Qasida Burda and Faraz Rabbani's explanation

Discussion in 'Poetry' started by harun, Nov 13, 2006.

Draft saved Draft deleted
  1. harun

    harun Active Member

  2. harun

    harun Active Member

    “An erudite response, by Shaykh Gibril Haddad, to a recent discussion about selected verses from that most majestic and beautiful of praises upon the beloved Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings upon him), the Qasida al-Burda. The author delves into six classical commentaries on the work - primarily regarding the verses quoted immediately below. In addition to clarifying their meaning, he provides a fascinating insight into the nature of traditional Islamic scholarship - incremental, layer-upon-layer analysis and exegesis that is surely unrivalled in religious tradition.

    It is also a signal indication that the Burda - and works like it - are not merely enjoyable and invigorating devotional poetry, but prized works of doctrine and spirituality that were taught at Islamic Universities with ijaza, in much the same way as books of fiqh and hadith.”

    http://wayfarersrest.blogspot.com/2006/11/glimpse-into-some-commentaries-of.html

    On a side note could one of the brothers check if the disputed statement and its implied stance is borrowed from the al-Muhannad of Shaykh Khalil Ahmad al-Saharanpuri? I was reading the following and footnote 26 made one think…….

    http://mac.abc.se/home/onesr/d/tqi_e.pdf

    PS – It is only fair to quote what Shaykh Faraz has stated as he is the “subject” of this thread

    “My personal conviction is that there is no issue whatsoever with affirming that the Messenger of Allah’s knowledge (peace and blessings be upon him) encompasses everything in the Tablet.”

    “But the answer was sufficiently unclear that I will, insha’Allah, re-write it.”

    May Allah Bless the Shayukh and all of us with Khayr, Ameen.
     
  3. Lurker

    Lurker Guest

    AsalamuAlaikum,

    Eid Mubarak to all.

    I believe Shaykh Faraz should be asked for an explanation and for further elaboration on what he precisely believes about this particular line on the knowledge of the Prophet(sallalahu alaihi wasallam).

    I have reason to believe that it's not exactly what it appears to be at face-value and nor do I believe that it's in line with even Deobandi thought. I think some husn al-zann would do us all some good and he should be asked for clarifications. My reason for stating this is because I clearly recalled reading a very "Sunni" commentary of this line in an English translation/commentary of the Burdah written by the Deobandi folks out of the "Khanqah-e-Sheikh Zakariyya" in Lenasia, South Africa. I found my commentary in my book shelf and here is what it says word for word:

    <"And part of your knowledge is knowledge of the Preserved Tablet(Lowh) and the pen.

    Allamah Busairi means that Rasulullah Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam had been granted knowledge of what is in the preserved tablet and what was written by the pen. The Lowh-e-Mahfooz is the preserved tablet wherein divine decrees both of the past and the future are recorded. It is of a very vast and extensive dimension. The Quraan which is eternal is also preserved in it. All events that take place happen according to what is recorded in it. The Pen is a divine pen which Allah Ta'aala created before the creating of the heavens and the earth. It appears in the hadith that Allah Ta'aala created the pen and told it to write. The pen asked, "What should I write? Allah Ta'aala replied, "Write everything that is going to take place." And so the pen began writing.

    Note: The pen and te preserved tablet are not like anything which we have in this world. Its true shape, size and reality is only known to Allah Ta'aala alone."> - p. 149-150 from "Qasidah Burdah", 2000, Islamic Book Service, New Delhi, ISBN: 81-85738-82-3, Noida Printing Press
     
  4. harun

    harun Active Member

    Eid Mubarak to you also Sidi Naveed.

    We are celebrating tomorrow InshaAllah. (We will celebrate Eid on one day in the UK, INSHAALLAH lets not give up hope)

    Sidi some Desai Chai is a good remedy to digest the excess food or take a nice stroll.
     
  5. tazkiyya2003

    tazkiyya2003 Active Member

    Hey sidi haroon.

    On a lighter note.

    eid mubarak.
    Hope u had a good day.

    Man..ate too much :)

    Alhamdulillah
     
  6. Wadood

    Wadood Veteran

    Why are the comments of Sidi Abu Hasan referred to as attacks most of the time?
     
  7. harun

    harun Active Member

    Eid Mubarak.

    Mufti Naveed Shaikh (aka Tazkiyya 2003) are you referring to the following thread.

    http://www.deenport.com/main/messag...ghlight=&sid=5ee888a1401d132d53900ba651fc8966

    Like your sarcasm very funny!

    What I used the article for was quite clear to defend the Burda Shareef and the quoted verses not being Shirk. I will also post the commentary of the following verses from a book published by the Deobandi Publishing House, Zam Zam Publishers (author unknown), very soon InshaAllah.

    fa inna min juudika'd dunya wa Darrataha
    wa min `ulumika `ilm al-lawHi wa'l qalami

    not sure what the likes of Shaykh Rashid Ahmad Ghangoi would have made of such verses!

    Or would the same rule be applied here that having the belief Sayyidina Rasulullah
    صلي الله عليه و سلم possessed Ime Ghayb is shirk cannot apply to the Burda? In what sense would ta`wil be used in this instance?

    I think it’s best to use commentaries before 1856 to discuss the issue so it will spare all the heartache for Sidi Naveed.

    http://alahazratnetwork.org/media/hadaiq/zammen_o_zama.MP3

    Allahumma salli wa sallim 'alaa Sayyidina Muhammad
    Habib-ir-Rahmaan
    Wa Durratil akwaan
    Al-Haadiri ma'a man salla 'alayhi fee kulli zamaan wa makaan
    Wa 'alaa aalihi wa sahbihi wa tabi'eehim bi-ihsaan
     
  8. tazkiyya2003

    tazkiyya2003 Active Member

    Sidi...I said mufti haroon qayyum with sarcasm
    as haroon qayyum is the name of the individual who used this
    very article to praise the barelwi position.
    He clearly didnt read it carefully enough as sidi abu hasan has done.

    Having said that sidi..
    Faraz does not commit himself to the explanation suggested
    by jamsheed. and my own thoughts are that
    he tried to avoid contraversy by avoiding the particulars and yet not denying it.
    Perhaps you ought to write to him for clarification personally,
    before making qiyaas with some tight rope walker.(not a very nice analogy and actually uncalled for)
    I understand you have issues with sidi ibn adam..but sidi faraz shouldnt be attacked in that way
     
  9. abu Hasan

    abu Hasan Administrator

    typical deobandi thinking. no matter what, if our scholars say so, they are right.

    i don't know why, but faraz sounds more like ibn adam day by day. particularly in the rope walking division.

    ---
    i have read uthaymin - the awful deputy of bin baz - write a similar thing [that it is shirk] in his durr al-thamin, i think. and his reasoning that leads to his ruling that such a saying is 'shirk' is so childish that one wonders how he even became a mufti.

    ---
    but what is very surprising is that the very same imam ibrahim bajuri quoted as a source for the article cited above says that: 'the knowledge of the Pen and the Tablet is SOME part of his knowledge sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam.'

    i mean let us have a look at the verse:
    fa inna min juudika'd dunya wa Darrataha
    wa min `ulumika `ilm al-lawHi wa'l qalami


    verily, it is from your generosity [we get] in this world and the hereafter;
    and from AMONGST your knowledge is the knowledge of the Tablet and the Pen.
    here 'min' or 'from' indicates that he has a lot of knowledge which also includes the Tablet and the Pen. a step is skipped above - perhaps by mistake or confusion - the verse is NOT:

    wa ulumuka mina'l lawHi wa'l qalami
    and your knowledge is from the Tablet and Pen

    in which case the above explanation would be plausible. rather, the knowledge of lawH and qalam is FROM his knowledge, which means he has more. sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam. infact, imam bajuri makes it very clear and inshaAllah i will translate the whole section; but for now, a relevant clip:
    if someone asks, 'if the knowledge of the Tablet and the Pen is SOME of his knowledge sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam, then what is the rest of it?'

    i answer: 'the rest of it is that which Allah ta'ala informed him about the events of the hereafter because the Pen wrote only that which from the beginning until the Judgement day, as we mentioned in Hadith earlier'.


    fa in qeel: idha kaana ilm al-lawHi wa'l qalam ba`aD ulumih sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam, fa ma ba`aD al-aakhar? ujeebu bi anna'l ba`aD al-aakhar huwa maa akhbarahu Allahu `anhu min aHwali'l akhirati li anna'l qalam innama kataba fi'l lawHi maa huwa kaayin ilaa yawmi'l qiyamati faqaT; kama taqaddama fi'l Hadith.
     
  10. tazkiyya2003

    tazkiyya2003 Active Member

    This answer of faraz rabbani was praised by mufti haroon qayyum On deenport.
    So it must be saheeh
     
  11. jamsheed

    jamsheed New Member

    Eid Mubaraak to all of you.


    [It is not necessarily understood from Busiri's words that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) had "all" knowledge of what is in the Tablet. Rather, Busiri left it general, just as the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) did in the hadiths related to the knowledge Allah granted him. Delving into the particulars of this is busying ourselves with that which doesn't concern us.]

    So the pen & the tablet knows more than Rasulallah sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam ! So how can the knowledge of Rasulallah be highest among all creation? Why can’t we conclude that since the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings upon him) left it general, he had all the knowledge of all that is in the tablet and more (remember Mi’raj night!)

    [The "Encompassing Event" (wrongly translated us "times of distress and problems") refers specifically to the distress that befalls all creation on the Day of Resurrection.]

    Then why do we say ‘dafi il bala’ in durood taj? Or is reciting this durood considered shirk?

    [ref: The commentaries on Busiri's Burda by Bajuri, Hamzawi, Ibn Hajar, and Shaykh Zada]

    Perhaps people who have access to these books can cross check!

    These type of explanations remind us again & again that we have to be very careful from whom we take knowledge.
     
  12. Noori

    Noori Senior Moderator

    Need comments about the following, specially those in red

    http://qa.sunnipath.com/issue_view.asp?id=11961&hd=7&cate=3205&t=rss

    Is it true that there is "blatant shirk" in many parts of the Qasida Burda?
    Answered by Faraz Rabbani


    Question: Some learned scholars say that there is "blatant shirk" in many parts of the Qasida Burda--that it goes against Allah's Oneness of Lordship, His Oneness in Names & Attributes, and also His Oneness in Divinity…

    Answer:

    In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful and Compassionate
    May Allah's peace and blessings be upon His Beloved Messenger Muhammad, his noble folk, righteous companions, and all followers

    No, the Qasida Burda doesn't contain "shirk" (associating partners with Allah) or other deviations from sound Islamic belief. Rather, it is a pure expression of deep and passionate love for the Beloved Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), whose love is a condition of faith.

    The Qasida Burda has been accepted by the mainstream of Islamic scholarship as one of the greatest statements of love for the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). It is recited across the Muslim world, from East to West, as it has been for centuries. There are dozens of commentaries on it, by many of the greatest scholars of Islam, none of whom saw any "blatant shirk" in its beautiful praise of the Beloved Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). However, given its eloquence and depth, certain verses--such as those criticized by our respected critic--need to be understood as the author meant them. It is unfair to interpret others' words in ways they did not mean.


    [1] The critic cites the opening of the verse as an example of "shirk" in the Oneness of Allah's Lordship (tawhid al-rububiyya):

    "From our generosity is the world and its partner [the Hereafter]…"

    Our respected critic claims that this refers to the creation of the world and there hereafter--as if Busiri is claiming that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and his generosity created them! The Arabic text if this verse doesn't mention "creation" in it.

    As Imam Ibrahim al-Bajuri makes clear in his commentary on the Burda, what this means is that the best of this world and the next is from the gift the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) gave--by Allah's granting--to humanity.

    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.

    There is a basic principle in knowledge that, "Ruling on a matter comes after sound understanding of it." To criticize someone's words, one must first soundly understand them as the author intended them--not as one's own understanding determines.


    [2] The critic then cites the following verses as example of shirk in Allah's Names & Attributes,

    "And from your knowledge is knowledge of the Pen and Tablet"

    It is established that Allah commanded the Pen to write the details of all matters until the Last Day--namely, before the Resurrection and Hereafter--as related in authentic hadiths in Ahmad and Tirmidhi. These hadiths were considered mass-transmitted by al-Amir al-Kabir in his commentary on Laqani's Jawharat al-Tawhid, as Kattani relates in Nadhm al-Mutanathir.

    In this hadith, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said, "The first of Allah's creation was the pen." Then he mentioned that Allah commanded it to, "Write everything that will occur, until the Last Hour." [Ahmad 21649, from Ubada ibn Samit (Allah be pleased with him)]

    It is authentically established that Allah granted His Beloved Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) knowledge of the events of this worldly life.

    There is no "shirk" in this: (1) it is authentically established in the sunna; (2) it is by Allah's granting, so there is no point of comparison between the Absolute, Infinite, and unacquired Knowledge of Allah and the acquired, and limited (though inimaginably vast) knowledge of the Best of Creation (Allah bless him and give him peace).

    The knowledge of the Pen and Tablet--being this knowledge of worldly events until the Last Day--is "from" the knowledge of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) because he was also granted tremendous knowledge of matters of the hereafter, and of Allah and His Attributes--the greatest of all knowledge.

    It is not necessarily understood from Busiri's words that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) had "all" knowledge of what is in the Tablet. Rather, Busiri left it general, just as the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) did in the hadiths related to the knowledge Allah granted him. Delving into the particulars of this is busying ourselves with that which doesn't concern us. 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.

    Thus, there is no element of shirk in this verse. It simply affirms what the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) himself affirmed, not more and not less.

    [3] Our respected critic then cites the following verse as an example of "shirk" in Allah's Oneness in Divinity (tawhid al-uluhiyya):

    " And who else there, besides you, who I can call out, at times of distress and problems?"

    This is our critic's suggested translation. A sounder translation is:

    "O Most Honored of Creation! Whom can I turn to
    But you when the Encompassing Event befalls?"

    The "Encompassing Event" (wrongly translated us "times of distress and problems") refers specifically to the distress that befalls all creation on the Day of Resurrection. As authentic hadiths in Bukhari [3092], Muslim [287], and elsewhere affirm, all of creation will go from one prophet to another, each of whom is busy with themselves--out of absolute awe of Allah--and tells them to go to another prophet. Finally, all of creation goes to our Beloved Messenger (Allah bless him and give him peace), seeking respite from the tremendous tribulation and distress of that Day. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) answers their call, affirming that this is from what Allah granted him, and turns to Allah seeking respite for creation, and this is granted to him by Allah.

    There is no suggestion in this verse that a believer shouldn't turn to Allah Himself when distress and problems occur. Rather, it is simply affirming something the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) affirmed: that Allah has granted His Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) general intercession for all creation from the intensity of the tribulations of the Day of Judgment, and that on that Day all creation will find none in creation to turn to for assistance but Allah's Beloved (Allah bless him and give him peace).

    This also shows that seeking the assistance of creation--whether in material or spiritual matters--does in no way negate one's understanding that Allah alone is the ultimate granter. But our Giving Lord has shown us that there are both material and spiritual means one seeks, while fully aware that the Giver and Granter is none but Allah.

    This is the aqida of the mainstream of Muslims: we affirm the taking of material and spiritual means, and affirm that the granter is only Allah Himself. This is the understanding of the great Companion of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), Rabi`ah ibn Ka`b al-Aslami (Allah be pleased with him), who said, "O Messenger of Allah! I ask you for your company in Paradise!" The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) replied, "Assist me concerning yourself with much prostration." [Muslim (754)]

    [ref: The commentaries on Busiri's Burda by Bajuri, Hamzawi, Ibn Hajar, and Shaykh Zada]

    And Allah alone gives success.

    Faraz Rabbani
     

Share This Page