Guillaume--Life of Muhammad.pdf - Radical Truth

3+ 2 The Life of Muhammad The Life of Muhammad
Its signs' are plain to men of sense.
Some firmly believed in that and \vere convinced
And (thanks to God) became one people;'
Others disbelieved, their minds went astray
And the Lord of the throne brought repeated calamities upon them;
At Badr He gave them into the power of His apostle
And an angry army who did valiantly.
Not one people as you desire,
By the loss of Ibn Jud'an, the praiseworthy,
And 'Vtba, and him who is called Abu Jahl among you.
Shayba and AI-Walld were among them,
Umayya, the refuge of the poor, and Dhu'l-Rijl.'
Weep for these and not for others,
The keening women will bewail their loss and bereavement
They smote them with their trusty swords,
Furbished well, and polished.
How many a lusty youngster,
Many a hardy warrior did they leave prone.
Their keening women spent a sleepless night,
Their tears now strong, now weak.
They keen for erring 'Vtba and his son,
And Shayba and Abu Jahl
And Dhu'I-RijP and Ibn Jud'an also,
With burning throats in mourning garb displaying bereavement.
Say to the people of Mecca, Assemble yourselves
And go to palmy Medina's forts,
Defend yourselves and fight, 0 people of Ka'b,
With your polished and burnished swords
Or pass the night in fear and trembling
By day meaner than the sandal that is trodden underfoot.
But know, 0 men that by AI-Lat, I am sure
That you will not rest without taking vengeance.
All of you, don your mail, take the spear,
The helmet, sharp sword and arrows.
'
Dead in Badr's well lay many,
Brave in war, generous in times of dearth;
Error called them and some responded
(For error has ways easy to adopt).
Now they are in Hell,
Too occupied to rage furiously against us.
J;>irar b. al-Kha!\ab ~. Mirdas brother of B. Mul.larib b. Fihr said:
Al-I:liirith b. Hisham b. al-Mughira answered him thus:
I wonder at folk whose fool sings
Of folly captious and vain,
Singing about the slain at Badr
\Vhen young and old vied in glorious endeavour,
The brave swordsman of Lu'ayy, Ibn Ghalib,
Thrusting in battle, feasting the hungry in times of dearth;
They died nobly, they did not sell their family
For strangers alien in stock and homeland,
Like you \vho have made Ghassan your special friends
Instead of us-a sorry deed,
An impious, odious crime, and a severing of the ties of blood;
Men of judgement and understanding perceive your wrongdoing,
True, they are men who have passed away,
But the best death is on the battlefield.
Rejoice not that you have killed them,
For their death will bring you repeated disaster.
Now they are dead you will always be divided,
lOr 'its messages'.
2 shaml, or 'lived in harmony'. See Lyall, The Poems of 'Amr son of Qami'ah, Cambridge,
1919, p. 14·
J i.e. Al-Aswad whose leg I;lamzli hewed off, t!.S.
I wonder at the boasting of Aus when death is coming to them tomorro,",'
(Since time contains its \varnings)
And at the boasting of the Banu'l-Najjar because certain men died
there,
For all of them \vere steadfast men.
U some of our men were left dead
We shall leave others dead on the field.'
OUf flying steeds will carry us among you,
Till we slake our vengeance, 0 Banu'l-Aus,
We shall return to the charge in the midst of the Banu'I-Najjar,
O'Jr horses snorting under the weight of the spearmen clad in mail.
Your dead \ve shall leave with vultures circling round
To look for help but a vain desire.
Yathrib's women will mourn them
Their nights long and sleepless '
Because our swords will cut them down,
Dripping with the blood of their victims.
Though you won on the day of Badr
Your good fortune was plainly due to A~mad
And the chosen band, his friends,
Who protected him in battle when death was at hand
AbU Bakr and I~amza could be numbered among thc~
1 Apparently al-Aswad the l\1akhzumite ,...hose leg was cut off as he tried to drink
from the well at Badr is meant. Sec \V. 442.
2 i.e. of the enemy. C. and W. differ in this line.
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