At his home in Malad, where numerous musicians had gathered to condole, musician and composer Taufiq Qureshi recollects, "I was his roommate when we were touring Germany with my father Ustad Allah Rakha and Zakirbhai so I had some lovely moments with him, where we would sit talking about music. When he did his first vocal album, 'Sabras', I arranged the music. And when I did my first album, 'Colours of Rajasthan', he sang. "He was someone who was truly creative but, besides that, he was a fantastic human being," says vocalist Purvi Parikh, who spent many years with him, fine-tuning her music. "He gave so much love. Any one who came to him for advice, he would encourage with such positivity, as if to say, 'go forth, you are a hero'. He would follow a lot of swamijis and saints and would say that the only thing way your destiny can move forward is by the blessings of all these people." Although born a Muslim from near Jodhpur, he practiced only the religion of music and love, which are anyway synonymous. Qureshi recalls that when he married outside his community, Sultan Khan came to the wedding and said that he should not worry, nor feel alone. He would always stand by him. He had once told this writer that the sarangi's predecessor, the Ravanahasta, was a seven-stringed harp made by Ravana by stringing sinews pulled out of his arm, with which he sang Vedic hymns to Shiva. Notwithstanding its later association with courtesans, "this instrument is therefore about total surrender to God," he said, with his trademark paan-stained smile. It is hardly surprising then, that the lyrical quality in his music could make listeners weep. And, artistes and music lovers say that it is the universe's good fortune that he left his musical legacy behind with his son Sabir and nephews Dilshad and Imran Khan.