Ibn Isḥāq said:
When the parchment was shredded and everything it contained became null and void, Abū Ṭālib—praising the men who had risen up to annul it—recited the following verses (in the Ṭawīl metre):
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Has news reached our distant mariner of what our Lord has wrought—though they are far removed, and Allah is ever more forbearing with mankind?
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It tells them that the document has been torn apart, and that whatever Allah does not approve of is doomed to ruin.
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Falsehood and compounded sorcery had taken turns over it, yet never again will such sorcery ascend through all eternity.
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Those who had no stake in its writing rallied against it, and its own bird now flutters in confusion above its head.
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It was a fitting requital for a treacherous deed at Athīmah—fit that an arm and a sword-belt be severed on its account.
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The people of the two quarters of Mecca would set out in flight, their flanks trembling in dread of impending evil.
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A farmer is left turning his options over: shall he stay with them in Tihāmah or flee upward to Najd?
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A detachment will climb between the two Akhshab mountains, bearing howdahs, arrows, bows, and keen lances.
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So if anyone among Mecca’s assembly seeks true honor, our honor is born in the very heart of Mecca.
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We were raised there when its people were but a handful, and we have never ceased to grow in virtue and to be praised.
(1) Bibliographic sources: al-Siyar wa’l-Maghazi, p. 167; Sīrat Ibn Hishām, vol. 1, p. 377; al-Rawḍ, vol. 2, p. 124.
(2) Al-Suhaylī in al-Rawḍ (vol. 2, p. 128) explains baḥrīna (our sea-dwellers) as those in Abyssinia whose lineage is traced to the sea because they crossed it. He defines arūd as “be gentler,” from which ruwaydak (be gentle) derives; the diminutive form implies “be a little gentler.”
(3) In the ḥ manuscript the phrase reads “tara awjahan” (“you see faces”); in the Sīra and al-Maghāzī it appears as tada‘ā lahā (“it rallied for her”); in the ḥ and ṭ manuscripts it is yalf siḥran (“he winds a magic spell”). The authoritative reading, however, is confirmed by Sīrat Ibn Hishām and al-Rawḍ.
(4) The expression man laysā fīhā baqraqar (“one who is not of low standing”) means “not servile,” since baqraqar denotes “trodden ground that imposes no obstacle on its walker.” Alternatively, it may mean “not given to levity,” for baqraqar also signifies “laughter.” The clause “and its bird hovers above its head” refers to its share of misfortune and evil; cf. the verse “We have fastened its bird to its neck” (al-Tanzīl: 96:4).
(5) Both Sīrat Ibn Hishām and al-Rawḍ read ruq‘ah bi-athīmah, “a patch of coarse cloth.”
(6) In the ṭ manuscript the reading is aytahum fīhā; this is confirmed by the ḥ manuscript, Sīrat Ibn Hishām, and al-Rawḍ.
(7) This couplet is missing in the ḥ manuscript and likely in the Egyptian copy as well, since in ṭ it appears in quotation marks. We have restored it from Sīrat Ibn Hishām and al-Rawḍ. Al-Suhaylī (vol. 2, p. 128), citing al-Kinānī’s marginal note, proposes that ḥuduj (pl. of ḥidj, a woman’s litter) stands by metaphor for “arrow, bow, and mirḥad” (a bow-rest). He further notes that in al-ʿAyn al-ḥadīj denotes the fresh pith of a branch, hence a metaphorical use here. The term mirḥad may be a variant of marhad (from raḥd, “to tear fabric”), meaning “spear or sword,” or of rahīd, “fine,” i.e. “that which ensures victory.” Some copies read muzhid (“indifferent to life, eager for death”). And God knows best.
(8) In Sīrat Ibn Hishām and al-Rawḍ the phrase is Makkah izzuhu, “Makkah is its glory.”