Naʽat
poetry in praise of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad
Naʽat (Bengali: নাত and Urdu: نعت) is poetry in praise of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad. The practice is popular in South Asia (Bangladesh, Pakistan and India), commonly in Bengali, Punjabi, or Urdu. People who recite Naʽat are known as Naʽat Khawan or sanaʽa-khuaʽan. Exclusive "Praise to Allah" and Allah alone is called Hamd, not to be confused with 'Na'at'.
In Arab countries, lyrics and praises said for Muhammad are called madih nabawi.
History
Early Islam
One early author, Hassan, was known as Shair-e Darbaar-e Risalat. Before converting to Islam he was a poet, and after converting he started writing Na'ats in honor of Muhammad. His poetry defended Muhammad in response to rival poets who attacked him and his religion.
Talaʽ al Badru ʽAlayna is a traditional Islamic poem known as nasheed recited to Muhammad when he moved to Medina in 622 CE.
British India
The tradition of composing naʿat poetry in Urdu has deep historical roots and is nearly as old as Urdu poetry itself. Since praising the Prophet Muhammad has long been regarded as a devotional and literary act, most classical Urdu poets composed at least a few couplets of naʿat, including Mir Taqi Mir, Momin Khan Momin, and Mirza Ghalib included devotional verses in their work.
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This entry incorporates text from “Naʽat” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.