Guillaume--Life of Muhammad.pdf - Radical Truth

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The Life of Muhammad
The fugitive polytheists came to you like runaway ostriches
With the cavalry in full pursuit.
Different are those whose home is hell everlasting
And those who are eternally in paradise.
He also said:
Rise, a ~afiya, be not weak.
Make the \vomen weep over J:Iamza.
Be not \\-'Cary in prolonging weeping
Over God's lion in the melee.
For he was a strength to our orphans
And a lion of battle amid the weapons 1
Wishing thereby to please A1)mad
And the glorious Lord of the throne.
He also said:
By thy noble father's life I adjure you.
Ask those who sought our hospitality,
For if you ask them you will not be told a lie,
Those you ask will tell you the truth
That on nights when bones were gathered for food
We gave sustenance to those who visited us:
(Crowds I took refuge in our shelters
From distress in years of famine)
With a gift of what our rich provided .,
With patience and generosity towards the mdigent.
The shears of war left us
Those whose ways we have always tried to vie with.
One who saw the place where the camels go to water
Would think it was black rocky ground.
There the best camels are broken in,
Black red, and white. Z
The ;"sh of men was like Euphrates in flood,
Solid well-armed masses destroying all in their path.
You would think their glitter was the shining of stars,
They dazzle beholders in their commotion.
If you are ignorant of our importance
Then ask those near us who know,
How we behave when war is violent
In slaughter, severity, biting, and mauling.
Do we not tighten the cord round the camel's udder
Until she yields her milk and becomes gentle I'
J W. has najild 'poor women'.
:z White or, less likely, blackish. This word is one of the a¢dii~. . ,
.) In these two lines war is compared to a savage camel that IS subdued by the trIbe s
firmness and resource and ends to their advantage.
The Life of Muhammad
A day in which fighting is continuous,
Terrifying, burning those who kindled its blaze,
Long drawn out exceeding hot fighting.
Fear of it keeps the base-born away.
You would think the heroes engaged in it
Were happily drunk and inebriated,
Their right hands exchanging the cups of death
With their sharp-edged swords.
We were there and we were courageous
Wearing our badges under clouds of dust,
With silent fine blood-stained swords
Blades of Bu~rii which loathe the scabbard;
Which grow not blunt nor buckle
And cease not smiting if they are not hcld back
Like autumn lightning in the hands of heroes '
Overwhelming in blood heads that remain in place.
Our fathers taught us how to strike
And we will teach our sons
The swordsmanship of heroes and the spending of patrimony
In defence of our honour as long as we live.
When a champion passes, his posterity takes his place
And he leaves others to inherit him.
We grow up and our fathers perish,
And while we bring up our sons we cease to be.
I asked about you, lbnu'l-Ziba'rii,
And was told that you were baseborn,
Evil, of disgraceful life, persistently mean.
You have said much l
in insulting God's apostle.
God slay you, you cursed rude fellow!
You utter filth, and then throw it
At the clean robed godly faithful one (65 0 ).
He also said:
Ask Quraysh of our flight and of theirs
That morn at the base of U1)ud's hill.
We were lions, they but leopards when they came.
We cared nothing for blood relationship.
How many brave chiefs did we leave there
Protectors of proteges, noble in birth and reputation?
Among us the apostle, a star, then there followed him
A brilliant light excelling the stars.
True is his speech, just his behaviour.
He who answers his call will escape perdition,
Brave In attack, purposeful, resolute
r Another reading is tanajjasta 'You have behaved filthily', which may be right.
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