I was compelled to translate The Burda after a trip to Mauritania in which I realized it was everywhere, on everyone's tongue, always present, always ready to ignite the instant, alter the ambience, enhance the state, bring the presence of the beloved into the room, the tent or wherever we happened to be. Sitting once with my teacher Abd Allah Ould Ahmadna, I heard for the first time a line from Imam Busiri, "If Allah places a people in the service of the serene, then they too become serene." As those words flowed from the tongue of my serene teacher, I realized in that moment the reason for my existence, my soul was branded with the power of those words forever. That is Imam al-Busiri.

I have heard the Burda many times in many places. In Morocco, I was transported to another world, a perfect world free of sin, free of vice, free of temptation and upon leaving the gathering, I felt as if was once again, we were exiled from the Garden. I have seen Yemenis filled with the same joyful spirit singing in their own unique way like innocent children freed from fear while praising the one who on the day all have fear shows none. Once in Madina, two Sudanese sang a section in a way that brought the poem back to its home, Africa. While it is sung in Indonesia, Pakistan, India, Turkey, Kosovo, Chechnya, Bosnia, even in China, it is and always will be from Africa. It is like Africa, as deep as the oceans that surround her, as powerful as her Nile, as vast as her Sahara and containing as many lights as a starry desert night in Niger.

Hamza Yusuf

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