AUDIO: The Burdah Insight

[Darqawi]

Alhambra Productions Podcast: Shaykh Hamza Yusuf - The Burda Insight

 

Shaykh Hamza Yusuf provides an insight into The Burda by Imam al-Busiri. The Burda is arguably the greatest classic poem in the Arabic language in praise of the character and exalted rank of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). Composed by Imam al-Busiri in the 13th century CE it has been recited ever since throughout the Muslim lands from East to West and North to South, and has always been perceived as containing real benefits, blessings and miracles.

 

To listen, please visit:

http://www.alhambraproductions.com/podcast/index.php?id=27

[Dhubad.]

^He decided to write the poem(Burdah) in a way of interceding to God through the prophet Mohammed (ASW). Isn't that a SHIRKI? I could be wrong.

[Darqawi]

Salam,

 

No, it is not Shirki.

[Haneefah]

This poem has very deep, captivating and remarkable sections that almost instantly induce tears when you hear it because hearing the praisal of our beloved prophet (saw) is always incredibly soothing for the soul that possesses his love and the love of our Creator. Of course, it also contains the very popular section commonly used in nasheeds such as Mawlaya.

 

However, and this is a big however, the qasida also has a huge downside which leads to a grave danger if one is not cautious. It has sections that goes against the very concept for which our beloved Rasul (saw) fought and strived to protect for so long: Tawheed. In other words this Qasidah does unfortunately have line(s) which suggest blatant shirk.

 

Among the ways the prophet (saw) sought to protect tawheed of Allah (swt) was forbidding Muslims from excessively praising him when he said, "Do not excessively praise me like the christians praise jesus, rather I am the slave and messenger of Allah" (Bukhari). Therefore, when Muslims don't fully learn and comprehend the concept of tawassul, tabarruk, or intercession, it becomes very easy for them to fall into innovation which might lead to shirk--the most evil concept known to mankind. May Allah protect us all from anything that leads to it. Therefore, I would suggest for anyone (and many scholars agree) to just avoid it completely.

 

Another thing is, I have my reservations about the whole story behind the origin of this qasidah. Seems like there's a lot of constructed myths associated with this poem. For instance, in some parts of the world where it is very popular such as Al-Maghrib, ppl regard it so highly that they make their children memorize it like the Qur'an and they believe that if you recite it however # of times, it will increase your provisions or protect you from evil and most of all, they believe it has great healing powers...pure innovation wal ciyaadu billah.

 

PS: To see shaykh Hamza for whom I had great respect and love propagate this type of poem just left me speechless. I mean, I still love him and thank him for everything I've learned from him, he truly was a great inspiration in my own spiritual journey of nearness to Allah (swt), I just pray that Allah guides us all and forgives our sins.

[Khayr]

Sis Haneefah,

 

Here is something that might be of some use to you and others, inshallah.

 

Some OBJECTIONS TO

 

the Burda and their refutation

 

 

 

One of their pretexts in objecting to Qasidat al-burda is line 155 of the poem:

 

 

 

 

 

ya akram al-khalqi ma li man aludhu bihi

 

siwaka `inda hululi al-hadithi al-`amami

 

 

 

O noblest of creatures! I have none from whom to request protection

 

Other than you when the Universal Event befalls.

 

 

 

 

 

The "Salafis" choose to interpret this verse of al-Busiri to mean something contrary to Islam, namely that the Prophet is unduly attributed the power to save which is reserved for Allah exclusively. It seems that they would not hesitate to lay blame at the door of a Companion such as Hassan ibn Thabit for saying:

 

 

 

I say, and none can find fault with me

 

But one lost to all sense:

 

I shall never cease to praise him.

 

It may be for so doing I shall be for ever in Paradise

 

With the Chosen One for whose support in that I hope.

 

And to attain to that day I devote all my efforts.[83]

 

 

 

The truth is that Busiri's line "I have none with whom to seek refuge other than you" refers to the Great Intercession (al-shafa`a al-kubra) of the Prophet on the Day of Judgment. This is the understanding of the commentaries on the Burda such as al-Bajuri's Hashya and Badr al-Din al-Ghazzi's al-Zubda fi sharh al-Burda.

