خليلي ما أذني لأول عاذل — Abutaleb

My two friends, my ear does not heed the first reproacher,

inclining to him neither in truth nor in falsehood.

My two friends, sound judgment is no shared undertaking,

nor hesitation amid perplexing affairs.

And when I saw that the people had no affection for us,

and had severed every bond and tie,

and openly confronted us with hostility and harm,

and obeyed the estranged enemy's command,

and allied against us with suspect people,

who bite their fingertips in rage behind our backs,

I held myself firm against them with a supple brown spear,

and a keen white sword inherited from kings.

I gathered my clan and brothers beside the House,

and grasped the joined cloths of its covering,

standing together, facing its great door,

where every willing worshipper performs his rites,

and where the Ash'arites make their riding-camels kneel,

at the floodwaters' outlet by Isaf and Na'il,

branded on their upper forelegs or their neck-roots,

hobbled, ranging from six-toothed to fully mature,

with cowries, marble, and ornaments visible upon them,

tied around their necks like clusters of dates.

I seek refuge with the Lord of humankind from every attacker

who assails us with evil or persists in falsehood,

and from a spiteful foe seeking to disgrace us,

and from anyone attributing to our religion what we never attempted.

And by Thawr, and Him who anchored Thabir in its place,

and one climbing to ascend Hira, and one descending,

and by the House, the House's corner in Mecca's valley,

and by God—God is not heedless—

and by the blackened Stone when they touch it,

surrounding it in the morning and late afternoons,

and Abraham's footprint in the moist rock,

upon his two feet, barefoot, without sandals,

and the circuits between the two Marwahs toward Safa,

and the images and statues in those two places,

and whoever makes pilgrimage to God's House, every rider,

and everyone bound by a vow, and every walker,

and by the farthest sacred site when they make for it,

Ilal, as far as the outlet of the facing watercourses,

and their prolonged standing upon the mountains at evening,

holding their mounts' breasts upright with their hands,

and the night of Jam', and the stations in Mina,

and the sanctity and stations above it,

and by Jam', when the favored mounts cross it,

swiftly, as though escaping the pounding of a downpour,

and by the great Jamrah when they make for it,

aiming to pelt its summit with stones,

and by Kinda, when they are on the gravel plain at evening,

and the pilgrims of Bakr ibn Wa'il conduct them onward,

two allies who tightened the bond of their common undertaking,

and reinforced it with ties that renew affection,

and their breaking brown spear-shafts along with blades,

and their piercing what every archer guards,

and their walking around the sacred precinct at an easy pace,

and with broad strides, like the racing of startled ostriches—

after all this, is there any refuge for one seeking shelter?

Is there a just protector who fears God?

Our enemies are obeyed against us, and they wish that we

might be used to bar the gates of Turk and Kabul.

You lie, by God's House! We shall not leave Mecca,

nor depart unless your affairs are plunged into turmoil.

You lie, by God's House, that we would be robbed of Muhammad

before fighting with spears and arrows in his defense,

or surrender him before we are struck down around him,

and forget our sons and wives,

and a people rise against you with iron weapons,

like water-bearing camels rising beneath clattering burdens,

and until the spiteful man is seen falling into his own blood

from spear-thrusts, like one leaning sideways and straining onward.

And I, by God's life, if what I see grows grave,

our swords will surely engage the noblest men,

in the hand of a man like a shooting star, a noble chief,

trustworthy, a defender of honor, courageous,

for months and days and a full year

passing over us, with another year coming after the next.

How could a people—may you have no father!—abandon a chief

who guards their honor, neither foul-tongued nor shirking,

and a fair-faced man through whose face the clouds are asked for rain,

the orphans' support, the widows' protection?

Those in peril from Hashim's house seek shelter with him,

and find mercy and bounty in his presence.

By my life, Usayd and his clan have hastened

to hate us, and the two have shorn us for a devourer.

May kinship repay Usayd and Khalid on our behalf

with a wrongdoer's recompense, immediate and undelayed.

Uthman showed us no restraint, nor did Qunfudh,

but the two obeyed those tribes' command.

They obeyed Ubayy and their Ibn Abd Yaghuth,

and heeded no speaker's words concerning us,

just as we have suffered from Subay' and Nawfal,

each turning away without courtesy.

If those two are encountered, or God gives us power over them,

we shall measure them a sa', measure for measure.

And that Abu Amr would accept nothing but hatred of us,

to drive us out among keepers of sheep and camel herds.

He is secretly consulted about us every dusk and dawn.

So confer secretly about us, Abu Amr, then practice deceit.

He swears to us by God that he does not deceive us.

Indeed he does: we see him openly, unchanged.

His hatred of us has narrowed every ravine for him

in the land between Akhshab and Majadil.

And ask Abu al-Walid: what have you granted us

through your efforts against us, turning away like a deceiver?

You were a man whose counsel sustained others,

and whose compassion reached us; you are not ignorant.

O Utbah, do not listen concerning us to a spiteful foe's words,

envious, habitually lying, hateful, and full of hidden malice.

