Siddiqui touched the hearts of millions after his song ‘amar gaye joto dukkho shoy’ (the sadness that comes upon me) was broadcast on BTV.
He found songs of Rashid Uddin Baul and Ukil Munshi to be the best in Siddiqui’s voice. The late director and writer Humayun Ahmed was impressed by Siddiqui when he played flute on his birthday at his home in 1993. Siddiqui received guidance from Indian guru Pandit Bhiji Kanard in Pune in the 1990s, and upon return to Bangladesh, he started composing songs blending folk and Dhrupad. He started studying Dhrupad, a genre in classical music, under the guidance of Ustad Gopal Dutta.Įventually the singer started taking interest in flute and took training. Siddiqui got involved with the Netrokona Shilpakala Academy in the 1970s. Ustad Aminur Rahman offered to coach him after his performance at a concert. Aminur Rahman, Dabir Khan, Panna Lal Ghosh were some of his teachers as well. He also trained under artiste Gopal Dutta in his early days. He took lessons in music at an early age in his family. Many of Siddiqui’s film songs, mostly folk-based and spiritual, are still popular among music lovers. “Such diktats are anti-Islamic as Namaz-e-janaza is a fundamental right of a Muslim,” he says, adding “It is a part of a Muslim’s last rites.Siddiqui’s musical talent became widely recognised in the 1990s when he performed as a playback singer in Humayun Ahmed’s films. Executive Committee member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), Maulana Khalid Rasheed, however, strongly opposes the diktat of Bareilly's dargah. He however refuses to comment any further on the issue. So there is no scope for a debate on the issue,” says Maulana Ashraf Usmani, the spokesperson of leading Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Deoband. The fatwa does not call for Muslims not to offer Namaz-e-janaaza for people declared as terrorists. “Darul Uloom had earlier issued a fatwa on terrorism. “An individual’s actions during his lifetime should not be a yardstick to decide such issues,” irrespective of his actions in his lifetime,” he says. “A person who dies as a Muslim is entitled for the final prayers before his burial takes place,” he says. “I have sought a reply from Mufti on the issue,” he says. But Mufti Saleem Noori of has found opposition within his sect as cleric Mualana Tauqueer Raza Khan does not approve of his idea. “But here the important point is that the individual in question is tried before an Islamic court and proven guilty of such an act beyond doubt,” he says. “In an Islamic court, if it is proved that an individual has killed innocents then one should not offer the last prayers held before his burial,” he says.
Senior Shia cleric Maulana Kalbe Jawwad also approves of Mufti Saleem's approach, but with a rider. “Those who indulge in acts of terror cease to be a Muslim and there is no question of offering their namaz-e-janaza,” he says. Mufti Saleem Noori of Dargah Ala Hazrat, who issued the diktat, says that Islam does not permit killing of innocents. The Dargah’s diktat was based on the premise that that Islam did not approve of terrorism and those who indulge in such acts couldn’t be considered as Muslims and therefore the prayers before burial should not be offered for them. A section of clerics have come strongly against a recent diktat of Bareilly-based Dargah Ala Hazrat that no namaz-e-janaza should be offered for terrorists. LUCKNOW: With Supreme Court upholding the death sentence of 1993 Mumbai blast accused Yakub Memon, Muslim clerics have come up with diverse views over whether terrorists merit a namaz-e-janaza (last prayers before the burial) or not.