Ka'b ibn Zuhayr and the Burdah

Shaykh Yasir Qadhi explains:

The finest poet alive in Arabia was Kaʿb ibn Zuhayr, son of Zuhayr ibn Abī Sulmā of the Seven Hanging Odes, of the tribe of Muzaynah. He had made verse against the Prophet ﷺ, mocked his own brother for believing, and at last crossed the line no Companion forgave: slandering the Muslim women. After the Conquest his brother wrote that he must flee the peninsula or come repentant, "for the Prophet ﷺ accepts whoever repents." Realizing his idolatry had been only inherited custom, Kaʿb came unknown to Medina, prayed Fajr in the mosque, put his hand in the Prophet's ﷺ hand and pleaded pardon in Kaʿb's name, then said, "I am Kaʿb ibn Zuhayr." An Anṣārī rose to strike him, but the Prophet ﷺ said, "Let him be, he has come repentant, a Muslim."

❧Banat Su'ad

He asked leave to recite, and gave the ode the old books call Bānat Suʿād, the original Burdah (not the later, famous Burdah of al-Būṣīrī). Opening in the classical manner with a lost love, it turns to plead for pardon: "I am told the Messenger of Allāh has threatened me, but pardon is hoped for at the Messenger of Allāh's hands." Its most celebrated line praises the Prophet ﷺ: إِنَّ الرَّسُولَ لَنُورٌ يُسْتَضَاءُ بِهِ، مُهَنَّدٌ مِنْ سُيُوفِ اللهِ مَسْلُولُ, "Truly the Messenger is a light by which men are guided, an Indian sword unsheathed from the swords of Allāh" (muhannad, the Arabs' name for the prized Indian blade). So moved was the Prophet ﷺ that he took off his own cloak, his burdah, and gave it to him; hence the poem's name. He then told Kaʿb, "You harmed the Anṣār with your tongue; now praise them," and Kaʿb did. He died a Muslim, ʿUmar's favourite poet.