I fear that, unless you restrain them and you all desist,

you and we shall meet through you one of these calamities.

Abu Sufyan passed me by, turning away,

as a king among the greatest kings might pass,

fleeing to Najd and the coolness of its waters,

and claiming, 'I am not heedless of you.'

And I know that no one is heedless of an injury;

an enemy is enough for you, in right and wrong.

So turn against us, all of you: your turning

is to us no different from winds bearing pouring rain.

He tells us, acting the sincere counselor, that he

is compassionate, while hiding violent feelings within.

O Mut'im, I did not forsake you on a day of need,

nor amid those great and momentous events,

nor on a day of dispute, when bitter adversaries came to you,

masters of debate among contesting foes.

O Mut'im, the people have pressed a demand upon you,

and whenever I am abandoned, I have no escape.

May God repay Abd Shams and Nawfal on our behalf

with an evil punishment, immediate, not delayed,

with a balance of justice that falls short by not one barley grain,

having a witness of its own, truthful and just.

Foolish indeed are the minds of people who took

Banu Khalaf and al-Ghayatil in exchange for us.

We are the true stock of Hashim's crest,

and of Qusayy's house in the earliest ordeals.

The watering basin among them belonged to us,

and we are their summits, above their shoulders.

They have gained no vengeance and shed no blood,

and allied with none but the worst tribes,

sons of a mad Indian slave-woman,

Banu Jumah, slaves of Qays ibn Aqil.

Sahm and Makhzum joined forces and rallied

enemies against us, every ragged wretch and obscure man,

and interlopers once among Lu'ayy ibn Ghalib,

whom every mighty falcon drove out toward us.

Nufayl's clan are the worst who ever trod the pebbles,

and the basest of Ma'add, barefoot or shod.

O Abd Manaf, you are the best of your people:

do not admit every intruder into your affairs.

I fear that, unless God sets your affairs right,

you will become like the tales of Wa'il.

By my life, you have been weakened and proved helpless,

and undertaken a deed that misses the joints.

Formerly you were firewood for one pot; now you are

firewood for many pots and cauldrons.

May Banu Abd Manaf rejoice in their disloyalty,

their desertion, and their leaving us in the strongholds!

If there are people pleased by what you have done,

you will milk her pregnant, with her udder bound.

So tell Qusayy that our affair shall be made public,

and bring Qusayy tidings of mutual abandonment after us.

Were a great calamity to strike Qusayy by night,

we would not seek refuge apart from them in hiding places.

If they were dealt earnest blows among their houses,

we would be a consolation to the mothers of little children.

If Ka'b of Lu'ayy has gathered together,

there must one day come a parting.

If Ka'b is but one among many Ka'bs,

it must one day find itself in unknown wastes.

Every friend and sister's son whom we count on—

we have found, by my life, of little use in the end,

except that a clan of Kilab ibn Murrah

is free toward us of a deserter's betrayal of kin.

Banu Asad, do not close your eyes upon the grit,

if no speaker's tongue speaks the truth.

A fine nephew of the people, not to be called a liar,

is Zuhayr, a keen sword drawn free of its baldrics,

lofty among lofty, generous lords, tracing his descent

to a noble lineage eminent in the arena of glory.

By my life, I have become ardently devoted to Ahmad

and his brothers, as a lover who maintains his bonds.

I persist in supporting the Prophet Muhammad,

fighting in his defense with spears and mounted troops.

May he never cease to be a beauty for the world's people,

and an adornment for those over whom the Lord of troubles set him!

Who among people is like him—what man in whom hope is placed—

when judges compare him in weighing excellence?

Forbearing, wise, just, never rash,

loyal to a God who is not heedless of him.

The Lord of His servants strengthened him with His aid,

and made manifest a religion whose truth does not fall away.

By God, were it not that I would bring a reproach

drawing disgrace upon our elders in assemblies,

we would have followed him under every circumstance

throughout time, in earnest, not in jesting talk.

They know indeed that our son is not considered a liar

among them, nor does he concern himself with falsehoods.

Noble men, not fainthearted, whose lineage raised them

among the illustrious through fathers of noble qualities.

We drove them back until their gathering scattered,

and every aggressor and fool fell back exhausted from us.

Young men of al-Mutayyibin and Hashim,

like bright swords in the hands of polishers,

with blows amid which you see the youths as though they were

ravening lions over flesh torn into morsels.

Yet we are the noble offspring of lords,

through whom we rise above peoples when vying for eminence.

Those bearing rancor will know which of us—myself or them—

prevails and rises above within a few nights,

and which of us, myself or them, with his sword,

will face the other when the time for combat comes,

and who among us, myself or them, tires of war,

and is praised across the horizons in a speaker's words.

Thus Ahmad stands among us in a noble stock

beyond the reach of a rival's onslaught.

I seem to see him atop fine steeds, leading them

against a people who have strayed toward every falsehood.

I gave my very self in his defense and protected him,

and shielded him with throats and chests.

There is no doubt that God will raise his cause,

and exalt him in this world and on the Day of Disputation.