 

 

 

This event is described in the famous hadith of intercession already mentioned, related from Abu Hurayra in the last book (Tawhid) of Sahih al-Bukhari in which Allah four times tells His Prophet, Peace be upon him: "Ask and you shall receive, intercede and you shall have intercession." The Prophet each time intercedes and his intercession is accepted while all other prophets are powerless to intercede. His intercession is accepted four times:

 

 

 

- For those who have a grain of faith in their heart;

 

- For those who have a mustard seed of faith in their heart;

 

- For those who have less than that of faith in their heart;

 

- For those who ever said: La ilaha illallah ("There is no god but Allah alone").

 

 

 

Each of these four times, the Prophet is empowered to go and remove people from the Fire himself.

 

 

 

The Prophet also said in many chains of hadith: "I am the master and leader of humanity on the Day of Resurrection." His intercession extends from all the Prophets to the greatest of sinners according to the two authentic hadiths:

 

 

 

a) On the Day of Judgment I shall be the Imam of prophets and their spokesman and the owner of their intercession and I say this without pride.[84] (A reference to Qur'an 4:41: "How then shall it be, when We bring forward from every nation a witness, and bring thee to witness against those?")

 

 

 

b)

My intercession is for those people of my Community who commit major sins.[Narrated from Abu ibn Ka`b by Tirmidhi (hasan sahih) and Ibn Majah, as well as al-Hakim in his Mustadrak (1:11)]

 

 

 

The Prophet owns this office exclusive of all other creatures including angels and Prophets. Allah has appointed the Prophet to it as confirmed by the hadith in Bukhari and Muslim: "I have been given five things which no other prophets before me were given... I was given shafa`a (intercession with Allah)".[86]

 

 

 

Quoted below are other confirmations in the Shari`a that al-Busiri is referring to a kind of Sunna refuge-seeking even if it has a creature as its object.

 

 

 

As for the lexical confirmation that refuge-seeking in the Prophet is permitted, it is that al-Busiri does not use a`udhu for "I seek refuge" but aludhu, which is common as an Arabic expression of seeking refuge lexically in other than God, e.g. in the shade, or in military allies. This is precisely the cognate used not once but twice in the following verse, which may be the direct subtext for Busiri's verse and was uttered by the Prophet's poet himself, the Companion Hassan ibn Thabit:

 

 

 

ya ruknun mu`tamadun wa `ismatun la'idhun

 

wa

maladhun

muntaja`un wa jarun mujawiru

 

 

 

O pillar relied upon and protection in which refuge is sought,

 

and saving resort, and nearby neighbor![87]

 

 

 

The following two hadiths exemplify the lexical permissibility of applying to or asking from the Prophet what is legally applied to or asked only of Allah, without there being su' al-zann (a bad meaning) attributed to the petitioner: namely, in the first case, protection from harm in this world, and, in the second, protection from the Fire in the next world. Note that Bayhaqi related the second hadith in his book without objecting in the least to its content or language, although some self-proclaimed scholars of hadith today would altogether condemn such wording as shirk. They even cite against it the verse iyyaka na`budu wa iyyaka nasta`in, in apparent ignorance of the permissible help-seeking whether it is named istighatha or isti`ana, as proved, among others, by the following evidence:

 

 

 

· the verse in sura al-Kahf: fa`inuni bi quwwa (18:95) "Do but help me with strength";

 

 

 

· the verse already cited in al-Shatti's fatwa on tawassul: fa istaghathahu al-ladhi min shi`atihi (28:15) "The man of his own people asked him for help against his foe";

 

 

 

· the hadith from `Abd Allah ibn `Umar related by Bukhari in his Sahih, book of Tawhid, whereby the Prophet said:

 

 

 

The sun shall draw close on the Day of Resurrection until the sweat of the people shall reach to mid-ear, whereupon they shall seek help with Adam (istaghathu bi adam) then with Musa then with Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, and he shall intercede (fa yashfa`) in order for judgment to be passed among the people

 

 

 

-- and this is the plainest proof for the permissibility of istighatha or seeking help in the sense of tashaffu` or asking intercession;

 

 

 

·

the hadith related by Imam Ahmad whose chain Ibn Hajar in Fath al-bari declared fair (hasan)[88] from al-Harith ibn Hassan al-Bakri whereby the latter said to the Prophet without being rebuked:

 

 

 

a`udhu billahi wa rasulihi an akuna ka wafidi `ad -- I seek refuge in Allah and His Prophet from being like the envoy to `Ad.[Ahmad, Musnad (3:482 #15960).]

