Tajdar-e-Haram (Atif Aslam, Coke Studio 2015)

Tajdar-e-Haram, "King of the Holy Sanctuary", is an Urdu qawwali in praise of the Prophet, famous in the rendition of the Pakistani ensemble the Sabri Brothers from about 1970. The Pakistani singer Atif Aslam performed it on the first episode of Coke Studio Pakistan's eighth season, released on 15 August 2015. ¹ This record is that 2015 rendition; the qawwali itself is older than the museum's modern window. ¹

The article on the Sabri Brothers counts 'Tajdar-e-Haram' among the greatest hits they released in the 1970s, citing Dawn, and lists their performance of it in the 1982 Pakistani film Sahaaray. ²

Atif Aslam sang it as a tribute to the Sabri Brothers, in Urdu with passages in Arabic, Persian and Braj; the audio runs 10 minutes and 16 seconds. ¹ The text is credited to Mirza Muhammad Hakim and the Sabri Brothers, and the music of this version to Baber Ali Khanna and Arslan Rabbani. ¹ It was first thought to be produced by the band Strings; Atif Aslam later said Shiraz Uppal produced it, as The Express Tribune reported. ¹ Tanveer Tafu played the rubab and Arsalan Rabbani the harmonium, and the chorus included Jamshed Ali Sabri, Naveed Ali Sabri, Mohammad Shan and Zahid Akhtar. ¹

It became the first Pakistani music video to pass 100 million YouTube views, in November 2017, as Daily Times, Scroll.in and The Quint reported. ¹ The article states that the official video had passed 520 million views and was the most viewed YouTube video of Pakistani origin as of January 2022, watched in 186 countries; views are a changing platform figure, recorded with their date. ¹

Amjad Sabri, son of the Sabri Brothers' Ghulam Farid Sabri, said he liked the arrangement, that Atif had not done badly though he wished for more care with the diction, and that it was an honest tribute to his father and uncle, as Business Recorder reported. ¹ The British High Commissioner Christian Turner wrote that he had enjoyed it on a friend's suggestion. ¹

• English Wikipedia, 'Tajdar-e-Haram', revision 1382085983 of 26 October 2026. ¹
• Wikidata item Q93822514 for the qawwali. ³
• English Wikipedia, 'Sabri Brothers', revision 1369205358. ²