- Ustadh Tahir Anwar
- 10 min read
There is no doubt that the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ is the most praised human being in history. There have been hundreds of thousands of poems written about him in possibly every human language – including oral languages with no written form. One such poem is “The Poem of the Cloak,” or The Burdah. When historians consider The Burdah, they realize they are dealing with the most popular poem ever written. There simply is no other text, ancient or modern, that has been translated into so many languages – not just for a rarefied literary elite, but for all people – in a way that penetrates the soul. This single text has shaped the lives of not just hundreds, but literally millions.
The Burdah responds directly to the core emotion of the faith: love for its founder, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. It also represents, in a very fine way, the fundamental principle of all Islamic civilization – unity in diversity. All of this crystallizes into one Qur’ānic commandment: to send salutations and peace upon the Prophet ﷺ.
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While The Burdah is a primary example of praise poetry, there are others. Another celebrated poem is “The Resplendent Illumination” (Ad-Diyā ul-Lāmi’), written by the Yemeni scholar Habīb ʿUmar bin Hafīz. Dedicated to telling the life story of the Prophet ﷺ, this poem is sung in many parts of the world on a weekly basis, inspiring love and reverence for the Holy Prophet ﷺ in its listeners.
Poetry is undoubtedly the art form in which Muslims have most excelled. It elevated and enraptured their souls, transforming their internal states and opening them to the reception of higher realities. This extraordinary outpouring of love and literary adoration—whether through volumes of poetry, books of benedictions, or literature celebrating his birth—is further enhanced by the spellbinding rhythms and cadences through which they are sung and recited in every corner of the Muslim (and indeed non-Muslim) world.
طَلَعَ الْبَدْرُ عَلَيْنَا
مِنْ ثَنِيَّاتِ الْوَدَاعْ
Oh the white moon rose over us, from the valley of Wadāʿ
Talaʿa’l-badru ʿalaynā min thanīyāti’l-Wadāʿ
وَجَبَ الشُّكْرُ عَلَيْنَا
مَا دَعَا لِلهِ دَاعْ
And we owe it to show gratefulness, where the call is to Allah
Wa jaba’sh-shukru ʿalaynā mā daʿā li’Llāhi dāʿ
In conclusion, these are just some of the many ways in which Prophetic remembrance has permeated the globe. When we consider the breadth of this praise, it is almost beyond belief. And yet, the greatest praise that exists today emanates not from poetic collections or masterful pieces of art, but rather from the perfect embodiment of his attributes by his spiritual inheritors. As the American poet Ezra Pound remarked:
“I don’t know what force came out of Arabia in the 7th century which led to ten thousand mosques in Spain. But I caught a glimpse of it in the way a man walked in Tangier in 1914.”
