Naat

Naat (naʽat) is poetry in praise of the Prophet Muhammad, one of the most popular forms of devotional poetry among Muslims. The tradition reaches back to the Prophet's own lifetime: his companion Hassan ibn Thabit, a poet titled Shair-e Darbaar-e Risalat, composed verses in his honour after converting to Islam. Over centuries it grew into a major genre, especially in South Asia, where poets and scholars such as Amir Khusrau, Ahmed Raza Khan Barelvi and Allama Iqbal shaped the Urdu naat. It is distinguished from Hamd (praise of God alone) and, in Arab lands, corresponds to madih nabawi.

Naat is love and reverence for the Prophet turned into verse and voice: it describes his kindness, wisdom, character and the events of his life, and reciting or hearing it is a cherished devotional act that brings listeners a sense of closeness, peace and spiritual connection. To preserve its spiritual purity, naat is traditionally recited melodically but without musical instruments.

Naat is composed in Urdu, Arabic, Persian, Punjabi, Bengali and other languages and recited melodically by Naat Khwan (also sana-khwan). The term naat sharif marks especially exalted poetry. It is recited at religious gatherings, milad assemblies, school functions and on radio and television, particularly in holy months, and is kept distinct from qawwali, though some qawwals (like Amjad Sabri) have embraced the Naat Khwan identity.

Naat recitation is a common feature of religious television, radio and public events, and figures such as Junaid Jamshed helped broaden its acceptance and commercial and artistic reach; recorded naat albums are widely produced and consumed.

Naat is a thriving, growing tradition, sustained by poets, professional Naat Khwan, religious media and vast recorded and digital archives, and it remains a central devotional practice in South Asian Muslim life, at home and at public gatherings alike.

While pan-Islamic, naat is an especially rich tradition across South Asia, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, in Urdu, Punjabi and Bengali, and is archived at scale (digital archives catalogue thousands of Urdu naat compositions by hundreds of reciters).

[Atlas Assessment] Naat is a strong devotional-literary node with graph links to Urdu poetry, the mushaira/majlis culture, and the wider Islamic devotional-arts world (qawwali, hamd). The Atlas treats it as a living, growing tradition and records its historical poets as legacy context; it is built as a standalone form distinct from Assam's Zikir/Zari, which is a separate regional tradition.