NAAT is an arabic word and it means, literally, praise. In Urdu, naat means praise of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) is also called naat in urdu. The earliest Naat was written in arabic during the life time of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
In Arabic poetry, the genre naat does exist but it is called ‘madh’ or ‘madeeh’. The earliest naat was written in Arabic during the lifetime of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). From Arabic, naat reached a large number of world literatures, including Persian, Urdu, Turkish, Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashtu, Seraiki and many more.