Invoking the inviolable Sanctuary of Mecca and the esteem it holds among the people, he courted the nobility of his clan; yet all the while he declared—both to them and to others in his poetry—that he would never hand over the Messenger of Allah ﷺ or forsake him in anything whatsoever until he perished defending him. He said:
[al-Ṭawīl]
When I saw that the people cherished no goodwill,
that every bond and every avenue had been cut,
when they confronted us with open enmity and harm
and obeyed the counsel of a fickle, departing foe,
when they allied themselves against us with men of doubtful loyalty—
men who, behind our backs, gnaw their fingers in rage—
I steeled myself for them with a supple, tawny spear
and a keen white sword, heirloom of valiant forebears.(1)
I gathered before the Sacred House my kinsmen and brothers,
clinging to its curtains with unbreakable cords,
standing together, facing its threshold,
there where every supplicant pronounces his solemn oath,(2)
where the shorn-haired pilgrims make their camels kneel
in the floodplain between Isāf and Nāʾil,
beasts whose shoulders bear branded marks or freshly shorn coats,
roaming between the lean and the full-bodied.(3)
You see upon them cowrie shells, marble trinkets, and adornments,
hanging from their necks like clustered date stalks.(4)
I seek refuge in the Lord of mankind from every slanderer
who assails us with evil or stubbornly clings to falsehood,(5)
from every spiteful hater who pursues us with disgrace,
from anyone who introduces into the religion what we never sought,(6)
and by Mount Thawr, and by Him who anchored Thabīr in its place,
and by whoever climbs the heights of Ḥirāʾ and then descends.(7)
= and the qaṣīdah is in the Diwan of Shaykh al-Abatih (pp. 2–12).
(1) “al-muqawwil”: “the kings.” It is the plural of miqool, which Lisan al-‘Arab defines as “saying.” He thus likened his forefathers to kings, though none of them ever ruled, as shown by the hadith in which Abu Sufyan reported that Heraclius asked him, “Did any of your ancestors ever reign?” and he replied, “No.” It is possible that the sword mentioned by Abu Talib was among the gifts of kings to his father, since Dhu Yazan bestowed lavish presents on Abd al-Muttalib when the Quraysh delegation came to congratulate him on his conquest of Abyssinia, two years after the birth of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). ar-Rawd (2/22).
(2) The reading of the first hemistich in al-Sirah and al-Maghazi manuscripts is ‘Akufan ma’an mustaqbileen wa tarah (standing together, facing them and at times). In manuscript H it appears as yastaqbiloona (they face).
(3) al-Suhaili in ar-Rawd (2/22) explains that “musammah al-a‘idad” refers to being branded with a scar on the thighs, also called al-sitaa‘ and al-khibat on the thigh, and al-raqm on the upper arm. The mark on the flank is called al-kishaah; the prominences of the neck are al-‘alaat, while al-qasaraat (pl. of qasrah) denote the lower part of the neck, parallel to the thighs. The makhiyyah is a domesticated camel not yet broken for riding but selected for slaughter or division. A saddis camel has entered its eighth year; a bazil is one whose permanent incisor has emerged, in its ninth year. See ar-Rawd (2/22) and Lisan al-‘Arab (under khays, saddis, bazil). The variant in manuscript H reads mahabbasah.
(4) “al-wada‘” (with either sukun or fat-ha) denotes small beads strung and worn by women and children as jewelry. “al-rukham” refers to pieces of marble thus cut and threaded; it is a translucent white stone. “al-athakil”: the author intended al-athakil; the ya’ was omitted for metrical necessity, as Ibn Midad noted in saying “wa fiha al-asafir,” meaning “the sparrows.” ar-Rawd (2/22).
(5) This reading appears in manuscript H, in manuscript T, in Ibn Hisham’s Sirah, and in ar-Rawd; however, the correct reading may be malajjeen with a jim.
(6) In manuscript H: “lana bi-ma‘shah ... ma lam yujadil.”
(7) al-Suhaili in ar-Rawd (2/24) states that the two most authentic readings are “waraq li-barrin fi Hira’ wa nazil.” al-Barqi remarks: “This is how Ibn Ishaq and others transmitted it, and it is the correct reading.”