“…Allah stand between me and her master; he keeps running off with her while I give chase!”
“He is no better than the ones already mentioned. Who else is there?”
“Jamil ibn Maʿmar,” I replied.
ʿUmar said, “Is he not the one who recites:
Would that we might live together, and if we die,
may my grave, among the dead, lie next to hers;
I have no taste for a long span of life
once the word goes round: ‘A stone has been set flat over her.’ (1)
If that enemy of Allah longed to meet her in this world only that he might afterwards do good and repent—by Allah, he shall never be admitted to me. Is anyone else at the door besides him?”
I said, “Jarir.”
He said, “Is he not the one who says:
A huntress of hearts has come upon you, but this
is no time for a visit—turn back in peace. (2)
If it must be, then give Jarir leave to enter.” Leave was granted, and Jarir came in to ʿUmar reciting:
By the One Who sent the Prophet Muhammad,
He entrusted the caliphate to the just Imam;
His justice and fidelity embraced all creation
until the wayward repented and the crooked was set straight.
I hope for a swift favor from you—
for the soul is ever enamored of what is swift. (3)
ʿUmar said, “Woe to you, Jarir! Fear Allah in what you say.” Jarir then asked permission to recite; ʿUmar neither granted nor forbade him, so Jarir declaimed a long ode in his praise. (4)
ʿUmar said, “Woe to you, Jarir! I see no claim for you to anything here.”
Jarir replied, “I am a poor man and a wayfarer.”
ʿUmar said, “When we assumed this office we possessed only three hundred dirhams: Umm ʿAbd Allah took one hundred, her son one hundred, and one hundred remain.” He therefore ordered that the remaining hundred be given to Jarir.
Jarir went out to the other poets, who asked, “What news, Jarir?”
He answered, “Nothing to distress you. I have just left the Commander of the Faithful—he gives to the poor and withholds from the poets, and I am content with him.”
Then he recited:
I have seen that the spells of Satan no longer rouse him,
though my own demon among the jinn was once a seasoned enchanter. (5)
Al-Muʿaffa ibn Zakariyya al-Jariri relates that a certain slave-girl said to al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, “You keep bringing this man in to us!” He replied, “So far as I know, he is chaste.” She said, “If you would but leave me alone with him, you would see what he does.” So he ordered that she be left alone with Jarir in a place where al-Hajjaj could see them while they could not see him, and Jarir was unaware of any of this. She then said to him, “O Jarir, …”