Maher Zain

Maher Zain (Arabic: ماهر زين‎ ; born 16 July 1981) is a Muslim Swedish R&B singer, songwriter and music producer of Lebanese origin. With more Facebook fans than any other Muslim artist, award-winning singer-songwriter Maher Zain is one of the biggest stars in modern Islamic music. He released his debut album Thank You Allah, an internationally successful album produced by Awakening Records, in 2009. He released his follow-up album Forgive Me in April 2012 under the same production company.

Career

Beginnings

Maher Zain's Lebanese family emigrated to Sweden when he was eight. He completed his schooling there, gaining a bachelor's degree in Aeronautical Engineering. After university, he entered the music industry in Sweden and linked up with RedOne, the Moroccan-born Swedish producer, in 2005. When RedOne moved to New York in 2006, Maher Zain followed soon after to continue his music industry career in the USA producing for artists such as Kat DeLuna.

On returning home to Sweden, he became engaged once more with his Islamic faith and decided to move away from a career as a music producer to become a singer/songwriter of contemporary R&B music with a strong Muslim religious influence.

Awakening Records

Awakening Records is a UK-based media production owned and operated by Awakening Worldwide. In 2003, it was created by four British and American entrepreneurs offering a wide range of products for a new modern faith-inspired and value driven music market. Awakening Records produce songs in both music and vocals-only formats in Arabic, English, Turkish, Malay, Bahasa, Hindi, Persian and Urdu. Besides Awakening Records, other divisions in Awakening management are Awakening Productions, Awakening Publications and Awakening Live.

Albums produced by Awakening Records

Artists

Philanthropy activities

In 2012, Awakening Records took part for the "Sound of Light" charity concerts. In 2013 and 2014, the record label took part in organising charity concerts in coordination with Islamic Relief, Human Appeal and other charity organisations around the world with the help of artists Maher Zain, Hamza Namira, Mesut Kurtis, Raef and Irfan Makki.

Music video

A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. There are also cases where songs are used in tie in marketing campaigns that allow them to become more than just a song. Tie ins and merchandising could be used in toys are marketing campaigns for food and other products. Although the origins of music videos date back to musical short films that first appeared in the 1920s, they came into prominence in the 1980s when MTV based their format around the medium. Prior to the 1980s, these works were described by various terms including "illustrated song", "filmed insert", "promotional (promo) film", "promotional clip", "promotional video", "song video", "song clip" or "film clip". Since the creation and increased popularity of YouTube, mainstream artists now promote new music videos by releasing trailers of short promos on the site for their upcoming song and music video. Consequentially, YouTube has been converted into a social media platform for celebrities and artists to market themselves to their fans and audiences.

Zain

Zain may refer to:

People

Other uses

See also

Inshallah

Inshallah (Arabic: إن شاء الله‎, ʾin shāʾa llāh^u), also in sha Allah or insha'Allah, is Arabic for "God willing" or "if Allah wills". Variants of inshallah are used not only among Muslim groups, but also in Christian and Jewish groups from the Middle East, in parts of Africa, and among Portuguese and Spanish-speaking peoples.

Religious explanation

In the Quran, Muslims are told that they should never say they will do a particular thing in the future without adding insha-Allah to the statement. This usage of insha-Allah is from Islamic scripture, Surat Al Kahf (18):23-24: "And never say of anything, 'I shall do such and such thing tomorrow. Except (with the saying): 'If God wills!' And remember your Lord when you forget...'" Muslim scholar Ibn Abbas stated that it is in fact obligatory for a Muslim to say insha-Allah when referring to something he or she intends to do in the future.

Derivations

Due to the Muslim rule in the Iberian Peninsula from the 8th to 15th century, a similar derivation from Arabic occurred: the adverbs ojalá in Spanish and oxalá in Portuguese, which mean "hopefully".