O eye, weep for Sāmah ibn Luʾayy—
the clinging viper fixed itself to none but him.
I have seen no man the like of Sāmah ibn Luʾayy
on the day they left him slain for the sake of his she-camel.
Carry to ʿĀmir and Saʿd this message:
my very soul yearns for them.
Though my dwelling be in ʿUmān, I am of Ghalib—
I departed not because of need.
Many a cup you spilled, O son of Luʾayy,
fearing death though the cup was never fated to be poured out.
You tried to repel doom, O son of Luʾayy;
no one who seeks to thwart it has power against destiny.
And the mute night-runner you left fallen,
after earnest striving, weariness, and swift pace. (1)

Ibn Hishām said (3): It has reached me that one of his descendants came to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and traced his lineage back to Sāmah ibn Luʾayy. The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, asked, “The poet?” One of his Companions said, “It seems, O Messenger of Allah, that you are thinking of his verse:

Many a cup you spilled, O son of Luʾayy,
fearing death though the cup was never fated to be poured out.”

He replied, “Indeed.”

Al-Suhaylī reports from some that Sāmah left no offspring, while al-Zubayr says that Sāmah ibn Luʾayy begot Ghalib, al-Nabīt, and al-Hārith. They add that he had descendants in Iraq who detested ʿAlī; among them was ʿAlī ibn al-Jaʿd, who cursed his father for naming him ʿAlī. Among Sāmah’s progeny is Muḥammad ibn ʿArʿarah ibn al-Yazīd, a teacher of al-Bukhārī. (4)

Ibn Isḥāq said: As for ʿAwf ibn Luʾayy, people allege that he set out with a company of Quraysh. When they reached the territory of Ghaṭafān ibn Saʿd ibn Qays ibn ʿAylān he fell behind, so those of his clan who were with him went on. Thalabah ibn Saʿd—his kinsman through the lineage of Banū Dhubyān—came to him, kept him, married him into the tribe, attached himself closely to him, and made him his brother. Thus, they claim, his lineage became widespread among Dhubyān and Thalabah. (5)(6)

Ibn Isḥāq also related, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar ibn al-Zubayr—or Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥuṣayn—that ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb said: “Were I to claim any living branch of the Arabs, or annex them to us, I would claim the Banū Murrah ibn—”