An Oasis of The Soul

Khan, Pakistan's best-known, most talented qawwali singer brought Sufi devotional songs to the West through his collaboration with Eddie Vedder on the soundtrack to Dead Man Walking and Peter Gabriel on The Last Temptation of Christ soundtrack. Qawwali songs, marked by sprawling rhythms and intoxicating lyrics, are the devotional songs of the Sufis — Islamic mystics.

Nusrat Fateh ali Khan was the twentieth century's premier Qawaali, or singer of traditional sufi music. He holds the world's record (verified by the Guinness Book of World Records) for the biggest recording output by a Qawwali artist (a total of 125 albums of recorded music).

He was considered one of the greatest singers ever recorded. He possessed a six-octave vocal range and could perform at a high-level of intensity for several hours.

His family have been musicans and singers of Qawwali (Islamic devotional music) for six centuries. Nusrat's father, himself a singer, died in 1964 when Nusrat was about 16. His father had wanted his son to become a doctor because Qawwali is a very challenging style to learn. Ten days after his father's death, Nusrat had a dream where his father came to him and told him to sing, touching his throat. Nusrat woke up singing, and gave his first public performance at his father's funeral ceremony forty days later.

Nusrat Fateh ali Khan died at the peak of his popularity on August 16, 2007. Khan received the title Shahen-Shah-e-Qawaali (The Brightest star in Qawaali)