Biography of the munshid Abu Ratib

He was born in the Syrian city of Aleppo in 1962 in a deep-rooted artistic family (A`al Sayyid Darwish). His maternal uncle was an experienced musical player on the eastern lute instrument (Hajj Hasan Shamiyyah), while his paternal uncle was a musical player on the instrument of trapezoidal sound box (Hajj Abdulla Sayyid Darwish), and they were practicing their talent and art through the Aleppo figure and the Andalusia postclassical form of Arab poetry bands spread in various parts of Aleppo city till this day, and his father's maternal uncle was a singer of the Andalusia postclassical form of Arab poetry in the city of Damascus (Hajj Ahmad As-Sabouni). In spite of this artistic atmosphere which reveals that the family was dissolute, it was a religious committed family, as its women were veiled and its children were of mosque visitors, in the same situation of most of Ash-Shahba' Aleppo people, i.e. people of science and art at the same time.

He joined the Arab Music Institute in the city of Aleppo when he was young and studied the notes (Solfege), and then he learned playing on the violin instrument under the supervision of an Armenian teacher named (Ohannis Costinian).

Thereafter, he joined the Martial Musical Chivalry Band with which he had many artistic contributions through the martial and festival celebrations. Also, he was an affiliate of the boyscout club (aid troop) and he was practicing his singing and musical talent through the boyscout's activities, celebrations and camps.

But, his love of the legacy and religious art, in addition to his committed religious growth contributed in changing his artistic path and made him join the band of the singer Abi Dujanah for religious singing, through which he was able to excel and create in the field of singing; thus, until he founded Al-Huda band in 1981, through which he became prominent and famous by support of His Excellency the late Fighter Sheikh Abu An-Nasr Al-Bayanoni, may God have mercy upon him, and he began to issue the albums of Islamic singing which accompanied the serious incidents which afflicted the nation at that time. His artistic giving continued through tapes and singing celebrations throughout the whole world, and in 1986 Al-Huda band developed to found Al-Huda Islamic Art, which enriched the artistic library with many broadcasting and television works.

Artist Muhammad Abu Ratib studied the broadcasting and television direction in Amman, and he obtained a big artistic experience in the broadcasting engineering, the matter which obviously helped him in developing his artistic works. In 1991, he founded Al-Huda International Artistic Production Establishment, which was one of the first Islamic artistic establishments which was interested in developing the Islamic song, sponsoring the artistic talents, execution of the artistic parties and singing celebrations, participation in the specialized conferences and support of the societies leagues interested in the artistic work.