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Koi Bole Ram Ram — Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan Cross-Tradition Qawwali
Koi Bole Ram Ram — "someone chants Ram Ram" — is a composition associated with the nirgun bhakti tradition — the devotional poetry of figures like Kabir and Guru Nanak who addressed God without attributes, beyond the Hindu-Muslim binary that defined their historical context. This kind of material in Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's repertoire represents the cross-traditional range of Punjabi sufi practice, which genuinely did not always respect the boundaries that later sectarian movements tried to enforce retroactively.
The Cross-Traditional Reality of Punjabi Sufi Music
Most of his qawwalis are in Punjabi, Hindi and Urdu, reflecting the multilingual character of the tradition he worked within. He has great English, Urdu, Punjabi and Hindi language skills, and his engagement with material like this demonstrates that linguistic and traditional range in practice. The Pakistani qawwali tradition performs kalam from poets who were themselves Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs — because the sufi understanding is that divine love transcends these categories, not that it ignores them.
This is the same territory that Sher Miandad Khan and Jhoole Laal Maizik Tuch material explores from different angles. Meher Ali's recordings are closer to the exclusively Islamic strand of the tradition.
Free Download and Streaming
Koi Bole Ram Ram is available on iRulz for free streaming and mp3 download. The full Nusrat catalogue across all his multilingual recordings is accessible in the same library.
FAQ
Is it appropriate for a Muslim qawwal to perform Ram Ram? Within the sufi tradition, yes — the argument is that the divine name, regardless of the linguistic tradition in which it appears, points toward the same reality. This has been controversial at various points in Islamic history but remains part of the qawwali tradition.
Who was Kabir? A 15th-century Indian poet-saint whose doha couplets are among the most widely known in the nirgun bhakti tradition. His work influenced both Hindu and Muslim devotional literature and continues to be performed in qawwali and other devotional music traditions.
Is this typical of Pakistani qawwali or unusual? It is less common than Islamic-specific kalam but represents a real and historically continuous strand of the Punjabi sufi tradition.
You may also enjoy the qawwali of Sher Miandad Khan, Jhoole Laal, and Meher Ali. Listen to more qawwali of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.