Praise unbound and unlimited is due only to Allah, the Most Merciful and the Most Generous for all His Bounties upon us, the most important of which is the Best of Creation, the Master of the World, the Manifestation of Mercy, the Perfect Man, the Seal of Prophets and the Beloved of Allah, namely no other than Muhammad, fragrant prayers and countless salutations be sent upon him.

We express our wholehearted thanks and unconditional gratitude to Allah Almighty for granting us the honour of being followers of this Messenger, for making him a perfect example for us to emulate, for allowing us to salute him from afar and chant his magnificent name, to see his stunningly beautiful face in our visions and for leaving amongst us his blessed Pure Family.

Allah Almighty ordered us to unreservedly believe in this Messenger, to blindly follow him, to unconditionally obey him, to utterly love him, and to absolutely revere him. Our belief is based on him, the Holy Qur’an is known only through him; punishment of the sinners is delayed because of him and our five daily prayers are not concluded without praying on him.

Mentioning his name is a source of bliss; remembering his look is a fount of joy; practicing his Sunna is a ladder to perfection. Moreover, there is hardly anything we do that does not require observing one of his sunna. So how, by Allah who created him, would we not fall in love with him, yearn to him, and remember him in every moment of our life.

This poem of Imam Al-Busiri is a tribute to this Perfect Man; it comes in confomity with the Divine praise of him in the Noble Qur’an and in line with the many Testimonials of his companions, especially the poets and on top of them is Hssaan Bin Thaabit.

The love and devotion Imam Bousiri showed in this splendid poem is unmatched. He is indeed as he said in his other poem “an embodiment of Hassaan”. No wonder this poem became the most celebrated poem, not only amongst Arabs but in the entire Muslim World. If you cannot speak any Urdu and you want to introduce yourself while in Pakistan, all you need is to say one line: “mawlaya salli wasallim da’iman abadan ‘ala habibika khayril khalqi kullihimi” and see the amount of love and care you receive from people.

Singing this poem, studying it and memorising it has become a sign of belonging to the right way of Islam, the Sunni way, to main stream; and contrary to this, rejecting it, or objecting to any of its lines is a sign of deviation. When scholars of the calibre of Hafiz Bin Hajar al-Asqalani proudly studied this poem and related it, others have to only to believe and respect.

I strongly encourage our communities to revive this poem and the tradition of singing it and reflect on its meanings to increase their love and yearning to the Beloved of Allah; so that we may follow him, see him, and eventually meet him on the Final Day.