Sami Yusuf Awake Site

"Awake" (Uyan Ey Gözlerim) is a traditional song performed by Sami Yusuf, notably featured on his 2016 album Barakah . The piece is based on a 16th-century poem by the Ottoman Sultan Murad III and serves as a call for spiritual mindfulness. Historical & Musical Context

: The music for this piece was originally composed by Ali Ufki Bey (born Wojciech Bobowski), a 17th-century Ottoman Polish scholar and musician who was the first to apply Western staff notation to Ottoman classical music. Sami Yusuf Awake

The opening line, "Wake from your heedlessness O my eyes awake!" , acts as a literal and metaphorical call to move from spiritual slumber toward Divine light. "Awake" (Uyan Ey Gözlerim) is a traditional song

Yusuf often uses such traditional pieces to contrast the "sacred" traditions of the past with a modern world he describes as "divorced from heaven" and filled with "information overload". Significance in Sami Yusuf’s Work The opening line, "Wake from your heedlessness O

The song is a musical setting of a famous poem written by Sultan Murad III (r. 1574–1595). Tradition states the Sultan wrote the verses as an expression of profound remorse after oversleeping and missing the dawn ( Fajr ) prayer.