THE RELIGION

After his father passed away, the burden of earning the bread and butter for his family fell on Dileep’s shoulders at the very young age of 11, and because of that, he had been struggling extremely hard for some years.His family went through a rough patch following his father’s death, which literally shook their world. He even had to work in amateur Kannada plays at the age of 13, to earn money for his family.
Because of these hardships, sometime afterwards he stopped believing in the God. He believed that there was no God. There was a feeling of restlessness within him. But later when he stabilized himself, he found that the concept of God in Islam was very appealing to him.

He learnt that there can be no life without a force governing, without God. And then he found what he was looking for – in Islam. It all happened around 1988, when one of his sisters fell seriously ill, with similar inexplicable conditions as their father. Numerous attempts to cure her failed. Her condition progressively worsened. The family tried everything from medicine to religious methods like havanas and prayers in the church.

The family had given up all hope; when they came in contact with a Muslim Pir called as Pir Karimulla Shah Qadri or Sheik Abdul Qadir Jeelani Sahib or Pir Qadri.

The family had earlier gone to the Pir when Dileep’s father had similar troubles, but were too late to save him. With Pir’s prayers and blessings, Dileep’s sister made a miraculous recovery. Pir Quadri advised the family frequently. It was Pir who taught them the purpose of life, and also led Dileep and his family members to accept Islam.Rattled by the bad experiences earlier in the case of his father and now his sister, and influenced by the teachings of the Pir and the succor that they found in him, the entire family converted to Islam. So great was the influence of the Pir on the family, that Dileep started using the place which he had blessed first as his music room, and later, when he started becoming successful, a studio. When the family shifted to their current house, they resolved to stick to the devotion. So he and his family – excluding one of his sisters – converted to Islam. But it was not an instantaneous decision – it took them whole 10 years to come to that decision.
The meeting with Pir was, for Dileep, an inner awakening and cleansing. He started feeling, that it is not about being Hindu or being Muslim or anything, but there is this one feeling and that is God – The Almighty.

Both his father and mother were strong believers in Astrology. His mother took him along once to an astrologer called Ulaganathan, in Chennai, to get the horoscope for her second daughter Bala.

She asked the astrologer to suggest an Islamic name for Dileep. The astrologer immediately suggested ‘Abdul Rahman’ and also asked him to shorten it to AR Rahman. When his mother asked the astrologer why the other initial ‘R’, the astrologer replied “Give him a name with those two initials and mark my words, he will grow up to be a great man”. His mother did accordingly.This happened around when the production of the cassettes of ‘Roja’ was going on. The producers had decided to credit the composer as Dileep on the inlay cards of cassettes of the film. Dileep’s mother immediately approached director Manirathnam, and placed this unusual condition – to credit Dileep with a Muslim name. The new name of the 25-year old composer was: A R Rahman! And the rest, as they say, is history!
The initials A and R later became ‘Allah Rakha’ on the suggestion of renowned Hindi music composer Naushad Ali. Thus A Sekhar Dileep Kumar became Allah Rakha Rahman. This was around 1988.

He says, “Family problems and the need for peace of mind made us change the faith. Sufism has given me peace. As Dileep I had an inferiority complex. As AR Rahman I feel like I have been born again.”

Rahman adds: “I am whatever because of my parent’s prayers to God. I am whatever I am – because the prayers I pray conscientiously, sincerely and with full faith. I will be whatever I am – only because of Him, I know it. He has given me everything. He can take everything away and I accept His decision without any questions, without a murmur. He is everything to me. I am just an infinitesimal creation of His. He has created me for a specific mission. I will be committing a sin if I don’t fulfill that mission. That’s my only belief. That’s the only thing that matters to me. I don’t care for all the other temptations of the world. I am born for music. I live for music. I will live for music till the very end. My life and death are in His hands. I will live only till He wants me to live. I will die only when He wants me to die. It’s all God’s will… Insha Allah.!”Religion is a very personal affair for this sober young man from Chennai. He prays five times a day, carrying his prayer mat with him on his tours, and retiring to the prayer room he has had built next to his studio during recording. He says, “It’s like a meditation. Each time I pray, I die, my soul departs, and then I am like born again.”