--- title: 'Sufi Rap' of Peace Comes a Day Before Amjad Sabri's Murder description: "Like a Sufi" by MC Kash and Sufi band Alif was poignantly released just a day before the murder of Sufi singer Amjad Sabri in Pakistan. canonical: https://time.com/4379411/india-kashmir-alif-sufi-rap-amjad-sabri/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-23T09:33:27.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T22:47:31.091Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: 'Sufi Rap' of Peace Comes a Day Before Amjad Sabri's Murder og:description: It makes its beautiful message even more poignant og:url: https://time.com/4379411/india-kashmir-alif-sufi-rap-amjad-sabri/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Sufi Rap' of Peace Comes a Day Before Amjad Sabri's Murder twitter:description: It makes its beautiful message even more poignant twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # This 'Sufi Rap' of Peace Dropped Just a Day Before Amjad Sabri's Murder by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Jun 23, 2016 9:33 AM UTC by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Jun 23, 2016 9:33 AM UTC Sufism, one of the most spiritual strands of Islam, is best known for its message of love and peace. It is also known for its soul-stirring music. One thing it is not commonly associated with, however, is rap. But to mark World Music Day earlier this week, a website called [101 India ](https://www.101india.com/music)decided to change that by pairing a Sufi group with a rapper from Kashmir to create the country’s first “Sufi rap.” Poignantly, the song was released only a day before the brutal [murder](http://time.com/4379348/pakistan-amjad-sabri-sufi-singer-dead-shot-taliban/?xid=homepage) of renowned Sufi singer Amjad Sabri across the border in Pakistan, making the peaceful message it advocates all the more haunting. The song, titled “[Like a Sufi](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZwZrym87YpirLIFBzTnWQA),” is a collaboration between Kashmiri hip-hop artist MC Kash and Sufi band Alif. While Kash raps in English, most of the song is sung in Kashmiri, which the video’s description says is “an attempt to save this dying language.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4379411/india-kashmir-alif-sufi-rap-amjad-sabri/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4379411/india-kashmir-alif-sufi-rap-amjad-sabri/"},"headline":"This 'Sufi Rap' of Peace Dropped Just a Day Before Amjad Sabri's Murder","datePublished":"2016-06-23T09:33:27.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T22:47:31.091Z","description":"It makes its beautiful message even more poignant","url":"https://time.com/4379411/india-kashmir-alif-sufi-rap-amjad-sabri/","keywords":["Pakistan","Music","rap","India","singer","Kashmir"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4379411/india-kashmir-alif-sufi-rap-amjad-sabri/","name":"This 'Sufi Rap' of Peace Dropped Just a Day Before Amjad Sabri's Murder"}}]}] ```