Naʽat


Naat is poetry in praise of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad. The practice is popular in South Asia, commonly in Bengali, Pashto, Punjabi or Urdu. People who recite Naat are known as Naat Khawan or sanaa-khuaan. 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.
It is difficult to trace the history of Naat khawani since no authenticated record of when it was initiated can be found. One early author, Hassan, was known as Shair-e Darbaar-e Risalat. Even before accepting Islam he was a poet, but after embracing Islam he gave a new turn to his poetry and started writing Na'ats in honor of Muhammad. He was famous for his poetry that defended Muhammad in response to rival poets who attacked him and his religion. Therefore, Hassan is known as the first sana-khawaan of that time. After that many a poet followed this trend and totally dedicated themselves towards writing of naats.
Tala al Badru Alayna, a song sung to Muhammad during his completion of migration to Medina in 622 CE, is believed to be one of the earliest naats.

Language

Commonly the term Na'at-Shareef is reserved and used for poetry in the praise of Muhammad written in Pashto, Bengali, Urdu, English, Turkish, Persian, Arabic, Punjabi, Sindhi & Kashmiri.
In Arabic, Na'at is usually called madih or nasheed, although the latter can describe any type of religious poetry.

Urdu Na'at Anthologies

Urdu Na'at poets

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