What is the Burda?IntroductionThe Qasida Al-Burda (The Poem of the Mantle), known as The Burdah, is...
What is the Burda?IntroductionThe Qasida Al-Burda (The Poem of the Mantle), known as The Burdah, is a poem in praise of The Prophet ﷺ. It was composed by Al Busiri in the 7th century Hijri and is one of the most widely recited and memorised poems in the world. The actual title of the poem is The Celestial Lights in Praise of the Best of Creation (الكواكب الدرية في مدح خير البرية). Qasidat al-Burda (Arabic: قصيدة البردة, "Ode of the Mantle"), or al-Burda for short, is a thirteenth-century ode of praise for the Islamic prophet Muhammad composed by the eminent Sufi mystic Imam al-Busiri of Egypt. The poem whose actual title is al-Kawākib ad-durriyya fī Madḥ Khayr al-Bariyya (الكواكب الدرية في مدح خير البرية, "The Celestial Lights in Praise of the Best of Creation"), is famous mainly in the Sunni Muslim world. It is entirely in praise of Muhammadﷺ, who is said to have been praised ceaselessly by the afflicted poet, to the point that Muhammadﷺ appeared in a dream and wrapped him in a mantle or cloak; in the morning the poet discovers that God has cured him.Bānat Suʿād, a poem composed by Kab bin Zuhayr was originally called as Al-Burdah. He recited this poem in front of Muhammadﷺ after embracing Islam. Muhammadﷺ was so moved that he removed his mantle and wrapped it over him. The original Burdah is not as famous as the one composed by Imam al-Busiri even though Muhammadﷺ had physically wrapped his mantle over Kab not in a dream like in the case of Imam al-Busiri. CompositionThe Burda is divided into 10 chapters and 160 verses all rhyming with each other. Interspersing the verses is the refrain, "My Patron, confer blessings and peace continuously and eternally on Your Beloved, the Best of All Creation" (Arabic: مولاي صل وسلم دائما أبدا على حبيبك خير الخلق كلهم). Each verse ends with the Arabic letter mīm, a style called mīmiyya. The 10 chapters of the Burda comprise: On Lyrical love yearnly On Warnings about the Caprices of the Self On the Praise of the Prophet On His Birth On His Miracles On the Exalted Stature and Miraculous Merits of the Quran On the Ascension of the Prophet On the Struggle of Allahs Messenger On Seeking Intercession through the Prophet On Intimate Discourse and the Petition of Ones State.PopularitySufi Muslims have traditionally venerated the poem. It is memorized and recited in congregations, and its verses decorate the walls of public buildings and mosques. This poem decorated Al-Masjid al-Nabawi (the mosque of Muhammad) in Medina for centuries but was erased but for two lines.[5] Over 90 commentaries have been written on this poem and it has been translated into Hausa, Persian, Urdu, Turkish, Berber, Punjabi, English, French, German, Sindhi, Saraiki, Norwegian, Chinese (called Tianfangshijing), and other languages. It is known and recited by a large number of Sunni Muslims, ordinarily and on special occasions, such as Mawlid, making it one of the most recited poems in the world. TranslationsThe poem has seen several different translations, into a variety of languages. Arguably the most important translation of recent times is that by Timothy Winter into English. The book was also translated into four different languages: Persian, Urdu, Punjabi and English by Dr. Muhammad Hamid. AudioThe full rendition of this famous poem has been produced by The Adel Brothers. They have sung the full poem in over 20 different styles.LegacyThe Burda was accepted within Sufi Islam and was the subject of numerous commentaries by mainstream Sufi scholars such as Ibn Hajar al-Haytami, Nazifi and Qastallani It was also studied by the Shafii hadith master Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (d. 852 A.H.) both by reading the text out loud to his teacher and by receiving it in writing from a transmitter who heard it directly from Busiri himself.The founder of Wahhabism, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, considered the poem to be shirk (idolatory).