Mast Nazron Se Allah Bachaye

"Mast Nazron Se Allah Bachaye" (Urdu: مست نظروں سے اللہ بچائے transl. "O God save us from the intoxicating glances") is an Urdu qawwali that was originally composed and performed by Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.^[1][2][3][4] The lyrics were written by Purnam Allahabadi, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, and Farrukh Fateh Ali Khan.^[2] Nusrat had performed live renditions of Mast Nazron Se from the late 1970s onwards, with an official recording released in 1984 by EMI Pakistan.^[5] Mast Nazron Se has been covered and recreated by a number of artists including Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and Jubin Nautiyal.^[6][7]

At its core, Mast Nazron Se describes the intoxicating power of the Beloved's gaze and can be understood as a sincere supplication to the Divine, asking for refuge from the captivating but potentially misleading charm of outward beauty.^[2][4][8] Rather than speaking literally, the qawwali relies on symbolic language and cultural imagery to describe how outward appearances can be misleading.^[4][8] The qawwali opens with a direct appeal to God, asking for salvation from "intoxicated glances" and the "moon-faced ones", which serve as metaphors for people whose attractiveness or charisma can lead one astray.^[2][8] The message introduced here shapes the rest of the qawwali, which delves deeper into the duality of appearances and intentions.^[8] Moreover, the lyrics touch on the hypocrisy of those individuals who may outwardly display piety but harbour desires for worldly pleasures in their hearts.^[8] This tension between how someone presents themselves and what actually resides within them forms one of the central threads of the qawwali.^[8] Set within the wider Islamic Sufi tradition, this qawwali reflects concerns about the distractions that pull seekers away from the inner spiritual path.^[4][8] In this light, Mast Nazron Se invites listeners to look past external beauty and recognize the difference between appearance and truth, urging them to stay alert to the subtle ways charm and attraction can cloud judgement.^[4][8]