A Poem Born in Pain
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Welcome. This is the story of a poem. Perhaps the most loved poem in the history of Islam. It has been recited in homes and mosques from Morocco to Indonesia for over seven hundred years. Its name is, the Burda. The Mantle.
Its poet was Imam al-Busiri, a scholar and writer of Egypt, who died in the year six hundred and ninety six. The story goes that in his later life he was struck by a paralysis. Half of his body could no longer move. Doctors could not help him.
In his pain, he turned to the one thing he still had. His words. And his love for the Prophet. He composed a long poem in praise of the Prophet, and asked Allah, through it, for healing.
He later said, that night I saw the Prophet in a dream. He passed his blessed hand over my face, and cast his mantle over me. When I woke, I could stand. So the poem became known as, the Mantle.
The name also echoes an older story. Centuries earlier, the poet Ka’b ibn Zuhayr came to the Prophet in repentance and recited a poem in his honour. It is reported that the Prophet gave him his own mantle as a gift.
Whatever you make of the dream, the poem itself is a gift. It is a journey in ten movements. It begins with longing. It turns to the battle with one’s own self. It praises the Prophet, his birth, his miracles, the Qur’an, his night journey, and his struggles. And it ends in repentance and prayer. Let us walk through it together.
