Ibn Durayd said:
Abu Hatim remarked, “Had the common people adopted these two verses in place of others, I would have written them in liquid gold (1):

Were I to ask you for still more affliction
than the anguish that already besets me,
you would find yourself unable to furnish the excess.

And were my life offered to the dead—
a life like mine in every detail—
they would decline to return.

Abu Nuwas had heard the hadith transmitted by Suhayl, from Abu Salih (2), from Abu Hurayrah, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

“The hearts are marshaled battalions: those that recognize one another will unite, and those that repel one another will differ.” (3)

He then versified the Prophet’s words, saying:

Indeed, the hearts are conscripted, marshaled hosts;
on earth, by their inclinations, they make themselves known.
Whatever finds estrangement remains apart,
and whatever finds familiarity is brought together. (4)

One day Abu Nuwas entered, along with a group of hadith scholars, the presence of ‘Abd al-Wahid ibn Ziyad. ‘Abd al-Wahid said to them, “Let each of you choose ten hadiths for me to relate to him.” Every one of them selected ten—except Abu Nuwas. He asked him, “Why do you not choose as the others have done?” whereupon Abu Nuwas began to recite:

Indeed, we have transmitted—
from Sa‘id, from Qatadah;
from Sa‘id ibn al-Musayyab,
then from Ibn ‘Ubadah (5);

and from al-Sha‘bi—al-Sha‘bi,
a shaykh of sturdy mettle;
and from the virtuous we relate it,
from people of true benefit—

that whoever dies a lover
shall receive the reward of martyrdom. (6)