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POETRY IN PRAISE OF PROPHETIC PERFECTION

A Study of West African Arabic Madih Poetry and its Precedents

Author: Oludamini Ogunnaike

Size: 234 x 156; 176pp
ISBN: 978 1911141 464 paperback
Price: £19.99 paperback
Publication date: January 2020
Rights: World

The vibrant tradition of West African Arabic poetry is dominated by the genre of madih, that is, poetry in
praise of the Prophet Muhammad. This genre of poetry has been mostly ignored in Western scholarship
and dismissed as mere ‘pious praise’ lacking any significant intellectual content. In Poetry in Praise of Prophetic
Perfection, Dr Oludamini Ogunnaike challenges the misconceptions around West African madih poetry and
addresses the scope and depth of this genre; he not only explores its rich lyrical nature and its foundations
in the Qur’an, Hadith, pre-Islamic and early Islamic poetry, but also its inextricable link to Sufism and Sufi
doctrines of cosmology, ontology and epistemology. Drawing on Sufi traditions and practices, the author
expounds on the various ways in which West African madih poetry both describes and facilitates the ultimate
fulfilment of the human potential, the Perfect Human (al-Insan al-Kamil) or the attainment of the Praiseworthy
Station (al-Maqam al-Mahmud) of which the Prophet Muhammad is the highest example.
Poetry in Praise of Prophetic Perfection includes translations of numerous extracts from madih poetry (accompa-
nied by the original Arabic); while the Appendix presents a selection of complete poems—the most popular
and influential poems of this tradition. Poetry in Praise of Prophetic Perfection is an opportunity for readers to gain
access and appreciation of a unique genre of spiritual Islamic poetry, and, given that it includes the original
Arabic, also enables the recitation of the poetry for devotional purposes.

AUTHOR INFORMATION
Oludamini Ogunnaike holds a PhD in African Studies and the Study of Religion from Harvard University
and is Assistant Professor of African Religious Thought at the University of Virginia.
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Introduction
PART ONE: The Form and Function of West African Sufi Madih
What is Sufi Madih?
The Form and Function of Sufi Madih
The Impossibility of Praise
Madih as Du‘a’
Madih as Hilya
Madih as Dhikr/Salawat
Madih as Being
The Perfect Human (al-Insan al-Kamil) and the Praiseworthy Station (al-Maqam al-Mahmud)
PART TWO: The Living History of Intertextuality: Sources of the West African Tradition
Qur’an and Hadith
Sira, Shama’il, and Salawat Literature:
Pre-Islamic and Early Islamic Arabic poetry
Classics of Praise Poetry
Al-‘Ishriniyyat
Non-Arabic Influences
Formal Features of the Tradition
Hyper-intertextuality and intersubjectivity
‘Big Arabic’
Conclusion
Appendix: Peaks of the West African Madih Tradition
Bibliography

WILL BE OF INTEREST TO:

* Readers wishing to better understand the spiritual and aesthetic dimensions of West African Sufism, who
are neither members of these traditions nor specialist academics.
* Muslims belonging to West African or other Sufi traditions, who are interested in reciting and better
understanding the poetry that forms an important part of their culture and tradition.
* Academic readers, specialists and students of Sufism, Arabic literature, and West African Islam.

OTHER RELATED TITLES

- Sufi Poems: A Mediaeval Anthology, (trans.) Martin Lings
- The Way of Abu Madyan, (trans.) Vincent J. Cornell

- Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources, Martin Lings

- The Life of the Prophet Muhammad, Leila Azzam & Aisha Gouverneur