Naʽat

Naat (নাত and Punjabi) is poetry in praise of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad. The practice is popular in South Asia (India, Pakistan and Bangladesh), commonly in Urdu, Bengali or Punjabi. 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.

History
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 Naats in honor of Muhammad. His poetry defended Muhammad in response to rival poets who attacked him and his religion.

Tala al Badru Alayna is a traditional Islamic poem known as nasheed recited to Muhammad when he moved to Medina in 622 CE.

Language
Commonly, the term naʽat shareef (exalted poetry) is reserved for poetry in the praise of Muhammad. In Arabic, na'at is usually called madih (praise) or nasheed (poetry), although the latter can describe any type of religious poetry.

Urdu Na'at anthologies

 * Hadaiq e Bakhshish by Ahmad Raza Khan
 * Wasail e Bakhsish by Muhammad Ilyas Qadri
 * Tajalliyāt, by Syed Waheed Ashraf First Ed.(1996), Second Ed.(2018) ISBN 978-93-85295-76-8, Maktaba Jamia Ltd, Shamshad Market, Aligarh 202002, India
 * Urdū zabān men̲ naʻt goʼī kā fann aur tajallīyāt, 2001 by Syed Waheed Ashraf
 * Safeena e Bakhshish by Akhtar Raza Khan (Azhari Miya)

Na'at poets

 * Hassan ibn Thabit
 * Pir Syed Meher Ali Shah
 * Amir Khusro
 * Mian Muhammad Bakhsh
 * Ahmed Raza Khan
 * Pir Syed Naseer-uddin-Naseer
 * Mustafa Raza Khan
 * Muhammad Ilyas Qadri
 * Mushtaq Qadri
 * Syed Waheed Ashraf
 * Muzaffar Warsi
 * Akhtar Raza Khan
 * Muhammad Iqbal
 * Behzad Lucknavi

Urdu Na'at reciters

 * Syed Sabihuddin Rehmani
 * Junaid Jamshed
 * Abrar ul Haq
 * Syed Fasihuddin Soharwardy
 * Siddiq Ismail
 * Khursheed Ahmad
 * Abdul Rauf Rufi
 * Qari Waheed Zafar Qasmi
 * Bekal Utsahi
 * Ajmal Sultanpuri
 * Mushtaq Qadri
 * Ghulam Mustafa Qadri
 * Muhammad Naqi Naqvi