Qawwali and the quest for divine truth

Abstract

This thesis examines how Sufi devotional expression, particularly within the qawwali tradition, reorients faith away from fear and reward toward an overwhelming attachment to divine love. Through readings of “Chaap Tilak,” “Saqia Aur Pila,” “Tu Kuja Man Kuja,” and “Tajdar-e-Haram,” it traces how motifs of wine, intoxication, annihilation (fanaa), and distance operate as symbolic modes through which nearness to the Divine is articulated. Rather than opposing Islamic orthodoxy, these texts inhabit a liminal theological space in which inward experience unsettles the certainty of outward structures. Drawing on frameworks such as transgression and apophatic thought, this study shows that qawwali does not resolve doctrinal tension but sustains it, allowing metaphor to carry meanings that exceed rational and juridical language. Within this framework, heaven is no longer the final horizon of devotion. Instead, faith emerges as an ongoing movement shaped by longing, where nearness to the Divine is sought not as arrival but as continuous orientation.