Would most hadras we see not fall under 'dhikr beats' as well though? I see a lot of hadras, shadhili ones i listen to for example, have this same sort of beat in the background of the poetry. edit: adding onto this, has anyone noticed how some naatkhwans take sharp breath intakes between words to create rhythmic beats in their naats? i don't know if its deliberate or not.
yes lot of muftis cite this reason and to be honest it is valid on its own as a fiqh technicality. the tune/melody/tarz on its own is just like a car. you can drive it to the mosque or the pub. another very valid point is that religious and pious people might not be aware of what's going on in the world of entertainment. in fact this is true of anyone who is tuned out of anything. career oriented people, businessmen, people not knowing a language, etc. you or i wouldn't know the songs in Pashto or Malayalam maybe. in a hilarious episode from bollywood itself, not one soul in india recognized that one famous plagiarist outright stole the tune of the yahoodi national anthem. the nation only realized it when it was played at the olympics! i know hindus who have lost it with IPL and don't know what's going on there. i had to actually google what's going on with UEFA to find out liverpool is at the most points right now. but when you consider maslaha-mafsada points, it's not so simple... am starting a new thread for it.
Unless it falls under the hukm of imitating/emulating the manners/customs/practices of non-believers.
Tarz/raag/tune is tarz, whether it's original or plagiarised/adapted. Copied tune per se wouldn't make it impermissible. Owais Qadri has claimed publicly that he devises his own tarz for every naat. On that count, this particular naat (posted below) obviously belies his claims to originality. Especially, in this case it is clear that the lyrics of this naat were written specifically with the particular film song tune in mind (these days, most bollywood songs are first scored with music, and then the lyrics are written to fit the music). As pointed below, this naat has been set to a song sung by tawaif in the movie. That itself, makes it abhorrent. But keep in mind, that most older bollywood songs were based on classical raag/ragas, so it is possible that the tune itself is classical in origin. I personally find it painful to listen to naats based on movie song tunes. But surprising many of the naats recited in 1970/1980/1990s before the advent modern/commercial naatkhwani also freely borrowed the movie tunes. Mawlana Ejaz Saeed Kampti was a famous naat writer/reciter in 1980s, and I found that few of his naats were based on popular movie songs of those days. These days the latest trend is to recite Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's qawwalis as naat. Although unoriginal, these naats strip out music and clapping (that accompanies qawwali) and allow one to listen without karahat. Thankfully, the fad of 'background dhikr beats' died when ulemas deemed it impermissible. As Mufti Shahryar noted, without echo/mic sound setting many naatkhwans will sound besura.
Ulama well acquainted with tafaqquh like Shaykh Abu Hasan can maybe tell us: Would it make a difference if the song was old and forgotten? Like, what Owais Bhai is reading here is current. It's been remixed within recent memory. But there may be older songs that have been forgotten and I can think of naats that have been read like that.
And what makes it even worse is that the actual song portrays a tawaif singing for her customers. Shame on all these naat khwan!
Note that this is neither a first in the field of naatkhwani itself nor a first by Owais Raza as a celebrity nor by anyone else. Copying hollywood and other countries music, storylines, genres etc is SOP in bollywood (pajeets have zero creativity in this creative field) Copying bollywood tunes and meters has been SOP in the naatkhwani and qawwali industry (both sides of border) since Y2K at least. (Aside: copying bollywood fashion and fawning over bollywood pajeets is SOP for pakistani modernists)
