Those who speak and act, who command every virtuous deed;
who ladle fat upon fat over bread, rich and thick as great lumps;
who pass platters upon platters, filling bowls as wide as watering-troughs;
no paltry zeros to the magnanimous, no trifling trivialities at all;
for the guest—then guest after guest—while their broad carpets lie outspread;
who grant hundreds from their hundreds—whole herds of pregnant she-camels;
who drive the well-fleshed camels to still more well-fleshed, setting out from the barren waste;
whose nobles, above all nobles, tip the scales with the heavier weight,
as ponderous weights sink the balance on the true scales held by steady hands;
yet a small faction failed them while they shielded what must never be exposed,
they who split the vanguard with keen, finely-forged Indian blades;
their shout has reached my ears amid the rain-seeker and the mourner.

By Allah, splendid are the sons of ʿAlī—bachelor and husband alike.
If they do not mount a fierce raid that drives each barking cur back to its hole,
on swift yet far-ranging, high-necked mounts beside other eager steeds,
beardless youths on sleek coursers against grim, snapping lions—
each warrior meeting his match as readily as two hands clasp in greeting—
some two thousand men, then a further thousand, of stalwart bodies and spearmen.

Ibn Hishām (d. 218 AH) said: “We have omitted two verses in which he spoke ill of the Companions of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him.”

I say: This is the verse of one forsaken—perverse and inverted. The breadth of his ignorance and the scantiness of his intellect drove him to praise the idolaters and disparage the believers. In Mecca he felt bereft of Abū Jahl ibn Hishām and his likes among those vile, unbelieving louts and ignorant rabble, yet felt no estrangement there from the servant of Allah and His Messenger—His beloved and intimate friend, the pride of humankind, whose face shines brighter than the moon, possessed of the most perfect knowledge and the most comprehensive mind—nor from his Companion, the Truthful One, ever first to affirm, foremost in good deeds and noble actions, who spent thousands upon hundreds in obedience to the Lord of earth and heaven; nor from the rest of his illustrious, radiant Companions who migrated from the land of disbelief and ignorance to the land of knowledge and Islam. May Allah be pleased with them all, for as long as light is mingled with darkness and night and day take turns. We have left out many poems cited by Ibn Isḥāq—may Allah have mercy on him—for fear of prolixity and lest the reader grow weary. What we have included is sufficient, and unto Allah belong praise and favor.