Look in many a music store and you'll find Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan filed under "world music." At the best of times, it's an uncomfortable label?inextricably associated with trendy advertising soundtracks and middle-class dinner parties, and crassly combining genres as diverse as Berber Amazigh and Mexican huapango under the same marketing conceit. But shortly before his death, Khan was becoming one of the very few so-called world-music artists to transcend this pigeonhole: growing numbers of international listeners were appreciating his art as extraordinary music, period.

Guinness world records

FAISALABAD: Singer and musician Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was remembered on his 65th birth anniversary on Sunday.

Khan, who hailed from Faisalabad, was born on October 13, 1948. His father, Ustad Fateh Ali Khan, a prominent musician, vocalist and qawwal, taught him the eastern classical music.

When Khan was 16, his father died. Khan made his first public appearance at his father’s chehlum; and never looked back.

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan: The singing Buddha

REPLUG: For Shahenshah-e-Qawal, excellence was a spiritual state.

///Sher Khan/Creative Essa Malik/Jamile NaqiNovember 17, 2013

"When I sing for God, I feel myself in accord with God, and the house of God, Mecca, is right in front of me. And I worship. When I sing for Mohammed, peace be upon him, our prophet, I feel like I am sitting right next to his tomb, Medina, and paying him respect and admitting to myself that I accept his message." - Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, May 1997.

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, (born October 13, 1948, Lyallpur [now Faisalabad], Pakistan—died August 16, 1997, London, England), Pakistani singer who is considered one of the greatest performers of qawwali, a Sufi Muslim devotional music characterized by simple melodies, forceful rhythms, and energetic improvisations that encourage a state of euphoria in the listener.

Naheed Nusrat, wife of internationally acclaimed music legend Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, succumbed to illness on 13th September 2013 at the Credit Valley Hospital in Mississauga, Ontario. The wife of the late musical maestro had moved to Canada after the demise of her husband and had been ill since the past one month. She is survived by a daughter.

Singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan died on Saturday, a day meant for the anniversary of Elvis Presley's death. Yet the surprise passing of this Muslim star shocked the music world more than Presley's sad demise 20 years ago.

It reveals how much music - and the world - have widened since the days of Presley. Elvis was known via stage, movies and music; Nusrat commanded all these, in addition to "enhanced" CDs and online Web sites. Born in Pakistan, he became a global phenomenon, recognized in 1995 by UNESCO as "The World's Greatest Musician."

Without doubt the most important qawwal is Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Party -- "Party" is a generic term for a qawwali ensemble but is also used in Sikhism and to describe some classical music ensembles, for example, shehnai maestro Bismillah Khan & Party. Dubbed Shahen-Shah-e-Qawwali (the Brightest Star in Qawwali), he was born on October 13, 1948, in Lyallpur in the Punjab Province of Pakistan. He made his first recording in 1973 in Pakistan and a number of early EMI (Pakistan) albums jointly billed him with his uncle Mubarak Ali Khan.

Rahat, 41, is emotional, sensitive and romantic. He is loyal with a clean heart, but he prefers to remain diplomatic as he doesn’t want to hurt anyone. He is always smiling and is extremely naughty and childlike. He is shy with a lot of self-respect and like his mother always told him, he has a lot of hausla.