 

 

 

· and the following evidence:

 

 

 

 

 

Hadith on seeking refuge in the Prophet from a fire

 

 

 

Narrated `Ali: The Prophet sent some troops under the command of a man from the Ansar and ordered the soldiers to obey him. At one point the commander became angry and said to them: "Didn't the Prophet order you to obey me?" They replied, "Yes." He said, "Collect fire-wood for me." So they collected it. He said, "Make a fire." When they made it, he said, "Enter the fire." At this they started holding each other and saying: "We flee to the Prophet from the fire!" (Arabic: fararna ila al-nabi min al-nar, cf. Qur'an: fa firru ilallah "Take flight to Allah!" 51:50), that is : We seek refuge in the Prophet from the fire. They kept on saying that till the fire was extinguished and the anger of the commander abated. When that news reached the Prophet he said: "If they had entered it (i.e. the fire), they would not have come out of it till the Day of Resurrection. Obedience (to somebody) is required when he enjoins what is good."[English Sahih al-Bukhari, Volume 5, Book 59, Number 629.

]

 

 

 

 

 

Hadith on seeking refuge in the Prophet From Hellfire

 

 

 

Imam Bayhaqi said in Shu`ab al-iman: Abu al-Husayn ibn Bushran told us, from Abu `Amr `Uthman ibn Ahmad al-Sammak, from Muhammad ibn `Abdik, from Abu Bilal, from Abu al-Malih al-Raqi, from Maymun ibn Mahran, from Ibn `Abbas:

 

 

 

A delegation of Bedouin Arabs among whom was a young man came to the Prophet. The young man said to the older ones: Go and pledge loyalty to the Messenger of Allah, and meanwhile I shall keep your mounts. The older men went and pledged loyalty to him. Then the young man came, grasped the Prophet by the two sides of his waist (akhadha bi haqway rasulillah), and said: "O Messenger of Allah, I seek from you (or: I appeal to you for) protection from the Fire (ya rasulallah astajiruka min al-nar)!" The people said: "Boy, let go of him! (da`hu ya ghulam)" But he replied: "By the One Who has sent him, I shall not let go of him until he grants me protection from the fire! (walladhi ba`athahu la utrikuhu hatta yujirani min al-nar)" At that point Jibril came to the Prophet and said: "O Muhammad, grant him protection, for verily Allah the Exalted has granted him protection (ya muhammad ajirhu fa inna Allaha ta`ala qad ajarahu)."[91]

 

 

 

The great hafiz and lexicographer al-sayyid al-Zabidi says in his dictionary Taj al-`arus, s.v. haqwin that the expression `adha bi haqwihi (literally "he sought refuge with the man's flank") means: he had recourse to him for refuge, protection, or preservation.

 

 

 

In addition let us cite four more hadiths on the Companions' overt declaration of reliance, for salvation, upon the Prophet's love and companionship with him rather than on any other form of worship.

 

 

Hadiths on the sufficiency of the Prophet's love for salvation

 

 

 

Narrated Anas:

 

 

 

A man asked the Prophet about the Hour saying, "When will the Hour be?" The Prophet said, "What have you prepared for it?" The man said, "Nothing, except that I love Allah and His Apostle." The Prophet said, "You will be with those whom you love." (Anas continues:) We had never been so glad as we were on hearing that saying of the Prophet (i.e., "You will be with those whom you love.") Therefore, I love the Prophet, Abu Bakr, and `Umar, and I hope that I will be with them because of my love for them though my deeds are nothing like theirs. (Bukhari)

 

 

 

The above is elucidated by the following hadiths:

 

 

 

- "Among those of my Community who love me most intensely are certain people who will come after me and who would give away their family and property in exchange for seeing me." Muslim narrated it in his Sahih, book of "Paradise and its bliss and people."

 

 

 

- A man came to the Prophet and said: "Messenger of Allah, I love you more than my family and my possessions. I remember you and I cannot wait until I can come and look at you. I remember that I will die and you will die and I know that when you enter the Garden, you will be raised up high with the Prophets. When I enter it, I will not see you." Allah then revealed: "Whoever obeys Allah and the Messenger, they are with those whom He has favored: the Prophets, the True Saints, the Martyrs, and the Righteous. Ah! What an excellent company." (4:69) The Prophet called the man and recited the verse to him. Tabarani and Ibn Mardawayh narrated it from `A'isha and Ibn `Abbas, and Qadi `Iyad cited it in al-Shifa' as well as Ibn Kathir in his Tafsir (1:310) and al-Baghawi in his.

