Me neither. In our area, we started getting qtv something like post 2005, and then too only used it for Ahkame Shariat of Akmal Qadri, with just catching some programs here and there. Know nothing about early days and it being instrumental in tahir rise to fame.
how do you mean "at some point"? He was their "celeberrima celebritas" wasn't he? It was a mutually profitable relationship - QTv gained swathes of viewers through him and he in turn gained unprecedented reach. I doubt he had such a sustained viewership ever before. Being a man-of-the-world - intent on gaining fame - he had been recording himself long before Qtv. But those where mostly cassettes and CDs - so when QTv came along, they just dumped the whole stash on what may be considered their "prime time" audience. It is my opinion that they tried to do the same with Pir Saqib Shaami - I don't know how well it went because by that time Madani Channel had debuted and I had weaned myself from QTv. These are my impressions. I don't have any hard figures to back up my claims.
my guess is that QTV is/was owned by a Sunni memon and being business people - and considering that this is mass media, they needed to cater to the masses overall - and avoid polemics - so they ensured content was edited/controlled by Sunnis, with no polemical or un-Sunni topics, even though they got a full spectrum of speakers who identify as Sunnis - Barelwis, tafdilis, light-deobandis and/or wahabis thats why they have the famous karachi deobandi Shujauddin Shaikh on there (i knew about him, as he's from my family's area in khi, so i figured out the above when i saw him on the channel) but i was shocked to know Riaz Shah is a tafdili when i first found out (i think he still appears on there); i believe they have even promoted/advertised events by paqs, and have run tahir's talks too at some point in time. also, a lot of time, some people's aqaid evolved for the worse and they fell from grace. the Rizvi/Ridawi appellation itself is not certain. as a family surname, it's used mainly by rawafid. as a nisbat to silsilah it's used by Barelwis. the matter becomes complicated if/when people use Qadri/Rizvi as surnames in actual identification documents, as back in the day things were not digital and a lot of such official registrations on passports, id cards etc. didn't have a strong vetting process. reminds me of a funny incident at an old place of work. a new guy joins the company and his surname was Rizvi. a deobandi with zameel's kind of mantiq and istidlal asks him, 'so your family hails from Lucknow and your surname is Rizvi, you're a shia, right?', to which the guy promptly replied, 'aap ki logic to boht achchi hai lekin mujhe bataiye zara kaun sa shia apne betay ka first name "Usman" rakhega?'. the deobandi colleague was speechless!
Qari Waheed Zafar Qasmi may not be as Deobandi as JJ or TJ or people like that but at least, he is Deobandi nawaz and has accused Na'atkhwans of shirk.
when you listen to naats of owais in the nineties, you will notice that he noticeably catches breath (audible breathing) and then doesn't have sufficient breath control. compare that to mushtaq's especially in andaleeb e raza. of course, owais of later days is a master. no dispute there.
eeman hai qaal e mustafai in this album is amazing. while owais learned to control his breath later - you can notice that mushtaq bhai's breathing is not heard in his naat, and especially the iman hai qaal e mustafai, which hits high notes without you noticing how he breathes. quite possible. but back in the 90s, just hearsay and assumptions would work. that was the milieu in which we grew up and we didn't pay much attention. if he is not a deobandi, i would be glad about it as many people like his naats. i have no researched info about him being a deobandi or being descended from nanotwi. Allah ta'ala knows best.
Wow, 1993 - before I was even born. That explains why his voice carries such a distinct timbre compared to today. The selection of kalams [intikhab e kalam] in this particular album is amazing too. I think many would concur that there is no one on par with Owais Qadiri when it comes to combining sheer vocal mastery with a nuanced understanding of Alahazrat’s poetry.
Not defending Qari Waheed Zafar here, but where is your reference for him being Deobandi? Because the Qasmi appellation in Pakistan doesn't always apply to someone who is Deobandi or from Nanotwi's lineage. For example, Shaykh Ghulam Rasool Qasmi sahab (hafizahullah ta'ala) uses the 'Qasmi' appellation since he's bay'at to Pir Muhammad Qasim Mashori (Larkana, Sindh) Qari Waheed's biography states his family migrated from UP, India, so there's definitely suspicion there. As an aside, I came across this video from 2022 where he mentions the naat he recited which got him entry into the roza sharif. [Longer video with his explanation of Qaseedah Burdah here]. Interestingly from this video, you can see that he now has a beard (albeit not fist length, but at least better than clean shaven) and the gumbad sharif of AlaHazrat's mazaar in the back. Not saying any of this is proof for his 'qabooliyat' or Sunniyyat, just an observation. Also, if anyone on this forum is in Pakistan and can contact him to find out about his aqeedah, that would put some of this to rest. Maybe he became Sunni or never was Deobandi? Allahu 'alam
i learned that he was not a sunni back in the 90s when he was famous and we avoided his naats as a rule. the qasmi appellation was known to used by graduates of deoband, just like misbahi is a title taken by grads of ashrafia mubarakpur - so it looked like he was associated with deos on the face of it, though we did not have any details. i do not know whether his qasmi title/surname is due to his family or affiliation to madrasah of devband. when we have highly talented naat khwans like owais (in spite of our criticisms) and others - with poetry that is magic, who wants to listen to him?
In one newspaper, his interview was published. He was asked which naat writers he likes and he mentioned many but didn't mention Alahazrat.
notice that he never recites any naat of alahazrat, even though, none of the naats he recites reach 1/1000th of the level of erudition, love, meaningfulness, artistic excellence of any of alahazrat naats. siddiq ismail yusuf memon khurshid ahmed are all sunnis.
galloping gargoyles!! this person became famous via QTv - and for this very recitation - I have never seen him recite anything else. And back in the day, anything on QTv was "sunni" - or so the assumption went. This has gotta be the bonkerest revelation for me in quite a while.
I was made aware that this particular reciter was a qasmi deobandi (even if in name only) Nonetheless the point stands that back in the day naatkhwani wasnt a performing art!
Not too long ago, naatkhwani was actually naatkhwani. The reciter is clean shaven but there's no plastic piety and pompousness either in him or the surrounding or the action itself... https://www.instagram.com/reel/DO6WctyCCyC/?igsh=dHZkbHV2d2V4azRm
some old posts from 2008, when it was an unpopular opinion. https://sunniport.com/index.php?threads/charging-for-deeni-khidmaat.4998/#post-13473 --- this one from 2005 https://sunniport.com/index.php?threads/owais-qadri-website.1731/#post-1954 https://sunniport.com/index.php?threads/interview-with-sami-yusuf-excellent.5347/#post-14678 https://sunniport.com/index.php?threads/owais-qadri.12054/#post-49003 --- repost:
