Guillaume--Life of Muhammad.pdf - Radical Truth

634 The Lzfe of Muhammad
Or the two stars of the polar region and the Great Bear
Everlasting, their destruction unthinkable. I
Labjd also said:
Announce to the noble the death of noble Arbad,
Announce the death of the chief, the kind-hearted,
Giving away his wealth that he might gain praise,
Camels like wild untamed cows,
Abundant in virtues if they were reckoned,
Who filled the platter again and again.
\\Thenever a poor man came he ate at will
As \vhen a lion finds water in a dry land.
The more he is threatened the nearer he comes.
You have left us no paltry inheritance,
And wealth newly acquired and sons,
Youths like hawks, young men, and beardless boys.
Labid also said:
You will never exhaust the good deeds of Arbad, so weep for him
continually.
Say, He was the protecting warrior when armOur was don~ed.
He kept wrong-doers from us when we met insolent enemIes.
The Lord of creation took him away since He saw there waS no long
stay on carth.
943 He died painlessly without hurt and he is sorely missed.
Labid also said:
Every bitter opponent whose way seemed harmful reminds me of
Arbad.
Ifthey \vere fair, then he was nobly fair: if they.were unfair so ",:as he.
He guided the people carefully when their gUlde went astray m the
desert (885)·
Labid also said:
I went walking after (the death of) Salma b. Malik
And Abu Qays and 'Crwa like a camel vlhosc hump is cut off. 2
\Vhen it sees the shadow of a raven it shoos it away
Anxious for the rest of its spine and sinews (886).
THE COMING OF QIMAM B.
FROM BAND SAfD B.
THAfLABA AS A DEPUTY
BAKR
The B. Sad b. Bakr sent one of their men called I;limam b. Thalaba to the
apostle. Muhammad b. al-Walid b. ~uwayfi' from Kurayb client of
1 In Brockc1mann's edn. the poem (xviii) has 31 verses. The text in C.halidi; p. 17, is in
better se~uence. 2 By its starving owners In their hunger.
The Life of Muhammad 635
'Abdullah b. 'Abbas from Ibn 'Abbas told me: When the B. Sad sent
pimam to the apostle he came and made his camel kneel at the door of the
mosque, hobbled it, and went into the mosque \'.'here the apostle was sitting
with his companions. Now I)imam was a thickset hairy man with two forelocks.
He came forward until he stood over the apostle and said, 'Which of
you is the son of 'Abdu'l-Mugalib?' The apostle said that he was. 'Are you
Muhammad?' he asked. When he said that he washe said, '0 son of'Abdu'l­
Mugalib, I am going to ask you a hard question, so don't take it amiss.' The
apostle told him to ask what he liked and he would not take it amiss and he
said, 'I adjure you by God your God and the God of those before you and
the God of those who will come after you, has God sent you to us as an
apostle ?' 'Yes, by God He has,' he replied. He then adjured him to answer
the questions. 'Has He ordered you to order us to serve Him alone and not
to associate anything with Him and to discard those rival deities which OUf 9+4
fathers used to worship along with Him; and to pray these five prayers;
then the ordinances of Islam Oile by one, alms, fasting, pilgrimage, and all
the laws of Islam?' At the end he said: 'I testify that there is no God but
Allah and I testify that Muhammad is the apostle of God, and I will carry
out these ordinances, and I will avoid what you have forbidden me to do;
I will neither add to, nor diminish from them.' Then he ,vent back to his
camel. The apostle said, 'If this man with the t\VO forelocks is sincere he
will go to Paradise.'
The man went to his camel, freed it from its hobble, and went off to his
people, and when they gathered to him the first thing he said was, 'How
evil are al-Lat and al-