366 – ʿAbd Allah ibn Shabib ibn Khalid al-Qaysi narrated to us: Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Mahri told me, saying: A man from ʿAbd al-Qays related:

Hurqa, the daughter of al-Nuʿman ibn al-Mundhir, once entered upon Muʿawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan. He said to her, “Tell me about your former condition—how was it?”

She replied, “Shall I speak at length or keep it brief?”

He said, “No, keep it brief.”

She said, “We passed an evening when there was not an Arab but that he desired our favor and feared our power; then we greeted a morning when there is not an Arab but that we now desire his favor and fear his power.” Then she recited: ⦗168⦘

While once we ruled the people in every land,
behold, we have become among them common folk, treated as equals.

Fie upon a world whose pleasures never endure;
it turns us over time and again, ever in flux.

Abu ʿAjajah, a Bedouin from Banu Asad, also recited to me:

Indeed, this world is like the herbage of a lowland—
it rises a little, then the scorching wind lays it low.

So how can you weep for a world when your own two eyes can see
that nothing remains of it save what is vile?