Ikhlas

The title means "sincerity" or "devotion," and the song is about belonging. In Egyptian Arabic he lists what he does not have: nobody speaks of him, he has nothing to tell anyone, nothing in the world that is his, nothing that worries him; and those who do not know him will say what they like. The English voice goes deeper: time spent learning, knowing, asking and burning, being put into boxes and labelled; it was never about her or him or the strangers; "I belong to Him; I have a heart that beats and lungs that breathe." He calls himself a stranger who knows, sees, hears and belongs to Him. A last Arabic line asks the listener to see that he is trying to be good, and to hear that he too is trying to listen to himself.