sufi nobles of the
time, most of whom traced their ancestry to Persia. Writing of a festival at
the Nizamuddin shrine, he indicates the juxtaposition of qawwals and nonreli-
gious entertainers at such events. Figure 3-1 shows the public, central courtyard
of the Nizamuddin shrine with qawwals playing in the midst of a milling crowd.

Every Wednesday the nobles and plebians dress themselves [and gather here] for
pilgrimage and the qawwals perform the ceremony of salutation with full tradi-
tions and regard. On the last Wednesday of the month of Safar an extraordinarily
large gathering, having dressed their hair and adorned themselves, come here.
After paying homage, they go wandering in the gardens in the surroundings of
the blessed mausoleum. Artisans arrange their wares and all kinds of delicious
eatables and other requisites are made available for the visitors. The excess of the
melodies of the minstrels creates a cacophony of music. In every nook and comer
are ventriloquists and dancers who perform to the best of their ability. (D. Q.
Khan 1989:9)

Dargah Khan also criticizes the musicians at a sama: which he calls a mehfils,
violating the Sufi injunction against an aesthetic approach to the sama' cere-
mony:

80 Deep Listeners
Figure 3-LQawwals at Nizamuddin shrine, New Delhi, 1996. Photo by J. Becker.

The authoronce attended one of these mehfils. The deafening and unrhythmic
voice of Chalbal Dhadi sent shudders down the spine of those present, except the
Sufis, who on reaching the state of ecstasy;became immune to the noise. (D. Q.
Khan 1989: 85)

How is one to know if the thrill of a powerfully sung Iine comes from the
spiritual rnessage or the musical dimensión? The message and its medium can-
not easily be separated, Yet the distinction is crucial to the Sufis and they go to
sorne lengthsto delineate it experientially (Qureshi 1986: 121). The Sufi term
kaif, "delight" or "pleasure," indicates an initial, preparatory state of spiritual
arousal that m.ay ultimately lead to the self-negating fana-e-fana, "the passing
away of passingaway" (J. Becker 1993: 94). For a devout Sufi, the distinction
between··kaifand hal is crucial; his musical delight may be a preview, aforetast-
ing of his ultimate communion with Allah. For the medieval Tantric rasa theo-
rists, knowing the distinction between aesthetic delight and the progress toward
enlightenment also indicated a fine and necessary discrimination. The deep lis-
tener may not worry about the distinction. Although both may weep from ex-
cess 'joy, their interpretation of their emotions are not the same.
For a Sufi at a sama: prepared readiness involves a special attentive listening.
In the Muslim tradition, hearing is the most highly valued sense, the ear the way
to spirituality and gnosis. One does not read scripture silently to oneself one

Habitus of Listening 81
listens to it being recited by others, or recited aIoud by oneself. The habitus of
the Sufi listener at a sama' in New Delhi begins with the listener's understanding
of the passages in the Qur' an that remind the faithful of the need to be a careful
listener.
And when the Qur' an is recited, give ear to it and harken, that you may obtain
merey. And remember thy Lord within thyself humbly and with awe, below thy
breath, at morn and evening. And be not of the negleetful. (Qur'an 7: 204-05)

Sufis are concerned to bring about a transformation of ordinary conscious-

ness to make receiving spiritual knowledge possible. Attentive listening is the
path. One does not oneself play the music that will aid in this transformation,
one listens to it being pIayed by the qawwals. The tunes are vehieles for the all-
important texts, which are not Qur'anic verses but which evoke the same kind
of attentive listening as do Qur' anic verses. Sufis are waiting expectantly for that
one verse that speaks to their condition, that affirms the importance of their
presence at the sama' and that may lead them to a richer, fuller spirituality. The
spiritual process of the listener is inseparable from what he hears and how he
hears. Listening is a spiritual skill (Crow 1984: 33). (See PIate 3.)
Lo! Hearts and inmost thought are treasuries of seerets and mines of jewels ... Por
when the heart is moved there is made evident that only which it eontains like as a
vessel drips only what is in it. And listening to music and singing is for the heart a
true touchstone and a speaking standard; ... [K]now that the listening comes first,
and that it bears as fruit a state in the heart that is called ecstasy. (al-Ghazzali 1901-
02: 199)

A Sufi habitus oflisteningat a musical religious ceremony involves a sequence

of emotion and feeling and action that could be called a "script" (Schank and
Abelson 1977: 36-68; Russell1991a, 1991b). Scripts are like liturgies in that they
prescribe a more or less fixed sequence of events but the definition extends be-
yond liturgy to inelude as well the affective, phenomenological responses that
tend to infuse the participants of the liturgy. Initially, while sitting quietly and
reverently, the Sufi listener may hope that he or she will be touched by a par-
ticular line of text that seems directly applicable to his or her personal situation.
If the lead qawwal catches the subtle indications of arousal in a listener, he will
begin repeating the verse over and over again. The Sufi script then calls for sway-
ing, weeping, rising up, moving to the center of the room and slowly turning in
place. Musical emotion, musical feeling, and movement in the listener changes
both its form and its intensity as the script progresses. The affect of the script,
when fully acted out, is the ultimate joy of a direct and personal knowledge of
Allah.

Music and Rage: Balinese Bebuten Trancing

The Rangda/Barong ritual of Bali, Indonesia, is an event invoked to
restore the balance between the world of people and the "other" world of the

82 Deep Listeners
Plate 1. Drawing of a yakka. From Callaway 1829: 10.
Plate 2. Meraj Ahmad Nizami (playing harmonium) and his troupe of qawwals.
Nizamuddin shrine, New De1hi, India. Photo by J. Becker.
Plate 3. Dancing Sufis, from the Kamseh by Djami, sixteenth-century miniature.
From Persische Miniaturen 1960: Plate 18.
Plate 4. Rangda, Balinese witch. Photo by J. Becker.