Guillaume--Life of Muhammad.pdf - Radical Truth

43 0 lOr, perhaps, 'thieves'.
The Life of Muhammad
He will bless the limbs thus torn.
They let me choose infidelity but death is preferable,
And my tears flowed though not in fear.
I fear not death who am about to die
But I fear hell and its all-embracing fire.
By God, I fear not' if I die a Muslim
What death I suffer for God's sake.
I will not show subservience to the enemy
Nor despair, for 'tis to God I return.
J:!assan b. Thabit said, mourning Khubayb:
What ails thine eye that its tears cease not
Flowing on to thy breast like loose pearls?
For Khubayb the hero, no coward when you meet him,
No fickle youth as men well know.
Then go, Khubayb, may God reward thee well .
In the eternal gardens with houris among thy compamons.
What will you say when the prophet says to you
vVhen the pure angels are in the firmament,
Why did you kill God's martyr for the sake of an evil man
Who committed crimes far and wide? (668)
Bassan also said:
o eye, be generous with thy tears;. .
Weep for Khubayb who did not return wIth the warnors.
A hawk, 'midst the An:.;ar was his dignity,
Generous by nature of pure unmixed descent.
My eye was inflamed because of the difficulty of weeping'
When 'twas said, He has been lifted up on a tree.
o raider going forth on your business
Convey a threat-no idle threat
To the Banu Kuhayba that war's milk
\ViII be bitter when its teats are pressed.
In it will be the lions of the Banu ai-Najjar,
Their glittering spears in front of a great shouting army (669)'
I:Iassan a1:.o said:
Had there been in the camp a noble chief, a warrior,
A champion of the people, a hawk whose uncle is Anas,
645 Then, Khubayb, you would have had a spacious place to sit in
And not have been confined by guards in prison.
Low adherents of the tribes would not have borne you to Tanrim,
Some of them men whom 'Udas had expelled.
I rajd is one of the a(iddd.
:t i.e. my nature is such that my eyes are unaccustomed to tears.
They deceived you with their treachery, breaking their faith,
You were wronged, a prisoner in their camp (670).
Those who formed the mob from Quraysh when Khubayb was killed
were 'Ikrima b. Abu JahI; Sa'id b. 'Abdullah b. Abu Qays b. 'Abdu Wudd;
al-Akhnas b. Shariq aI-Thaqafi, ally of B. Zuhra; 'Ubayda b. J:!akim b.
Uinayya b. J:!aritha b. al-Auqa~ al-Sulami, ally of B. Umayya b. 'Abdu
Shams; and Umayya b. Abu 'Utba and the B. al-J:!a