The Tenth Year

Ibn Isḥāq says: When Allah granted His Prophet the conquest of Mecca, after he had returned from Tabūk and the tribe of Thaqīf had embraced Islam, delegations from every corner of Arabia began to stream toward him. The Arabs had been waiting to see what would happen to this clan of Quraysh and to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, for Quraysh were the leaders of the people.

ʿAṭārid ibn Ḥājib then arrived at the head of a large delegation from Banū Tamīm, among whom were al-Aqraʿ ibn Ḥābis, al-Zibrqān ibn Badr, and, accompanying them, ʿUyainah ibn Ḥiṣn. When they entered the Mosque, they called out to the Messenger of Allah from outside his apartments: “Come out to us, O Muhammad!” Their loud shouting disturbed him, so he came out and they said, “O Muhammad, we have come to boast and compete with you. Permit our poet and our spokesman to speak.”

He replied, “I grant your spokesman permission. Let him stand.”

ʿAṭārid rose and declared:

“Praise be to Allah, to whom belong favor and bounty toward us—He who is worthy of them—who made us kings, bestowed upon us great wealth with which we perform deeds of generosity, and made us the most honored, the most numerous, and the best equipped people of the East. Who among mankind is like us? Are we not the leaders of men and the foremost in merit? Whoever wishes to contend with us, let him enumerate the likes of what we have just enumerated. If we wished, we could speak at even greater length, yet we refrain out of modesty. I say this so that you may produce speech like ours and a cause superior to our cause.”

Then he sat down.

The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said to Thābit ibn Qays ibn Shammās al-Khazrajī, “Stand and answer him.” So Thābit rose and said: