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Question Regarding Music Lyrics
I want to understand the princple while listening to music/rap etc.
For instance, if we consider the following lyrics:
“phari betha rabb baan (bazu) tere jatt di”
“taahein (tab hi) parwah nahi hai jag di”
now, the first verse metaphorically means “God is protecting me or helping me etc” but literally it would give the idea as if (God Forbid) “God is holding my arm” which might sound inappropriate because we shouldn’t even let such physical visualizations cross our mind regarding God.
Now, what’s the rule of thumb here? Do we consider it fine because it’s just the way the language works or should we avoid it because it might insinuate the wrong thing (im not sure if it does in this case or not)? Like whats your own opinion on this?
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3 Replies
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Question Regarding Music Lyrics
updated 2 days, 13 hours ago
3 Members
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Replies
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Language, especially in poetry and rap, works through metaphor. When someone says, “Rabb ne baazu pharya hai,” no one in the culture understands it as God having a physical arm. It is an established idiom for support, protection, and divine backing.The rule of thumb is this that the words are understood according to their common usage (Urf) and intended meaning, not their literal dictionary definition. If a phrase is universally understood as a metaphor, it remains a metaphor. It doesn’t become problematic just because a literal interpretation would be physically impossible.Even the Quran uses human language to describe the Divine because that is the only language we have. For example, the Quran mentions the “Hand of Allah” (Yadullah) or God “Sitting on the Throne” (Istawa).
If religious texts use these metaphors to bring the Divine closer to our understanding, it is logically consistent for a poet or rapper to use similar imagery to express their personal reliance on God.
The use of figurative language is fine as long as the intent and belief behind it are sound. It would only become a concern if the lyric intentionally tries to humanize God in a literal, theological sense, the tone becomes so casual or “street” that it strips away the respect due to the Creator, the lyric attributes God’s specific powers to a human being in an arrogant or literal way.
In your specific example, the meaning is actually quite spiritual—it’s about Tawakkul (trust in God) despite what the “world” thinks. The singer is saying they don’t care about the world because they feel God’s support. This is a positive sentiment.
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I totally understand and agree with it, but the concern that arises is that one could say that there could be many other ways to describe the same idea, in which physical parts and God both aren’t in the same sentence even in a metaphorical way. Because, it’s just a very sensitive matter.
I’d also love your kind opinion on this @Irfan76 sir.
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Mahnoor Traiq’s reply is correct. Develop the taste for language and poetry, and then you will better enjoy them.
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