“There are two languages that I love: Farsi and Panjabi. Because the depth of Sufi thought in these two languages cannot be found in any other language.”

I like to experiment with my voice, besides music.

I was just studying with my father, a very difficult task for me since he was a great, great Qawwali singer.

From childhood, I had been instructed in the tablaa by my father, along with the astaais and antaraas specific to our Gharana.

People listened to Farsi texts, and to the great texts of our Baba Bulleh Shah, Khwaja Ghulam Farid, Mian Mohammad Bakhsh Jehlmi. People do listen to it these days, but much less than in those days.

As the times change, people change, and so do their tastes, so I try to understand what the public wants, what they require. I have tried to make the music a bit easier for them to understand.

I also like Western classical music and jazz.

You’ve got to sing from the depths of the heart. Without heart, you cannot be a Qawwal.

It is not necessary that the scion of a singing family, even if he sings, can excel in it. In order to reach his peak he has to work very, very hard.

When people start dancing, they dance like they don’t know they are doing it.

Yes, I tried to change the classical style in a way that people who don’t understand it can enjoy.

I do listen to other music though, and try to pick up what is good.

A man learns all his life and dies the day he thinks that he has learnt everything.

I am not a Sufi, but I follow the Sufi.

A performer learns with experience and with age. I did not know the future when I left home and started out to begin my career: I started qawaali; then I met Peter Gabriel and was exposed to a lot of new ideas.

There should be change – the West should understand our music and culture, and vice versa. With such collaboration, artists can come closer to each other and come to know each other.

There is a famous musician, Peter Gabriel, who has used my voice in the movie, ‘The Last Temptation of Christ.’ He used my song in the background.

Perhaps the depth of love can be calibrated by the number of different selves that are actively involved in a given relationship.

The heart of man is very much like the sea, it has its storms, it has its tides and in its depths it has its pearls too.

In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.

Never test the depth of river with both the feet.

Prayer is not asking. Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at His disposition, and listening to His voice in the depth of our hearts.

The real wonders of life lie in the depths. Exploring the depths for truths is the real wonder which the child and the artist know: magic and power lie in truth.

And ever has it been known that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.

The depths of the sea are only water after all.