O Rūḥ, how many a generous man whose hearth I have visited—men of Lakhm and Ghassān—has entertained the very suspicion you now voice!
Yet as soon as I sensed his fear, I left his abode, once the people began to say, “It is ʿImrān ibn Ḥiṭṭān.”
I was your guest for a whole year; throughout it no sudden night-visitors, whether human or jinn, alarmed me.
But when you resolved upon the gravest course against me, I was struck by the dread that makes people tremble at the name of Ibn Marwān.
Had I ever thought to seek a tyrant’s pardon, you would have been the first—both secretly and openly—to lead the way.
Yet detailed verses have forbidden me the pledge of allegiance: it is so in (Ta Hā) and in (ʿImrān). (1)
Among his verses on the slaying of ʿAlī—may Allah be pleased with him—are:
“O stroke delivered by a god-fearing man! He sought by it nothing but to attain the pleasure of the Lord of the Throne.
Whenever I recall him, I deem him the one whose scale is heaviest with Allah among all creation.
How noble are a folk whose graves lie in the bellies of birds; they never sullied their religion with oppression or aggression.” (2)
(1) The verses are quoted in al-Kamil of al-Mubarrad, 3/170, whose recension reads: “ya ruhu kam min akhi mathwa nazalta bihi” (O soul, how many a brother’s resting-place you have visited), “fareqta manzilahu” (you left his abode), “kuntu daifaka” (I was your guest), “fihi rawaʼiʿu min insin wa min jan” (it contains marvels of human beings and jinn), “al-ʿuzma fa adraka-ni ma adraka al-nas” (the great calamity reached me as it reached the rest of mankind), “kunta al-muqaddam fi sirri wa iʿlani” (you were foremost in my private and public life), “ayat mutahhara” (purified signs), and “ʿinda al-wilaya” (at the moment of investiture). The same readings appear in al-Aghani, 18/112, Dar edition.
(2) All the foregoing lines—except the last—are likewise found in al-Kamil, 3/169, and in al-Aghani, 18/111, Dar edition.
Al-Faqih al-Tabari composed a rejoinder to ʿImran b. Hattan (preserved in one manuscript of al-Kamil), saying:
“ya darbata min shaqiyyin ma arada biha / illa liyahdima min dhi al-ʿarshi bunyana”
(A blow struck by a wretch whose sole aim was to tear down the edifice of the Lord of the Throne),
“inni la adhkuruhu yawman fa alʿanuhu / ayyiha wa alʿanu ʿImran bna Hattana”
(I never recall that day without cursing it, and cursing ʿImran b. Hattan as well).
Muhammad b. Ahmad al-Tabib also replied to ʿImran:
“ya darbata min ghadurin sara daribuha / ashqa al-bariyyati ʿinda Allahi insana”
(A treacherous stroke whose striker became the most wretched of mankind in God’s sight),
“idha tafakkartu fihi zul-tu alʿanuhu / wa alʿanu al-kalb ʿImran bna Hattana”
(Whenever I reflect on him, I continue to curse him, and curse the cur ʿImran b. Hattan).
Sayyid al-Himyari and other poets also composed odes rebutting ʿImran; see his biography in al-Khizana.