Imam Muhammad al-Busiri ash-Shadhili ق of Qasidah Burdah
Imam al-Busiri ash-Shadhili (1211-1294 CE) was a direct student of Abul Abbas al-Mursi ق who was a direct student of Imam Abu Hassan ash-Shadhili ق. He was the poet, the truthful and sincere lover of our Beloved Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, Muhammad b. Sa’id b. Hammad b. Muhsin b. ‘Abd Allah b. Sanhaj b. Hilal b. al-Sanhaji al-Busiri ash-Shadhili ق, the author of Qasidah Burdah.
His Youth
In the year 608 AH, Imam Busiri ق was born in the village of Dallas, in the region of Banu Yusuf b. Sa’id, Egypt, where his mother had grown up. He spent his youth in Busir, his father’s village, an ancient hamlet resting between Fayyun and Bani Suwayf.
While still young, Imam al-Busiri ق emigrated to Cairo and, in one of the small mosque there, he memorised the Holy Qur’an and learned the elementary sciences of the Shari’a and the Arabic language. Allah Most High endowed him with the gift of beautiful handwriting, so he earned his living through writing calligraphic inscriptions on tombstones. When his penmanship became well-known, many people sought him out to learn the art of calligraphy.
His Early Life
Imam al-Busiri ق went on to assume several public offices within Cairo and its surrounding areas, and after a while he started working for the Egyptian state as a clerk in the town of Balis in the eastern province, where he was to reside for some years. However, he soon clashed with the civil servants around him and felt disgruntlement and annoyance at their character after witnessing their faults. As a result, he compiled a number of invective poems against them, exposing their infamies.
This soon earned Imam al-Busiri ق the ire and enmity of Egypt’s political elite. They began to spread more rumours and gossip about him until he grew weary of public office and removed himself from all the government work. Returning to Caito, he opened a primary school for children. Yet he was to suffer in his primary school as well. Soon afterwards he set out for Alexandria, where he finally found the repose he had longed for, and there he lived out the rest of his years, may Allah Most High have Mercy upon him.
His Spiritual Journey
In those days Alexandria was a centre of sacred knowledge and Sufism, and there lived its Shaykh and scholar, the illustrious Sidi Abul ’Abbas al-Mursi al-Ansari ق, students and successor of the great Imam Abul Hassan ash-Shadhili al-Hasani ق. Imam al-Busiri ق eagerly sought out Imam Abu al-’Abbas al-Mursi and adopted his path in Sufism.
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 Poetry
Imam al-Busiri's ق poems in the praise of the Prophet ﷺ are distinguished by their fresh and sweet spirit and sincere expression of emotions. They are marked by splendid meanings, beautiful imagery, precise word choice, aesthetic refinement, and overall sound structure and organisation. He focused his efforts on reading the prophetic biographical literature and learning about our Master Muhammad ﷺ. He expended enormous effort and dedicated all of his poetry and craft to praising the Prophet ﷺ!
His famous odes include:
Qasidah Burdah which is actually named al-Kawakib al-durriya fi madh Khayr al-Bariyya (The Celestial Lights in Praise of the Best of Creation)
Qasidah Muhammadiyyah (The Muhammadan Ode)
Qasidah Mudariyyah (The Mudariyya Ode)
Hamziyya
Imam al-Busiri ق passed away in Alexandria in 694 AH [1294 CE] at the age of eighty-seven, may Allah have Mercy on him. He was buried there, in a small zawiya that was later transformed into a mosque and named after him. This mosque is close to the seashore, in the Maydan al-Masjid area of Hayy al-Anfushi. Allah Most High willed that the mosque housing Imam al-Busiri ق grave be directly facing, and very similar in design to the mosque f his teacher, Sidi Abu al-’Abbas al-Mursi ق - May Allah have Mercy on them both!
[Source: The Mainstay, A Commentary on Qasidah al-Burda by Shaykh Ahmad ibn ‘Ajiba al-Hasani, Translator: Abdul Aziz Suraqah, Publisher: Abu Zahra Press]
