Al-Burda

Yellow cartouche
Red cartouche
A decorated page of a book made by Al-Busiri for Sultan Qaitbay. The middle has round shapes with the sultan's name and a blessing. It was made in Cairo around 1470. Now it is in the Chester Beatty Library.
A recital of the Burda
A verse from the Qasida e Burda, shown on the wall of al-Busiri's shrine in Alexandria

Qasida e-Burda (Arabic: قَصِيدَةُ الْبُرْدَةِ, "Ode of the Mantle"), or al-Burda for short, is a poem from a long time ago. It talks about Muhammad and how wonderful he is. Al-Busiri, a scholar from Egypt, wrote it. The full name is "The Celestial Lights in Praise of the Best of Creation" (Arabic: الْكَوَاكِبُ الدُّرِّيَّةُ فِي مَدْحِ خَيْرِ الْبَرِيَّةِ, romanized: al-Kawākib al-durriyya fī Madḥ Khayr al-Bariyya).

The poem is loved by many Muslims. It tells that al-Busiri was sick. He loved Muhammad very much. One night, Muhammad came in a dream and gave him a mantle (cloak). When al-Busiri woke up, he was well again.

Before this, Ka'b ibn Zuhayr wrote a poem called Al-Burda (also called Bānat Suʿād). He showed it to Muhammad after he became Muslim. Muhammad liked it and put his cloak on Ka'b. But the poem by al-Busiri became more famous, even though Muhammad had really wrapped Ka'b, not in a dream.

Composition

The Burda has ten chapters and 160 verses. All verses rhyme. A line is repeated many times:

"My Lord, send blessings and peace always 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. This is called mīmiyya. The ten chapters are:

Popularity

Many Sufis love this poem.[source?] People memorize it, say it together, and put it on walls in mosques and buildings.[source?] It decorated Prophet's Mosque in Medina for many years, but now only two lines are left.

More than 90 books explain it.[source?] Timothy Winter made an English version. It is also in Hausa, Persian, Urdu, Turkish, Berber languages, Punjabi, French, German, Sindhi, Saraiki, Norwegian, Chinese (called Tianfangshijing), and more.[source?]

Many Sunni Muslims say it every day or on special days like Mawlid. It is one of the most said poems in the world.[source?]

Legacy

The Burda is important in Sufi Islam. Many Sufi teachers wrote about it, like Ibn Hajar al-Haytami, Nazifi, and Qastallani.

Shafi'i scholar Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (d. 852 A.H.) read it with his teacher and from copies of al-Busiri.

Al-Burda gave ideas to Ahmad Shawqi for his poem Nahj al-Burda [ar].

References

  1. ↑ "Anthology of Arabic Poems about the Prophet and the Faith of Islam Containing the Famous Poem of Al-Busaree". Archived from the original on 2009-12-10. Retrieved 2009-11-11.
  2. ↑ "The poem of the scarf by Shaikh Faizullah Bhai B. A. – University of Bombay – Published by Taj Company Ltd". Archived from the original on 2009-12-10. Retrieved 2009-11-11.
  3. ↑ "BBC – Religions – Islam: al-Burda". Retrieved 2016-12-17.
  4. ↑ "Imam al-Busiri, The Mantle Adorned", Timothy Winter (Abdal Hakim Murad), (London: Quilliam Press, 2009)
  5. ↑ Meri, Josef W. (2005-10-31). Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia. Routledge. p. 166. ISBN 978-1-135-45596-5.
  6. 1 2 Krätli, Graziano; Lydon, Ghislaine (2011-01-01). The Trans-Saharan Book Trade: Manuscript Culture, Arabic Literacy and Intellectual History in Muslim Africa. BRILL. p. 126. ISBN 978-90-04-18742-9.
  7. ↑ Lewis, B.; Menage, V.L.; Pellat, Ch.; Schacht, J. (1997) [1st. pub. 1978]. Encyclopaedia of Islam. Vol. IV (Iran-Kha) (New ed.). Leiden, Netherlands: Brill. p. 737. ISBN 90-04-07819-3.
  8. ↑ Sobieroj, Florian (2016-05-24). Variance in Arabic Manuscripts: Arabic Didactic Poems from the Eleventh to the Seventeenth Centuries – Analysis of Textual Variance and Its Control in the Manuscripts. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. p. 65. ISBN 978-3-11-046000-1.

Bibliography

Other websites