The Islamic Garden
Abdullah Rolle
Abdullah Rolle was born in
Before
converting
to Islam, Rolle worked in the music industry for about twenty years. He
grew up
with one of his sisters playing guitar and classical piano, and he
learned piano
when he was young. He studied music in
Rolle
remembers, “Friends took me to a music workshop and I saw a well-known
artist
recording and I was amazed. The whole thing – the recording in the
studio, all
the buttons to push and the bright lights fascinated me.” During his musical career
he was playing
piano, but he never really got into singing. He studied piano and the
basics of
music, like scales and he worked long hours at this. He was soon to
discover he
was a talented singer. “One day at a workshop I got a microphone and
started to
sing. Lots of people were listening and liked my sound. That was when I
started
to develop my singing ability,” says Rolle. With natural talent, Rolle
spent about
three years studying music and vocal arrangement and enjoyed being with
musicians.
He used to go to studios and shows and saw how the whole business runs.
In those
days, he produced albums for Sinead O Connor in
Finding Islam
Rolle
observes that there are not many positive messages in music today. He
stopped
listening to mainstream music a year after becoming a Muslim. At first
people
tried to introduce him to Islam but he was not ready to listen. He had
been
taught about Jesus, not Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). At
that
time he was continually around musicians and had adopted their
lifestyle. At
the same time, he was interested in learning about current affairs and
was
amazed at how the media so readily attacked Islam and Muslims.
Especially after
the invasion of
Before
accepting Islam, Rolle was teaching music to children in city learning
centers.
He focused on the needs of troubled youth who were having problems at
home and
had become lost in society. After becoming Muslim he drifted away from
this,
fearing that music is not permissible but having his own studio he was
to find
himself still drawn toward composing and singing.
Nasheed
Artist Emerges
He was
using his studio to prepare CDs of scholars’ lectures. He had not
intended to get
involved in music again but then one day he was watching Islam Channel
and saw
nasheed artists. Even though the songs were excellent, he was not
satisfied
with their performance. He found that Zain Bhikha was the best.
However, until
then he was still not thinking about singing himself. Then one day he
went to his
studio, and felt inspired to write a song and he started to sing. He
wrote the
chorus in one day and composed at the same time. He put the beat for
the timing
and put the chords to keep in tune. Then he pulled the beat and the
music out
and did the backing vocals and put some layers. That was about one year
and a
half ago.
He did
not have the intention to do anything more with nasheeds after that. He
just wanted
to finish the song and it took a while to do that. What made him move
on to the
second song was a brother who had asked him to convert his tapes to CDs
and Rolle
played the song to him. The man loved it and encouraged Rolle to make
some more
songs. He was busy at that time, but he persevered and after three
months the brother
helped him get some sponsors. Rolle writes most of the lyrics himself
and also does
the composing.
While
recording
his current CD he was going through a very difficult time. “By the
grace of
Allah I was able to finish the album. I’m just hoping that Allah
accepts it,”
says Rolle. He has received very positive feedback about this CD from
young and
old; everyone seems to love it. Their comments make him want to keep
going. “The
great response has encouraged me to do it for the sake of Allah,’
observes
Rolle. He has received comments like: ‘The Ummah needs more people like
you’; ‘This song
opened my eyes’; ‘I’ll never listen
to music again after listening to this’ and
‘This makes me want to do more’.
Rolle
comments, “I have a gift and I’ll try to use it as much as I can to
call people
to Allah. This is part of my little contribution to Islam.” Rolle wants
to go
to the prisons and perform some nasheeds and spend some time mentoring
the
youth. He concludes, “I’m not into the hype because people can get
carried
away. I have to be truthful and real.” Rolle will launch his CD Peace in
(This article
was first published on www.islamonline.net)
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