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A ghazal is a song
that sounds secular on the face of it. There are two extended metaphors
that run through ghazals -- the joys of drinking and the agony of
separation from the beloved. These songs feature exquisite poetry, and
can certainly be taken at face value, and enjoyed at that level. In
fact, in India and Pakistan, ghazal is also a separate, distinct musical
genre in which many of the same songs are performed in a different
musical style, and in a secular context. In the context of that genre,
the songs are usually taken at face value, and no deeper meaning is
necessarily implied. But in the context of qawwali, these songs of
intoxication and yearning use secular metaphors to poignantly express
the soul's longing for union with the Divine, and its joy in loving the
Divine. In the songs of intoxication, "Wine" represents "knowledge of
the Divine", the "Cupbearer" (saqi) is God or a spiritual guide, the
"Tavern" is the metaphorical place where the soul may (or may not) be
fortunate enough to attain spiritual enlightenment. (The "Tavern" is
emphatically not a conventional house of worship.) Intoxication is
attaining spiritual knowledge, or being filled the joy of loving the
Divine. In the songs of yearning, the soul, having been abandoned in
this world by that cruel and cavalier lover, God, sings of the agony of
separation, and the depth of its yearning for reunion.
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