Zain Bhikha is an Indian South Africa

Indian South Africans

Indian South Africans are people of Indian descent living in South Africa and mostly live in and around the city of Durban, making it 'the largest 'Indian' city outside India'. Most Indians in South Africa are descendents of migrants from colonial India during late 19th-century through early...

n singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...

, who has achieved success as a performer of Islamic nasheed songs. Associated with prominent Muslim

Muslim

A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

 personalities, including Yusuf Islam and Dawud Wharnsby, Bhikha has collaborated on albums and also released several solo albums. He has written several religious albums concerning Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

.

Bhikha may best be known outside of the Muslim community for his performance with a drummer

Djembe

A djembe also known as jembe, jenbe, djbobimbe, jymbe, yembe, or jimbay, or sanbanyi in Susu; is a skin-covered drum meant played with bare hands....

 and several backup vocalists who were the African singers in the Disney cartoon

Cartoon

A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...

 movie The Lion King

The Lion King

The Lion King is a 1994 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the 32nd feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series...

.

Bhikha's music almost exclusively follows Islamic themes, with only voice and drums being used, since the use of musical instruments other than the voice and the drum is an area of debate in Muslim jurisprudence

Fiqh

Fiqh is Islamic jurisprudence. Fiqh is an expansion of the code of conduct expounded in the Quran, often supplemented by tradition and implemented by the rulings and interpretations of Islamic jurists....

, considered harām

Haraam

Haraam is an Arabic term meaning "forbidden", or "sacred". In Islam it is used to refer to anything that is prohibited by the word of Allah in the Qur'an or the Hadith Qudsi. Haraam is the highest status of prohibition given to anything that would result in sin when a Muslim commits it...

, or "unlawful" by a portion of the Muslim community.

Current work

Bhikha is currently involved in educational projects in his native South Africa as well as international initiatives to educate through song. He is also working with Indian Islamic Channel Peace TV

Peace TV

Peace TV is a Sunni Islamic satellite television network broadcasting globally 24/7 from Dubai, UAE. Peace TV programs are all in the English language and telecast free-to-air...

.
On April 24, 2008, Bhikha participated in a, international annual singing competition on the Prophet Muhammad's birthday

Mawlid

Mawlid or sometimes ميلاد , mīlād is a term used to refer to the observance of the birthday of the Islamic prophet Muhammad which occurs in Rabi' al-awwal,...

, named the Al Mahabbah Awards Festival, in Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi , literally Father of Gazelle, is the capital and the second largest city of the United Arab Emirates in terms of population and the largest of the seven member emirates of the United Arab Emirates. Abu Dhabi lies on a T-shaped island jutting into the Persian Gulf from the central western...

. Bhikha was particularly noted for his performance accompanied by the aforementioned drummer

Djembe

A djembe also known as jembe, jenbe, djbobimbe, jymbe, yembe, or jimbay, or sanbanyi in Susu; is a skin-covered drum meant played with bare hands....

 and backing singers. One song they performed was "Peace Train

Peace Train

"Peace Train" is the title of a 1971 hit song by Cat Stevens, taken from his album Teaser and the Firecat. The song climbed to #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart during the week of October 9, 1971, becoming Stevens' first US Top 10 hit. The song also spent three weeks at #1 on the adult contemporary...

", composed by Yusuf Islam.

Discography

• 2000 - Children of Heaven
• 2001 - Faith
• 2002 - Our World
• 2005 - Mountains of Makkah
• 2006 - Allah Knows
• 2009 - 1415: The Beginning
• 2010 - First We Need The Love
• 2010 - A Way of Life
• 2011 - HOPE
• 2011 - Better Day

External links

• http://www.myspace.com/zainbhikha
• http://www.zainbhikha.com/