AR Rahman reveals why he chose to adopt new faith

AR Rahman, who was born as AS Dileep Kumar, recently shared the tale of why he chose to discard the faith he was born into and adopt a new one.

The 48-year-old's father untimely death had put several financial pressures on the family, so his spiritual-minded mother had met, and gained immense succor, from a Sufi saint, peer Karimullah Shah Qadri, the Dawn reported.

And the Indian composer had been grappling with minor and major identity issues; he didn't like the name he was born with, he was looking for direction and purpose, and he wanted to get a handle on his professional future.

Rahman said that Sufism taught him that human beings should not differentiate between people just like the rain and the sun.

The Grammy Award winner also mentioned that no one around him really cared when he decided to change his faith as they were musicians and that allowed them greater social freedom.

Rahman finally concluded that a Hindu astrologer gave him his Muslim name, as he didn't like his name and then his mother had this intuition that he should add Allahrakha and that was how he became AR Rahman.