Is there, after all this, any refuge left for one who seeks protection—any guardian who, in fearing God, would mete out justice?
It is by our presence that enemies are held in check, and they would dearly wish we were sent off to bar the gates of the Turks and of Kabul.
By the House of God, you lie if you think we will abandon Mecca and depart while your own affair is still in turmoil.
By the House of God, you lie if you imagine Muhammad will be insulted before we have lunged with our spears and fought to shield him.
We shall never hand him over until we have been struck down around him, till we forget our sons and our wives, and a band rises against you brandishing iron—like water-camels straining upright beneath rattling skins—
until we see the spite-filled man doubled over by our thrusts, like a cripple staggering beneath his load.
By the life of God, if matters grow as serious as I foresee, our swords will soon tangle with the foremost of your champions,
wielded by the hands of a youth blazing like a meteor—distinguished, trustworthy, a fearless defender of the truth—
through months and days and a full turning of the year, after which a new pilgrimage will come in the following season.
Never—may you be bereft!—do a people forsake a leader who guards their honor, save cowards of dull mettle.
A man of radiant face, by whose countenance rain is sought, the refuge of orphans and the protector of widows.
Or disapproval (al-dhim), akin to ḥusn (good) and qubḥ (bad). As he says: “wa-ḥusna dhā adaban” (“and well-mannered is he”). It is also possible that al-samar here is the plural of asmar and samra, referring to girls; trees are called al-dahma when they are lush. Al-sarḥ is the plural of sarḥa, meaning a large tree. The phrase wa-shabraqahu denotes a plant called ḥilla when dry and shabraq when fresh. Al-wakhd means swift walking; al-jawāfil are those departing hastily. (Al-Rawd 2/26; al-Lisān: wakhd, jifl, sarḥ.)
(1) In the Ḥ manuscript: “wa-hal min muqīl.”
(2) In the Ṭ manuscript: “yuṭāʿu binā amr al-ʿidā wa-da’nnā”; the reading supported by the Ḥ manuscript and Ibn Hishām’s Sīrah.
(3) “al-balābil wa-al-balbāl” signifies intense distress and whispering within the breast—inner turmoil. (Al-Lisān: balal.)
(4) In the Ḥ manuscript: “nuqātil” instead of “nuṭāʿin.” The verse has already been explained above.
(5) In the Ḥ manuscript: “wa-nanhudu qawman.” “Rawāyā” refers to water-carrying camels (singular: rāwiyah); al-ṣalāṣil are the sounds they make when drinking. (Al-Rawd 2/26.)
(6) The expression rakaʿ fulān radʿah means “he fell face-down into his blood”; upon being wounded, he “mounted his radʿah”—i.e. his fore-legs—and the blood that had flowed. Another account reads that he collapsed dead, face-down on his blood and head; whenever he attempted to rise, he placed weight on his fore-legs and then fell forward. The verb ankab (from minkab, “slope”) means to deviate or err from the straight path, describing a tyrant who overreaches. As a poet of Fuqaʿis says:
fa-halā aʿiddūnī limathlī tafāqadū
idhā al-khaṣm abzā māʾil al-ra’y ankab
(“Why not muster forces equal to mine and scrutinize the matter? For when the adversary, steadfast in opinion, deviates.”) (Al-Lisān: radʿ, nakb.)
(7) In both Ḥ and Ṭ manuscripts: “muḥarraman” with an unmarked hā; the reading corroborated by Ibn Hishām’s Sīrah. “Al-sunnah al-mujarramah” denotes a complete, concluded offense. (Al-Lisān: jrm.)
(8) In the Ḥ manuscript: “yaḥūṭu al-dhamār min ghayr thawb thawākil”; the reading supported by Ṭ, Ibn Hishām’s Sīrah, and Al-Rawd (2/26). The term dhamar (from dharib) in Al-Lisān refers to obscene speech. “Al-mawākil” denotes one who lacks resolve and delegates his affairs to others.
(9) “Thimāl al-yatamā”—i.e. he supports and cares for orphans. “Thimāl” means aid, refuge, and provision in times of hardship. (Al-Rawd 1/26.)