Guillaume--Life of Muhammad.pdf - Radical Truth

716 The Life of Muhammad
al~Hudhali whose name was Khuwaylid b. Khalid, describing wild asses and
their mates, said:
I t was as though they were a bundle of gaming arrows
And a shuffler thereof dealing out the arrows and proclaiming what he
produced.
i.e. distinguishing the arrows and making their shares clear. [The allusion
is to the game of maysir ,vhich was popular among the ancient Arabs. See
Mula';. 863· 17·]
Ru'ba al_fAjjaj said:
You are the clement and the avenging prince
Declaring the truth and driving away the wrongdoer.
165. Abu Sufyan's name was $akhr.
166. Al-'A~ b, Wa'il b. Hashim b. Su'ayd b. Sahm b. 'Amr b. Hu~ay~.
167. I have left out hvo verses in which he violently insulted him.
168. A variant reading is 'his root is in copious water',
169. 'Anfd means 'obstinate opponent' as in the line of Ru'ba b. aI-'Ajjaj:
We \vcre smiting the head of the obstinate Cunnad).
170. basara means 'he had an angry expression' as in the words of al.'Ajjaj:
describing a forbidding face.
Firm in jaw, angry in visage, a biter,
17!, The singular of tid-in is tid-a. You say 'arjif.auhu, meaning 'they divided
it' as in the line of Ru'ba
The religion of God is not divided.
172. This is as much of the ode as seems to me to be genuine; many com·
petent authorities on verse deny the authenticity of most of it. .
A man I can trust told me that in a year of drought the people of Medina
came to the apostle and complained of their trouble. He mounted the pulpit
and prayed for rain. Hardly had the rain begun than the people living in
exposed districts came to complain that they were inundated. The apostle
said: '0 God, round us, not on us!' Thereupon the clouds moved away
from the town itself and encircled it like a crown. The apostle said, 'If
Abu Talib could but have. seen this day how he would have rejoiced!' One
of his'companions said, 'I suppose you refer to his line:
A noble man for whose sake the clouds drop rain,
The support of orphans and the defence of widows,'
and he said 'Quite so.'
The expression 'its bushes' is not from 1. I.
173. He was called al-Akhnas because he withdrew (khanasa) with the people
at the battle of Badr. Of course his name was Ubayy; he came from B.
'lIiij b. AbU Salma b. 'Auf b. 'Uqba.
174. The words 'allied themselves with treacherous people against us' refer
to B. Bakr b. 'Abdu Manat b. Kinana. These arc the Arabs whom Abu
Talib mentions in his verse above. [See p. 127, n. 4.J
175. I.!. relates Abu Qays here to B. Waqif, whereas in the story of the
elephant he is related to Khatma. The reason is that the Arabs often relate
a man to the brother of his grandfather if he happens to be better known.
Abu 'Ubayda told me that al-J:Iakam b. 'Amr al-Ghifari was of the sons
of Nu'ayla, brother of Ghifar b. Mulayl. Nu'ayia was the son of Mulayl
b. :Oamra b. Bakr b. 'Abdu Manat. They had said that 'Utba was the son
of Ghazwan al-Sulami, he being of the sons of Mazin b. Man~ur; Sulaym was
I. Man$ur. Abu Qays was of B. Wa'il; Wa'il, Waqif, and Khapua are
brothers of al·Aus.
176. The line Htis as water poured at random', and the verse 'if you buy
spears', &c., and 'men's Lord has chosen a religion' and 'his cavalry was in
the plains' were quoted to me by Abu Zayd al-An~ari and others. As to his
words 'Know you not what happened in the war of Dal)is?' Abu 'Ubayda
told me that Dal;1is was a horse belonging to Qays b. Zuhayr b. Jadhlma b.
Rawii!)a b. Rabr. b. al-I;Iarith b. Mazin b. QUtay'a b. 'Abs b. Baghi