Madad, O God… Madad, O Messenger of God.”
This cry, which rises from the heart to hang in the sky of the soul, is uttered only by those who truly know God, when they behold His aid approaching from afar, without any power or strength of their own.
When people gather together to harm them, the Mighty, the Exalted compels them.
They recognize the aid before it occurs, as it occurs, and after it has occurred; for it is the true promise of God to those who believe and are God-fearing.
It is God’s promise to those who have been wronged and against whom people have conspired, while they imagine themselves to possess neither power nor strength—then the Mighty, the Ever-Strong manifests His supreme self-disclosure and grants them the victory of One who is Mighty and All-Powerful.
A victory that comes at moments when they feel loneliness and weakness, in the face of wicked scheming and its perpetrators;
it comes to make the solitary one a nation, and to render the multitude abject, by God’s permission.
Many have resorted to singing of this divine aid, not least among them the artist Mohamed Mounir, when he lifted his voice in his celebrated piece:
Madad, madad, madad
Madad, O Messenger of God.
I swear by the Criterion,
And by Surah al-Insan,
Justice is in the balance,
For all of God’s creation.
The chant of madad has been raised by eulogists and poets, beginning with Ka‘b ibn Zuhayr—the first to voice praise of the Messenger, unlike the Messenger’s poet Hassan ibn Thabit—continuing to al-Busiri, and then to the age of the great chanters, which was sealed with Shaykh Yasin al-Tuhami.
When the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him and his family—conquered Mecca, he ordered the killing of a number of the fiercest enemies of Islam, even if they were clinging to the curtains of the Ka‘bah. Apart from the fact that those who were actually killed among them were only two, as punishment for having killed a number of Muslims, the most hostile of them was Ka‘b ibn Zuhayr, the author of the famous poem al-Burda, by which some have dated the beginnings of prophetic praise.
When Bujayr, Ka‘b’s brother, informed him that the Messenger had permitted his blood, he advised him to go to the Prophet in repentance, for he—peace be upon him—does not kill one who repents.
After long reflection, Ka‘b entered Medina and stayed with a man with whom he had an old acquaintance, who took him to the Messenger of God—peace be upon him—at the dawn prayer. Ka‘b prayed with him, then the Prophet signaled to him. Ka‘b rose, sat before the Prophet, placed his hand in the Prophet’s hand, and began reciting his famous poem al-Burda, which is regarded as one of the foundational texts in the art of prophetic praise and the opening of this school.
Ka‘b began his poem with love poetry, according to the conventions of ancient verse, saying:
Su‘ad has departed, and my heart today is afflicted,
Passion-stricken for her, unredeemed, fettered.
Until he reached the episode of the Prophet’s threat against him—peace be upon him—and his coming in search of pardon:
I have been informed that the Messenger of God has threatened me,
Yet pardon with the Messenger of God is hoped for.
I have come to the Messenger of God apologizing,
And apology with the Messenger of God is accepted.
He then proceeded to praise the noble Messenger and his companions, extolling their courage, valor, and exalted character:
Indeed, the Messenger is a light by which one is guided,
A drawn sword from among the swords of God.
The Prophet—peace be upon him—then cast his cloak over him. The man uncovered his face, and behold, it was Ka‘b ibn Zuhayr. The Prophet pardoned him—may my Lord’s prayers and peace be upon him.
Through that poem, which he called al-Burda in reference to the Prophet’s cloak, Ka‘b ibn Zuhayr established the tradition of prophetic praise that continues to this day.
Despite the greatness and majesty of Ka‘b ibn Zuhayr’s Burda, the Prophetic era abounded with many praises of the Prophet, foremost among them those composed by Hassan ibn Thabit, the Prophet’s poet, to whom the Prophet said:
“Indeed, the Holy Spirit continues to support you as long as you defend God and His Messenger.”
And regarding his satire of Quraysh, he said: “Hassan satirized them, and thus healed and was satisfied.”
No Islamic era was devoid of prophetic praise. Names such as al-Farazdaq, al-Sharif al-Radi, al-Kumayt, and even Mihyar al-Daylami emerged.
Yet al-Busiri, born in the village of Busir between Fayoum and Beni Suef, who lived in the seventh Hijri century, is regarded as one of the most important poets of prophetic praise and among the founding fathers of the eulogistic ode.
He named his famous poem al-Burda because he was ill and saw the Prophet—peace be upon him—in a dream, who showed him compassion and covered him with his cloak, after which he was cured and recovered from his illness. The poem was also called al-Bara’ah and al-Mimiyyah because its rhyme ends with the letter mīm, while its original title is:
“The Resplendent Stars in Praise of the Best of Creation.”
Al-Busiri says:
Our Prophet, who commands and forbids—there is none
More righteous than he in saying “no” or “yes.”
He is the beloved whose intercession is hoped for
Against every terror that assails.
He called to God; those who hold fast to him
Hold fast to a rope that shall never break.
He surpassed all prophets in form and character;
They did not equal him in knowledge nor in generosity.
The Influence of al-Busiri
The influence of al-Busiri’s Burda extended into the modern era and inspired Ahmad Shawqi’s poem “Reem on the Plain,” which was sung by Umm Kulthum. In one of its passages he says:
O you who blame me for loving him—love is destiny;
Had passion pierced you, you would neither blame nor reproach.
I granted you an ear that does not listen,
And many listen while the heart remains deaf.
O you of drowsy glance, you have never tasted love;
You kept your lover awake guarding love—so sleep.
If singing in praise of the Prophet—peace be upon him—never ceased in any age, it flourished with modern media and means of communication. Symbols and pioneers emerged, foremost among them in our time Shaykh Yasin al-Tuhami, the most renowned chanter of prophetic praise.
Shaykh Yasin al-Tuhami was born on December 6, 1949, in the village of al-Hawātikah, Manfalut district, Assiut Governorate. With his melodious voice, he chanted the most famous poems of prophetic praise across the ages. Despite attacks by extremists against him, al-Tuhami remained the unrivaled star of devotional praise.
YouTube abounds with his eulogies and supplications, foremost among them the poem attributed to Imam ‘Ali—may God honor his countenance—“The soul weeps for this world,” as well as the masterpiece of al-Hallaj:
By God, the sun has neither risen nor set
But that your love is bound to my breaths.
I have not sat among people conversing
But that you were my discourse among my companions.
I have not remembered you in sorrow or in joy
But that you were in my heart among my whisperings.
I have not intended to drink water from thirst
But that I saw an image of you in the cup.
The radiance of prophetic love will continue to illuminate the sky of our world and perfume its atmosphere, despite the spite of the puritans—from the Brotherhood and their allies and supporters among the coarse leftists.
And we shall continue to cry out from the depths of our hearts as long as we live:
“Madad, O God… Madad, O Messenger of God.”
Paris, five o’clock in the afternoon, Cairo time.
