ABSTRACT
In a quote reported in the British national daily newspaper The Guardian, Abida Parveen reportedly confesses to being in a state of be-khudī while in the midst of a performance:
The concept of being a man or a woman doesn’t cross my mind. I’m neither on stage, I’m a vehicle on stage for passion.
‘Queen of Sufi Music’ is the title currently held by this internationally renowned Pakistani singer of Qawwali, Sufiana Kalam, and multiple other forms of devotional music associated with the Sufis of South Asia. Yet most of the men and women of Sufi orders in India and Pakistan – the pīrs who direct the orders, their families, and disciples – will tell you that Abida Parveen is not really a Sufi, but merely a singer of Sufi music. Such differences over nomenclature belie a question that has followed Sufism for most of its existence – ‘Who is a Sufi?’ – and hint at the intricate web of significances attached to the idioms of Sufism.