I have sworn that if they come back, we shall scorch them
in raging seas of fire whose fury whole companies have tasted.
Along the blades a sunlight-flash is kindled,
so that each keen edge bears a horn and a brow of radiance.

Ātikah went on to say, as al-Umawī reports:

Why did you not stand firm for the Prophet Muḥammad at Badr—
for whoever plunges into battle must be truly steadfast?
Why did you not turn back before the whetted blades
that, in the believers’ hands, flared like a blazing fire?
You could not hold your ground against the gleaming swords;
before long you were seized by those fire-brand believers.
You fled in scattered bands, yet no true hero
recoils from the crash of clashing steel.
He brought you the same message the prophets had brought before him—
my virtuous, truthful nephew is no mere poet.
What you have cast aside of your Prophet will be made good,
for the two great clans, ʿAmr and ʿĀmir, will come to his aid.

Ṭālib ibn Abī Ṭālib then composed lines praising the Messenger of God—may blessings and peace be upon him—and lamenting the Quraysh who lay in the well at Badr, though he himself was still on the religion of his people at the time:

My eyes have emptied all their tears, pouring them forth
as they weep for Kaʿb—yet Kaʿb is nowhere to be seen.
The men of Kaʿb faltered in the wars; Time struck them down
and they incurred a grievous sin.
ʿĀmir weeps at every calamity each dawn—
would that I knew: shall I ever behold them near again?
So, our two brothers, ʿAbd Shasbā and Nawfal—
my life be your ransom—do not unleash war among us.
After long affection and harmony, do not wake to tales
in which each one of you laments his ruin.
Have you forgotten the war of Dāhis,
and the war of Abū Yaksūm when they filled the valley with slain?
Were it not for God’s own protection—and nothing else—
you would awaken unable to defend a single fold.
We have committed no grave offence against Quraysh—
only that we shielded the best man ever to tread the earth:
A trusty brother in calamities, solid and renowned,
noble of spirit, neither miserly nor coarse of tongue.
The seekers of charity circle round him, thronging his door—
they come to a river, clear and unpolluted.
By God, my soul will not cease its grieving, restless,
until you repay the Khazraj blow for blow.

Section

Ibn Isḥāq has also cited finely crafted poems composed by the idolaters in mourning their dead at Badr. Among them is a piece by Dirār ibn al-Khaṭṭāb ibn Mirdās of the Banū Muḥārib ibn Fihr—who later embraced Islam—and al-Suhaylī, in his Rawḍah, comments on the poetry of those who subsequently entered the faith.