she said: “Take what is good and leave what is objectionable. I myself have transmitted some of the poetry of Kaʿb ibn Mālik—among it an ode of forty verses and others that are shorter.” This report is also graded authentic.

The traditions indicating that the Prophet listened to poetry are many, and some of them will be cited below, God willing.

Lady ʿĀ’ishah—may Allah be pleased with her—also said (authentic):

“When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ arrived in Madinah, Abu Bakr and Bilal came down with fever. Whenever the fever seized Abu Bakr he would recite:

kullu imriʾin muṣbiḥun fī ahlihi,
wal-mawtu adnà min shirāki naʿlihi
(Every man wakes up among his household, yet death is nearer to him than the strap of his sandal).

When the fever lifted from Bilal he would sing:

alā layta shiʿrī hal abītanna laylatan
biwādin wa ḥawlī idhkhirun wa jalīlu
(Oh, would that I knew—shall I ever spend a night in a valley surrounded by idhkhir and jalīl shrubs?)

wa hal aridanna yawman miyāha Majannah
wa hal yabdūna lī Shāmah wa Ṭufayl
(Shall I one day reach the waters of Majannah, and will the peaks of Shāmah and Ṭufayl come into view for me?)

Allāhumma ikhzi ʿUtbah ibn Rabīʿah wa Umayyah ibn Khalaf kamā akhrajūnā min Makkah
(O Allah, disgrace ʿUtbah ibn Rabīʿah and Umayyah ibn Khalaf, for they expelled us from Mecca).”

This narration is reported by Ahmad 6/82–83 with a sound chain. It is also found in the two Ṣaḥīḥs and elsewhere—though without the phrase “he would sing”—and is listed in al-Ṣaḥīḥah 2584.

(Authentic) Anas ibn Mālik narrated that he once entered upon his brother al-Barāʾ, who was lying on his back with one leg crossed over the other, chanting poetry. Anas forbade him, whereupon al-Barāʾ said, “Are you afraid that I will die in my bed, when I alone have killed one hundred disbelievers, not counting those in whose slaying others shared with me?”