A banner of error—Satan himself led its bearers,
but he failed them, for the vile one is ever treacherous.

When he saw the matter laid bare he cried to them,
“I disown you; to-day I have no patience left.
Indeed, I behold what you do not behold,
and I fear Allah’s punishment—Allah is mighty in retribution.”

Thus he pushed them on till they were trapped in ruin,
well aware of what the people had never been told.

At dawn by the well their host was a thousand strong,
while we were but three hundred—tight-knit, shining like burnished mail.
With us were the hosts of Allah; He reinforced us with them
apparent for all to recall.
Gabriel charged beneath our banner with those ranks
at the very pinch when their appointed deaths were being dealt.

Ibn Isḥāq has also cited a rejoinder composed by al-Ḥārith ibn Hishām, the brother of Abū Jahl ʿAmr ibn Hishām; we have deliberately left it out.

ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib likewise recited—though Ibn Hishām rejected the attribution—(1):

Have you not seen that Allah tried His Messenger
with a mighty, powerful, gracious trial?

He cast the disbelievers into a dwelling of disgrace,
so they met humiliation in fetters and in death.

By evening the Messenger of Allah stood exalted in victory,
and the Messenger of Allah had been sent with justice.

He came with a Criterion sent down from Allah,
whose signs are plain to people of understanding.

Some believed and were convinced,
and by Allah’s praise awoke united in purpose.

Others denied, and their hearts swerved;
so the Lord of the Throne added bewilderment to their bewilderment.

On the Day of Badr He delivered them to His Messenger
and to a wrathful people whose deeds were truly noble.

In their hands were light, gleaming swords with which they struck—
blades long polished and burnished.

How many a fiery youth they left prostrate,
and how many a valiant elder!

All night the eyes of the mourners over them
kept pouring drizzling tears and heavy torrents:

women lamenting ʿUtbah of error and his son,
lamenting Shaybah and lamenting Abū Jahl;

they wail for “that man” and for Ibn Judʿān among them—
women stripped of adornment, fevered, their bereavement plain.

A band of theirs lies in the pit of Badr—
men famed for daring in war and in hardship.

Misguidance called whom it would and they answered,
for misguidance has cords cunningly plaited.

Thus they awoke, far off in the abode of Hell,
removed from tumult and aggression, in the lowest depths.

Ibn Isḥāq has also transmitted a counter-poem by al-Ḥārith ibn Hishām, but we have omitted it intentionally.

Kaʿb ibn Mālik said (2):
[long metre]