The Miraculous Night Journey | Shaykh Jihad al-Khaloutī | قصيدة البردة (Fully Translated)

A recitation of Qasida Burdah with Shaykh Jihad al-Khalouti leading the gathering. They are reciting Chapter Seven of the poem, in which Imam al-Busīrī delves into the Ascension of the Prophet ﷺ to the Heavens.

Original video:
   • البردة فصل الإسراء والمعراج || بصوت د...  

Imam al-Busirī was a Master of the Shadhili Order and poet, most known for penning Qasida Burdah, the most famous poem in Islam. He was born in 1186 in Dallas, Egypt but grew up in his father’s town of Busir. Whilst he was young, Imam al-Busirī moved to Cairo and memorised the Qur’an.

He worked in the government as a clerk in the town of Balis. Imam al-Busirī wrote scathing poems against his peers, highlighting the faults and flaws in them. This earned him enmity from the political elites of Egypt. They began spreading rumours about him. Weary, Imam al-Busirī resigned from his job. After an attempt to open a school, he set off for Alexandria. There, lived Sidi Abu’l Abbas al-Mursī, the successor of Imam al-Shadhilī.

He adopted the path of Sufism under Sidi Abu’l Abbas and started to write praises of the Prophet ﷺ. He abandoned his early career of composing poetry that was no different from that of worldly poets: verses of praise and blame, insult and complaint. Allah granted him an opening to compose praise-poetry in honour of our Master Muhammad ﷺ. He then produced odes whose beauty surpassed the works of other master poets, and so his popularity and prestige spread far and wide. His most famous poems include,

Qasida Burdah
Qasida Muhammadiyya
Qasida Mudariyya
Qasida Hamziyya

Imam al-Busirī passed away at the age of 87. He was buried in his Zawiyya, some 80m away from his Master’s tomb. The tomb contains the whole of the Burdah on its walls. If you ever visit Egypt, his tomb is a must-visit.

۞ - Al-Fatiha for his soul

Translation by the Aba Zahra Foundation