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The Mantle Adorned: Imam Busiri's Burda

The Mantle Adorned: Imam Bûsîrî's Burda, translated, with further poetic ornaments, by Abdal Hakim Murad. Quilliam Press, 2009.

A new English translation of the celebrated Poem of the Cloak (Qasidat al-Burda) by Imam Busiri (may Allah be pleased with him) is now available. With calligraphy by Betül Kırkan and illumination by Ersan Perçem, the beautiful production of this edition reflects the esteem in which the poem is held, as well of course as its high purpose, the remembrance and honouring of God's Beloved and Final Messenger, Muhammad, may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.

Sheikh Abdal Hakim's translation renders the poem in beautiful and moving English in a parallel text alongside the original Arabic. In addition, each verse is followed by lines from other poets - classical and modern, and from many parts of the world - echoing and amplifying its theme, encouraging the reader to reflect on its meanings more fully.

Published by Quilliam Press, with typography by Abdallateef Whiteman, this edition is available from Central Books, online Islamic bookstores or on Amazon.

UPDATE: There is now a separate site about The Mantle Adorned here, with more information about its content, the people who contributed to it and where you can buy it.

10 comments:

hamid said...

Selam a lekum :)
Please pass along my best wishes, compliments and supplications to Shaykh Abdal Hakim, his family, the administrator of this site and all the folks involved in the Mosque Project.
May Allah (sbut) reward you for all your efforts and endeavors for Him.
hamid

Anonymous said...

Will this book be available in the US soon, inshaAllah?

hamid said...

selam a lekum :)
I reside in the US and it is available through Amazon.com for $41.17 (hardcover). However, you could look elsewhere as well.
hamid

Unknown said...

Wow mash'Allah this was so needed. May Allah raise the rank of our Sheikh and Imam al-Busiri

Anonymous said...

Allah bless you Sidi Abd al-Hakim. Beautiful.

Ibraheem said...

Very beautiful masha'Allah.
Who did the calligraphy?

Anonymous said...

Salaamualaikum Warahmatullah Wabarakathuh,
May Allah bless you all for the beautiful work and effort you have put in to this project of translating the mantle adorned...
I have found a few errors on the website may be inshaAllah you can correct them or inform someone who can
firstly the website menus do not appear on internet explorer version 8 unless you move your mouse to them
secondly in "The Author" page there is a line saying The poem was was considered sacred"... there are two 'was' there...
kind regards and duas
ps: i couldn't find an appropriate contact us on the main website...the email addresses were only for the distributor so i thought i'd mention it here

Anonymous said...

I just received my copy today, and masha'Allah it is beautiful! The effort taken in the writing, design, and printing of this book more than does justice to it's blessed subject matter - the Qasidah Burdah.

May Allah bless Shaykh Abdal-Hakim, the calligraphers and designers of the book, and of course Imam al-Busiri,

Muaaz said...

My Brothers in Islam,

This poem is clear shirk and bidah. In the poem Busairi violates tawheed al ruboobiyah, tawhid asma was sifaat and tawheed al uloohiyah. This is done by assigning qualities of Allah (A.W.J) onto the beloved prophet (s.a.w) as well as seeking refuge in the prophet (s.a.w) and not Allah. One should look closely at the meaning before just accepting it as good.

Please follow this link for an analysis and verification of my claims

http://www.ahmadjibril.com/articles/alburdah.pdf

Know that I am not doing this out of hatred for anyone or to assert superiority. Rather, I am saying this because I care for all the believers and we should guide each other to what is good.

To Hamid do no send supplications (prayer) to Abdul Hakim Muraad for he is not Allah.

I advise one and all to go read the views of Salafi scholars (whom I know Muraad hates because of his lack of understanding of Salafiism and his blind following of Sufism).

Assalamualaikum

Cambridge Khutbas said...

Walaykum assalaam brother Muaaz,

Thank for your comment, which I'm sure was give in a sincere spirit of brotherhood.

Please allow me to note with equal sincerity that many many great scholars of Islam have disagreed and do disagree with you. It would be strange indeed if so many of those learned, sincere and believing men and women recited it without considering deeply whether it would lead them to the gravest error of shirk.

There are numerous discussions about this issues in print and on the internet, so there is no need to repeat the debate here and we will not publish further comments on this theme in this thread. For anyone interested in reading one brief defense of the Burda from the point of view of 'aqida, you can find one here: http://qa.sunnipath.com/issue_view.asp?id=13751

And of course there are many others.

Regarding your comment r.e. brother Hamid's request, it is quite obvious that he is not making supplication to Shaykh Abdal Hakim or any other person, may Allah preserve all of us from anything so mistaken. He is only asking us to pass on his greetings and the fact that he is making supplication on AHM's behalf, which indeed is a good thing to do:

"And those who came after them say: `Our Lord! Forgive us and our brethren who have preceded us in Faith'" (Holy Quran 59:10)

"And ask forgiveness for your sin, and also for (the sin of) believing men and believing women". (Holy Quran 47:19)

So in the same spirit I humbly ask Almighty Allah to forgive me, you, and all our brothers and sisters around the world.

Abdulaziz for CKetc