Pakistan Tour 2025: Hazri at the Dargahs, Salams to Our Ustads, and the Living Source of Qawwali
In December 2025, Fanna-Fi-Allah travelled across Pakistan for a tour of concerts and gatherings, moving from Lahore to Islamabad to Karachi. Each city carried its own energy and its own listening culture, and we were grateful to be welcomed back into the places and communities that have shaped our relationship with Qawwali over many years. Pakistan is not simply a destination for performance, it is part of the living geography of this tradition, and returning there always reorients our hearts and our musicianship.
As meaningful as the concert nights were, what stayed closest to us was the opportunity to offer Qawwali hazri, at the dargahs that remain dear to our path. Among the most moving was visiting Pakpattan Sharif and presenting our kalams at the shrine of Hazrat Baba Farid (ra), a wellspring of barakah and poetry whose presence continues to guide generations of seekers. These moments in the shrines are not “extras” around a tour schedule, they are the inner purpose of why we return, to sit, listen, pray, and remember where this music truly lives.
This journey also carried a tender personal weight. In Faisalabad, we offered our salams at the grave of Tahir Qawwal’s beloved Ustad, Sher Ali Khan, one year after his passing. For Tahir and for our ensemble, Ustad Sher Ali Khan was not only a teacher but a steady spiritual reference point, someone who held the tradition with dignity, discipline, and love. Standing there together was a reminder that the lineage is not an abstract concept, it is made of real relationships, responsibility, and gratitude that continues long after a master leaves this world.
One of the great blessings of the tour was sitting with Ustad Dildar Hussain, who played tabla for Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan for nearly three decades. The entire band was present, along with many of Ustad Dildar’s students, and the gathering felt like a living classroom, a circle of transmission. Tahir was formerly initiated by Ustad ji into the study of Qawwali tabla, and returning together in this way, with the full group, was profoundly meaningful. It was one of those rare moments where history, training, and devotion meet in a single room, without any need for explanation.
Throughout the trip we were fortunate to spend time with mentors and elders who have guided and encouraged us over the years, including Ustad Rahat Ali, Ustad Javed Bashir, Ustad Dildar Hussain, Ijaz Sher Ali, Bakhtiyar Santhu, and others whose company and counsel continue to strengthen our work. These visits are essential for us, not only as artists, but as caretakers of a bridge, a bridge to our teachers, and a bridge to the Sufi shrines that remain our deepest source of inspiration. Each return to Pakistan renews our commitment to carry Qawwali in its traditional and genuine form, with reverence for the saints, gratitude to our Ustads, and responsibility to the lineage that has given us everything.
