By Emb Hashmi
Najam Sheraz is alongside Junaid Jamshed a hugely popular Pakistani artist former pop singer, song writer, music producer, composer and now a peace activist. He is known for his forceful and inspirational vocals and for songs that create social awareness and harmony cross cultures.
Asian World exclusively interviewed this peace predominant soulful musician. We asked why he moved his career from the lucrative pop music industry where he produced music for blockbuster films that paid handsomely to the not so profitable peace promoting Nasheeds.
So tell me what made you switch from pop music to Naseeds?
A few years back, I released my first Nasheed back in 2003 called “Na Tera Khuda Koi Aur Hai, Na Mera Khuda Kui Aur Hai” and it became the best seller. I didn’t have any intention to release it because I had just started reading The Qur’an and Hadiths more deeply and I was so astonished by the message of Qur’an.
For 32/33 years, I had no clue about the treasures hidden in The Qur’an because I was just reciting it in Arabic and I did not understand the meaning behind the words. So that is what motivated me to get into hamds (Nasheeds) and I tried to get the crux of the message given in the Qur’an into “Na Tera Khuda Koi Aur Hai, Na Mera Khuda Kui Aur Hai”.
When I met my teacher, Mr Babar Choudhry who is also the founder of Alrehmanalraheem.com, which is a platform of volunteers which has been working in Pakistan as a TV channel for more than 20 years. That’s when my life changed but I was still doing music and I was busy left, right and centre. But, my performances and concerts all transformed all over the world because all of them started with “Na Tera Khuda Koi Aur Hai, Na Mera Khuda Kui Aur Hai”. So the door was always open but I was still living as a Pop Star, as a Musician. However, change had started in my personal life as all those things like partying and the rock and roll life style that is history. However, two years ago when I did my last musical which was a soundtrack for the film Chambeli, based on the elections in Pakistan, I decided then that enough of self-marketing when Allah has blessed me with so much.
Najam Sheraz concluded in saying he is planning on touring the world to spread his peace harmonious Nasheeds not just within Muslim events but also non-Muslim events.
