I listened to some of these mystically inclined scholars
dwell on qawwali’s feminizing effects. Muscular manhood, they pointed
out, consists of physical robustness, extraordinary bravery, and superior
tactical acumen. Far from nurturing these traits, however, qawwali
promotes soft emotions. The sound of the tabla, a pair of hand drums
used in qawwali, was said to “breed soft men” who are
“gentle, submissive, and vulnerable.” The pervasive use of the tabla,
they concluded, poses a grave threat to Muslim masculinity