 

 

 

It is further elucidated by the hadith of `Umar whereby a man was punished by the Prophet because of wine-drinking. One day when he was brought to him and he gave orders and had him beaten, one of those present said: "O Allah, curse him. How often he is brought!" The Prophet said: "Do not curse him. I swear by Allah that I know he loves Allah and His Messenger." (Bukhari)

 

 

 

 

 

`Umar's reliance on companionship with the Prophet for the reward of his deeds

 

 

 

Narrated Abu Burda ibn Abi Musa al-Ash`ari:

 

 

 

`Abd Allah ibn `Umar said to me, "Do you know what my father said to your father once?" I said, "No." He said, "My father said to your father, 'O Abu Musa, will it please you that we will be rewarded for our conversion to Islam with Allah's Apostle and our migration with him, and our Jihad with him and all our good deeds which we did, with him, and that all the deeds we did after his death will be disregarded whether good or bad?' Your father (i.e. Abu Musa) said, 'No, by Allah, we took part in Jihad after Allah's Apostle , prayed and did plenty of good deeds, and many people have embraced Islam at our hands, and no doubt, we expect rewards from Allah for these good deeds.' On that my father (i.e. `Umar) said, 'As for myself, By Him in Whose Hand `Umar's soul is, I wish that the deeds done by us at the time of the Prophet remain rewardable while whatsoever we did after the death of the Prophet be enough to save us from Punishment in that the good deeds compensate for the bad ones.' " On that I said (to Ibn `Umar), "By Allah, your father was better than my father!"[92]

 

 

 

 

 

Report from Sufyan al-Thawri on asking the Prophet for help (istighata bi al-nabi s.a.w.s.)

 

 

 

The following excerpt translated from an early Islamic Hadith reference illustrates the permissibility of considering the Prophet a source of help in salvation from the Fire and the importance of making Salawat on the Prophet, salla allahu alayhi wa sallam. It is cited in Tanbih al-ghafilin bi ahadith sayyid al-anbiya' wa al-mursalin (Warning the Heedless with the Sayings of the Master of Prophets and Messengers) by al-faqih, al-zahid, al-`alim al-`amil, al-ustadh al-muhaddith al-muhaqqiq... shaykh Nasr ibn Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Samarqandi (d. 373):

 

 

 

By way of Sa`id ibn `Umayr al-Ansari who fought in the battle of Badr: he said: The Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, said: "Whoever invokes blessings upon me from my Community sincerely from his heart once, Allah sends ten blessings upon him, and raises him ten degrees."

 

 

 

And he (al-Samarqandi) said: I heard my father narrate: It happened that while Sufyan al-Thawri was circumambulating the Ka`ba, he saw a man who did not raise a foot nor lower a foot except that he made salat for the Prophet, sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam. Sufyan said: I told him: "O you, you have left saying subhan Allah and la ilaha illallah and have proceeded with the salat on the Prophet! Do you have any explanation regarding this?"

 

 

 

He said: "Who are you, may Allah Pardon you?" I said: "I am Sufyan al-Thawri."

 

 

 

He said: Had it not been that you are one of the Strangers among the people of your own time (i.e. one of Ahl al-Sunna), I would not have told you of my condition, nor exposed to you my secret. I went out with my father on pilgrimage to the Holy house of Allah, until I reached one of the resting stations. My father became sick and I began to care for him. Then one night when I was at his bedside, he died and his face turned dark. So I said, "We belong to Allah and to Him we are returning!" Then I pulled the covers over his face, after which sleep overcame me and I slept. I saw a man next to me with a face such as I had never seen a more handsome one, nor clothes cleaner than his, nor a scent finer than his; he was raising one foot and lowering the other until he came close to my father and removed the covers from his face, whereupon the face turned light.

 

 

 

Then he started to go back, so I held onto his clothes and said: "O servant of Allah, who are you, with whom Allah has graced us in this foreign land?"

 

 

 

He said: "Don't you know me? I am Muhammad ibn `Abd Allah, the Companion of the Qur'an. Now your father transgressed against himself, but he used to do invoke salat on me frequently, and when he was affected with what affected him he called on me for help (isthaghatha bi), and I am a prompt helper of one who makes salat on me frequently (wa ana ghayyathun liman akthara al-salata `alay)."

