Why Kun-Faya-Kun just makes my mind Null and gives me a little glance of Enlightenment
Sufi songs have long established themselves in the Bollywood thanks largely to Kailash Kher, Javed Ali etc. People have adored and immersed in the Sufi renditions.
Kun faya Kun is one such song. Penned by Irshad Kamil, music of the maestro AR Rehman and the voice of Mohit Chauhan-Javed Ali make the song immortal.
When I searched meaning of this song online, I could only find it’s translation. This boggled my mind. Why has no one ever given any thought to the beauty of this song and what message it conveys.
So this is just an attempt to jot down my reflections on the song. It can be really stupid and I will be happy if you put forward your thoughts too.
First of all Kun faya kun means “Be and it is”. The prayer song begins by requesting the God to come and fill the void in devotee’s life.
The song calls the creator a 'Dyer - Rangrezaa’, one who colors as in the one who makes us. Dyer’s identity as the Creator is further cemented by stating that he was there when there was nothing.
For me, the major theme of this song is the selflessness and surrendering to the almighty.
It starts taking effect when the protogonist asks the Creator to color his body and the mind. And in the next line, he says take away this color, body and mind if you wish to. Implying that nothing belongs to us, it’s all his.
The melodious verses praising Allah then follow in Arabic. The next line though is the most special stanza of the song.
“Arz tujhe, kar de mujhe mujh se hi rihaa..ab mujhko bhi ho deedar mera..”
He pleads God to liberate himself from himself. The idea being that we all are the same, parts of a great soul or the soul of universe.
We are nothing without the soul, which belongs to the Creator. Our body and our mind is just a rented property for the time we are alive. They will diminish or disintegrate once we die. But the soul lives on. This soul is nothing but the part of universe soul which manifests within all of us.
Perhaps the devotee wants to see the God, he wants to be selfless, he wants to see the soul. He asks for independence from himself. He is longing to be the part of the Creator perhaps, by leaving his own self behind.
In next lines, he describes how he has gone astray and carries a feeling of living without any purpose. He confesses being lost and asks for mercy.
The singer then expresses his deepest sorrow by saying “Tune mujhko banaya, Mai to jag ko na bhaaya” (You created me but the world showed affection)
But the almighty cares for him. The singer glorifies the Lord revealing the fact that God embraced him when everyone else turned away.
Thus he states that the God/Creator/Almighty is the only truth.
The song is magical. As is the case with most devotional songs, this also contains healing power in times of despair.
It takes you into a different zone altogether. Suddenly you start thinking about things you would never otherwise. I think that is when we are actually being human.
