Because of what you behold, the nobles of men come down to us—hastening from every land—then we show them favor.

We slaughter the high-humped camels, freely, from our own herd for each guest who alights with us, so that when they settle they eat their fill.

Never do you see us challenge a tribe in boasting but that they come away having profited, while their headship is cut off.

Whoever would vie with us in that, we know him; the people depart and the tales of it are borne abroad.

We have refused to yield, and none refuses us; such are we—when pride is at stake we rise above all.

Ibn Isḥāq said: Ḥassān ibn Thābit was absent, so the Messenger of Allah ﷺ sent for him. Ḥassān related, “When I reached the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, the poet of the clan stood and recited what he recited. I pondered his words and composed something along the same lines. When al-Zibrqān finished, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to Ḥassān ibn Thābit, ‘Stand, Ḥassān, and answer the man in what he has said.’ So Ḥassān spoke:

[al-basīṭ]

Indeed, the chiefs of Fihr and their brethren
have set forth a precedent for mankind to follow.

Everyone whose inner self is God-fearing is pleased with it,
and by it every form of goodness is brought about.

A people who, when they wage war, afflict their enemy,
but when they seek benefit for their allies, confer that benefit.

Such is their innate character—not something newly invented;
know, then, that of all qualities the worst are novelties.

If, after them, there are any front-runners among mankind,
then every advance is but the shadow of their least advance.

No one can mend what their hands have torn in the heat of defense,
nor do they weaken what they have set aright.

If they race the people, their race is sure to win;
if they are matched with the noble in generosity, they excel by their bounty.

Chaste are they—revelation itself has praised their chastity—
they do not succumb to baseness, nor are they undone by greed.