 

 

 

He said, "Then I woke up, and I saw that the face of my father was white."[93]

 

 

 

This report illustrates the acceptability of asking the Prophet for help even after his life not on the basis of the dream -- for dreams are not retained by the Shari`a for the derivation of legal rulings -- but on the basis of the account of the dream being part of the teaching of Islam and taqwa by one of the luminaries of the Community. The acceptability of this narration to the author, the narrator, and the Community indicates that they viewed its contents as being valid, not as being conducive to shirk as the "Salafis" claim!

 

Source

[Jacpher]

Though I’m not a learned fellow, the burdah qasida contains some questionable passages. Take a look at this clip, Mawlaya, I found on youtube.

 

I think what is boils down to is making tawassul on the deceased. Isn't that Shirk??

 

Kheyr, could you give a summary of the article you posted?

[Uthman1]

Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds; and may His blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his Family and Companions.

 

 

The poem, “al-Burdah†(the garment), was intended to praise the Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam), but became a disapproved excessive eulogy. The Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam) warned against such excessive laudation. He said: “Never extol me as the Christians did extol the Son of Mary (Jesus Christ, peace be upon him), for I am no more than a slave of Allah, so say nothing more than 'His slave and messengerâ€. [Reported by Al-Bukhari]

 

Such disapproved extolment can be seen through the poet's saying:

"O ye, Noblest of the creatures! I have none except thee to whom I may resort when serious afflictions befall me"

 

And:

"Thy knowledge has encompassed the Preserved Tablet and the Pen"

 

These exaggerated sayings involve blatant ignorance and constitute a flagrant contradiction to the clear texts which confirm that the knowledge of the Unseen is limited to Allah Almighty alone: {And with Him are the keys of the Ghaib (all that is hidden), none knows them but He…}[6:59] and He Says: {….If I had the knowledge of the Ghaib (unseen), I should have secured for myself an abundance of wealth, and no evil should have touched me. I am but a warner, and a bringer of glad tidings unto people who believe.}[7:188].

 

None except Allah, The Almighty can be addressed in such a way. Among His Creation is this life (mundane) and the Hereafter, and within His infinite Knowledge are the Preserved Tablet and the Pen.

The Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam) never claimed to know of what is Hidden (the Unseen) except what Allah let him know. The Noble Qur'an and the Sunnah (the Prophet's Tradition) do not contain any clue that Allah made His Prophet to know anything of what is in the Preserved Tablet or what His Pen (of predestination) has decreed.

Far from that, the Qur'an and the Sunnah stressed the fact that the Prophet did not know many of the issues relating to his time's affairs. An example for that is the verse: {…And among the bedouins round about you, some are hypocrites, and so are some among the people of Al-Madinah, they exaggerate and persist in hypocrisy, you (O Muhammad SAW) know them not, We know them….}[9:101].

 

As for the evidence from the Prophet's noble biography and Sunnah, it is innumerable. Among the examples proving this fact are: what happened during the Battle of Uhud, his eating from the poisoned ewe, the death of one of his companions because of that ewe, what happened concerning the Ifk event (the false accusation fabricated against his chaste wife Ayisha (Radiya Allahu Anha), his intention to attack the tribe of Bani al-Mustaliq, and the revelation of the verse: {O you who believe! If a rebellious evil person comes to you with a news, verify it….}[49:6] and so on.

 

All these matters are evidence that the Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam) did not know anything related to the Preserved Tablet or the Hidden knowledge (the Unseen) except what Allah made him to know through revelation.

 

From that we are to know that the poet's saying:

 

"O ye who had the knowledge of the Tablet and touched the Pen"

 

is over-exaggeration and mere falsification. Such an allegation involves the great sin of approaching the matters of religion without knowledge.

One has to beware of such matters as excessive lauding and over extolment, and abide by moderation and reason. May Allah guide us all to do so.

 

For further details on the criticism of this poem, you might refer to a book entitled "Criticism of Al-Burdah, with Answers and Corrections".

 

As for gathering every Thursday to read this Burdah with some Qur'an and doing so till late night it is Bid’ah, there is no evidence for that. Therefore, it is not allowed to attend such a gathering except with the intention of condemning it.

 

We advise you to avoid such Bid’ah and to believe in the exaggeration that is mentioned in that Burdah poem.

 

Allah knows best.