Qasida Burda Chapter 4

[Bazara Benavides]

TheSufis claim that for each line of that poem is a special benefit such as helping you from being poor or helping you to cure diseases. Some were not satisfied with the fabrication they placed on significance in reading this poem rather they went on to place specific rules that one should abide by when reading this poem.

It was said that the reason for his composing the Burdah was that al-Busiri was afflicted by a chronic disease, and no remedy was of any help; he used to send a lot of blessings (salawat) upon the Prophet (ﷺ) until he saw the Prophet (ﷺ) in a dream one night, and he covered him with his cloak (burdah), and when al-Busiri woke up, he stood up and there was no trace of sickness in him, so he composed this poem (qasidah).

It then transpired that I was stricken with hemiplegia, which left half of my body paralysed. At this moment, I thought of composing the poem [i.e. the Burdah], and so I did. With it, I asked for intercession with Allah and for Him to forgive me.

They often appeal to authority (a logical fallacy) claiming that the poem has stood the test of time by being over 800 years old and accepted by most Muslim scholars (what they mean is Sufis) with only a minority discounting it. Now, of course, dismissing the claims of experts i.e. scholars of Islam would be foolish, however, it is entirely possible that the opinion of the majority is wrong and that of the minority is right.

Although there is no doubt that some parts of the Burdah contain ambiguous and ghuluw statements and could be understood as blatant shirk at face value, yet at least some Sufi authorities view it with specific ta`wilat (interpretations) that are free of shirk. Now if they are truthful or not is between them and Allah, what counts is that even they see the need to water down some of its statements.

The best of this world is the guidance of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), by which alone this worldly has any meaning; and the best gift of any human to humanity in the Hereafter is the intercession the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) makes-as established in rigorously authentic hadiths, as we will see below.

The explanation clarifies that nowhere it is meant (or even clearly stated) that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) is the creator of the world. The entire explanation is sound and based on sound Sunni creed (even if it comes from a Sufi).

What we need to understand is that Allah granted His Beloved Messenger (Allah bless him and give him peace) tremendous knowledge of the Unseen, including details of matters of this life and the next; and He granted His Beloved (Allah bless him and give him peace) greater knowledge of Himself than any of His creation.

Indeed, it is unfair to accuse the author or the poem of shirk if what is meant by asking the Prophet (ﷺ) is how one would address him at the Day of Judgement where all of us will be present. This is similar to the aforementioned poem by Imam al-Safarrini who never endorsed beseeching the Prophet (ﷺ) in supplication.

After all, Rabbani is upon the same methodology of the likes of Ali al-Jifri and other renowned Sufis who justify such ghuluw i.e. invoking the Prophet for help at any time and any places under the pretext (misuse) of tawasul.

A group of scholars such as Shaykh Muhammad b. Abdul-Wahhab (may Allah have mercy upon him) who visited the lands of the Rafidah and Sufis and witnessed Sufi-Rafidi heresies and ghuluw that are associated with the likes of Burdah came to very harsh conclusions; they either regarded segments of it as blatant shirk or borderline-shirk. And the Najdis were not alone in this. Amongst the harsh critics of the Burdah is also Imam Mahmud Shukri al-Aalusi al-Baghdadi al-Hanafi, an Athari Ottoman scholar from Iraq, and Imam Shawkani (a Najdi critic) from Yemen.

However, one cannot dismiss that Sufi authorities themselves have interpreted the controversial parts of the Burdah with sound Islamic understanding that is void of shirk; nonetheless, The problem is that the masses are not affected by their interpretations but rather by the apparent meaning of the poem that at the very least includes statements of ghuluw or/and ambiguity, to the extent that Sufis themselves see the need of clarifying it and applying some ta`wilat on it.

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