Ibn Isḥāq said: Kaʿb ibn Mālik likewise recited, in the Ṭawīl metre:

The confederate tribes well knew—when they massed together against us, intent on ruining our faith—that we would never seek a truce.

Battalions of Qays ibn ʿAylān closed ranks, and Khandaf joined them, unaware of the doom speeding toward them.

They would drive us from our religion, and we drive them from unbelief—while the All-Merciful both sees and hears.

Whenever they provoke us as we hold our ground, a vast victory from God comes to relieve us of their rage.

Such is God’s protection and favour upon us; whoever is not protected by God is truly lost.

He guided us to the religion of truth and chose it for us—wondrous deeds belong to God, surpassing all doers.

Ibn Hishām remarks: “These verses are from a much longer ode of his.”

Ibn Isḥāq also related that Ḥassān ibn Thābit, on the slaying of Banū Qurayẓah, composed, in the Wāfir metre:

Qurayẓah have met the misery they earned, and found no helper to ward off their humiliation.

A scourge struck them—other than the one that had befallen Banū al-Naḍīr.

On the morning the Messenger of Allah swooped down upon them like a radiant full moon,

flanking cavalry raced forward, their riders soaring like falcons.

We left them with no gain to boast of; their blood lay on the ground like sweet perfume.

They lay slain, birds circling overhead—thus the stubborn sinner is repaid.

So warn Quraysh of a like fate, in sincere counsel from the All-Merciful, if they will but heed my warning.

He (Ibn Isḥāq) added: Ḥassān ibn Thābit also said, again about Banū Qurayẓah, in the Wāfir metre:

Ask after the company who aided Quraysh—no defender remains to them in their own land.

They were given the Scripture yet squandered it; blind to the Torah, barren of its guidance.

You disbelieved in the Qur’an, though it came confirming what the Warner had proclaimed.

So it mattered little to the nobles of Banū Luʾayy when a spreading fire consumed al-Buwaira.

Abū Sufyān ibn al-Ḥārith ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib retorted:

May God keep that outcome everlasting, and let the blaze burn hot throughout their clans.