Al-Burda


Qasīdat al-Burda, 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, is famous mainly in the Sunni Muslim world. It is entirely in praise of Muhammad, who is said to have been praised ceaselessly by the afflicted poet, to the point that the Prophet 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 Ka'b bin Zuhayr was originally called as Al-Burdah. He recited this poem in front of Muhammad after embracing Islam. Muhammad 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 Muhammad had physically wrapped his mantle over Ka'b not in a dream like in the case of Imam al-Busiri.

Composition

Al-Busiri narrated the circumstances of his inspiration to write the Burdah:
The 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". Each verse ends with the Arabic letter mīm, a style called mīmiyya. The 10 chapters of the Burda comprise:
Sunni 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 in Medina for centuries but was erased but for two lines. 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, 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.

Translations

The 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.

Audio

The full rendition of this famous poem has been produced by The Adel Brothers. They have sung the full poem in over 20 different styles.

Legacy

The Burda was accepted within Sunni Islam and was the subject of numerous commentaries by mainstream Sunni scholars such as Ibn Hajar al-Haytami, Nazifi and Qastallani It was also studied by the Shafi'i hadith master Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani 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 idolatory.