so be gracious to us, for Allah has been gracious to you.
Their spokesman, Zuhayr ibn Ṣurad, then rose and said:
“O Messenger of Allah, the women now confined in the enclosures among the captives are your maternal aunts and the wet-nurses who once cared for you. Had we importuned Ibn Abī Shamir or al-Nuʿmān ibn al-Mundhir and they had treated us as we have been treated by you, we would still have hoped for their benevolence and compassion—yet you are better than all for whom favor is sought.”
He then recited:
Grant us your kindness, Messenger of Allah, out of your noble grace;
for you are the one in whom we hope and on whom we rely.
Show mercy to a clan whom destiny has hampered,
whose unity the turns of time have torn apart.
Time has left behind a wail of grief for us,
and gloom and sorrow press upon their hearts.
Unless your bounty comes quickly to revive them—
O man of matchless forbearance when put to the test!
Be gracious to the women who once suckled you,
when your mouth was filled with pearls of their pure milk.
Show kindness to those same women who once nourished you,
for all you did and left undone was becoming and fair.
Do not leave us like one whose ostrich has flown away;*
spare some of us, for we are a people of noble stock.
We surely give thanks for blessings, even when forgotten by others,
and we shall store up our gratitude long after this day.”
*An Arab proverb for a man left destitute.
This account is also transmitted through the chain of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Rumāḥis al-Kalbī al-Ramli, from Ziyād ibn Ṭāriq al-Jushamī,
= Mu‘jam al-Buldan (2:142).
(1) In H: “al-hada’ir”; this reading is also confirmed in T and in Sīrat Ibn Hisham. Al-hadira denotes an enclosure surrounding an object, whether of wood or reed; its plural is al-hada’ir. See At-Tāj (s.v. ḥaẓar).
(2) “malḥnā”: “we suckled them.” This gloss appears in the hashiyya of Ḥ, with a marginal note reading sha Ṣaḥāḥ—i.e. from Al-Siḥāḥ by al-Jawharī. In Lisān al-ʿArab (s.v. malḥ) and in the hadith of the Hawāzin delegation, the orator says to the Prophet ﷺ concerning the captivity of their clans: “Had we suckled al-Ḥārith ibn Abī Shamir or al-Nu‘mān ibn al-Mundhir, and then your station had ensured their release for us—and you are the best guardian—then protect them.” Al-Aṣma‘ī explains that malḥnā here means “we suckled them.”
(3) In H: “... bayḍa a‘thānihā qadr,” a reading also confirmed in T and in the verbal-derivation sources. Bayḍa (“egg”) in the expression bayḍat al-qawm refers to the people’s origin, community, or tribe. See At-Tāj (s.v. bayḍ).
(4) “al-ghamā’”: distress. Al-ghumar, plural of ghumra, denotes severity or hardship, as in ghamrat al-hamm and ghamrat al-mawt (Lisān al-ʿArab, s.v. ghamm, ghamr). Al-Zarqānī notes in Sharḥ al-Mawāhib that al-ghumar—pronounced with a fatḥa on the ʿayn, a kasra on the mīm, and an open mīm thereafter—means rancor.
(5) The first hemistich is metrically irregular in this rendition; it is regular in al-Waqīdī’s version—alla tudārikuha—or, in the versions of al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī, al-Suhaylī, and Ibn ʿAsākir, tudārikuhum.
(6) “dirrār”: successive abundant milk ejections. As defined by al-Ḥalabī in Al-Sīra al-Ḥalabiyya (3:126), it is the plural of dirra (with a kasra on the dāl), indicating the abundance and flow of milk. See Lisān al-ʿArab (s.v. durar).
(7) “shālat na‘āmat al-qawm”: their dwellings fell into vulnerability, their prestige vanished, and their unity dispersed. See Lisān al-ʿArab (s.v. shawl).
(8) So read in H, and At-Tāj has ramḥas; the same appears in T, in al-Lubāb (2:36), in the Mukhtaṣar Tārīkh Ibn ʿAsākir by Ibn Manẓūr (5:471), and in Mīzān al-Iʿtidāl (3:6).