Regarding Burdah poem as praise of Prophet, sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam

12-10-2017 | IslamWeb

Question:

Assalaamu alaykum. I asked this question before but I was told to clarify it. So, basically, I wanted to know whether if one read some defenses or justifications of the Qasida Burda, accepting it as simply praise for the Prophet Muhammad, sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam, instead of considering it to be excessive praise, and then read fatwas on the latter opinion and decided that the latter might be the truth, would their former opinion have caused them to commit Shirk (polytheism)? Simply put, if anyone accepts the Qasidah Burda to be just an expression of praise instead of being excessive, would they be: A)sinning, or B) accepting or committing Shirk themselves? Thank you.

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger. 

A Muslim is not judged to be committing Shirk just because he thinks that the Burdah poem is free from exaggeration and that it is just praise for the Prophet . Also, the scholars do not accuse the author of the Burdah of Kufr (disbelief), even though they do say that it contains exaggeration, and even Kufr.

Ibn 'Uthaymeen said:

"We do not say about the man himself that he is a Kaafir (disbeliever) – I mean Al-Booseeri (the author of the Burdah) – because we do not know what led him to say this; but we say: these sayings are Kufr, and whoever believes in them is a Kaafir (goes out of the fold of Islam); we say this in general. Therefore, in our view, the believers must avoid reading this poem because of the grave matters of Shirk that it contains, even though some of its verses have good, correct meanings. The truth is acceptable regardless of who presents it, and falsehood is rejected regardless of who presents it."

Allah knows best.