Guardian of the Cloak - In defence of Imam Busiris Ode al Burda
Translated by Amjad Mahmood
Heritage Press, 132 pages, softcover
Loving and
praising the Messenger Muhammad [may Allah bless him and give him peace] is an
essential cornerstone of every believer’s faith. This core facet of the faith
has manifested itself in the form of beautiful poetic eulogy from his own time
until today. For centuries, the Qasīdah
al-Burdah [The ode of the cloak] of al-Būṣīrī (d. ca. 696 AH) has been
arguably the most popular eulogising ode of this kind. As such, it has been
passed down ever since by successive and countless Muslim communities, by both
layperson and authoritative scholar alike. Recent history, however, has
witnessed grave accusations emerge against the poem, with claims that some of
its lines contain polytheism (shirk)
and disbelief (kufr). This treatise, Guardian of the Cloak, is a thorough and scholarly response to such
charges.
The author
of this work was Shaykh Dāwūd ibn Sulaymān al-Baghdādī al-Naqshabandī
al-Khālidī al-Shāfiʿī (1815–1882). He was originally from Baghdad, but
travelled extensively throughout the Muslim world, including the Hejaz,
Syro-Palestine, and Egypt. He authored numerous works, in addition to this treatise,
including a defence of the four Sunni schools of Islamic law, and a refutation
of the Wahhabis and Maḥmūd al-Ālūsī.