Abida Parveen- Man Kunto Maula

If anything was this addictive. Stunning. I can never listen to this just once. The poem, the music, and the voice. Words can’t do justice to this masterpiece.

“Man Kunto Maula” was written by Hazrat Amir Khusro

Wikipedia says the following about him...

“Ab'ul Hasan Yamīn al-Dīn Khusrow (1253-1325 CE) (Persian: ابوالحسن یمین‌الدین خسرو; Hindi: अबुल हसन यमीनुद्दीन ख़ुसरो ) , better known as Amīr Khusrow Dehlawī (امیر خسرو دہلوی; अमीर ख़ुसरो दहलवी ), was an Indian musician, scholar and poet of Persian descent. He was an iconic figure in the cultural history of the Indian subcontinent. A Sufi mystic and a spiritual disciple of Nizamuddin Auliya of Delhi, Amīr Khusrow was not only a notable poet but also a prolific and seminal musician. He wrote poetry primarily in Persian, but also in Hindavi.

He is regarded as the "father of qawwali" (the devotional music of the Indian Sufis). He is also credited with enriching Hindustani classical music by introducing Persian and Arabic elements in it, and was the originator of the khayal and tarana styles of music. The invention of the tabla is also traditionally attributed to Amīr Khusrow. Amir Khusrau used only 11 metrical schemes with 35 distinct divisions. He has written Ghazal, Masnavi, Qata, Rubai, Do-Beti and Tarkibhand.

A musician and a scholar, Amīr Khusrow was as prolific in tender lyrics as in highly involved prose and could easily emulate all styles of Persian poetry which had developed in medieval Persia, from Khāqānī's forceful qasidas to Nezāmī's khamsa. His contribution to the development of the ghazal, hitherto little used in India, is particularly significant.”

The very first of his works to attract me

Khusro dariya prem ka, ulti va ki dhar,
Jo utra so dub gaya, jo duba so par.

Khusro! the river of love has a reverse flow
He who enters will drown, he who drowns will get across.