I haven’t delved into classical poetry for a while now, so here’s one I liked from a while back (with some basic explanations and thoughts of my own).

It’s a small excerpt from the famous mu’allaqah poem of Zuhayr ibn Abi Sulmah. He was a poet from the Jahili period (the era before Islam) who had his own well-celebrated mu’allaqah. Interestingly, it is said that he would only recite and announce his poems after one complete year had passed in which he spent perfecting it – hence he was nicknamed ‘Sahib al-Hawliyat’

He says in his poem:

سَئِمتُ تكاليف الحياة ومَن يَعِش *** ثمانين حَولاً – لا أُبا لك – يَسْأم
I have come to hate the burdens of life, and whoever lives
For eighty years will surely come to hate and tire of them

وأعْلَمُ عِلمَ اليوم والأمسِ قبله *** ولكنني عَن عِلمِ ما في غَدٍ عَمِ
I know the reality of today and that of yesterday before it
But of the realities of tomorrow, I am blind and ignorant

ومَن يَكُ ذَا فضْلٍ فَيَبْخَلْ بفَضْلِه *** على قَوْمِه يُسْتغنَ عَنه ويُذْمَمِ
Whoever possesses goodness but proves miserly to his people
Then they shall prove sufficient of him, and he shall be humiliated

The theme of ‘Nasihah wal-Hikam’ (Counsel and Wisdom) starts to take shape here with Zuhayr telling people that fadhl (virtue, possessions, wealth etc) is something that a person is gifted with and thus it’s not proper to be miserly with it, withhold it from society, or prevent helping others by it etc. It’s interesting he says على قومه (‘to his own people’), because the first benefactors of our gifts should be those closest to us i.e. family, community etc. By spreading one’s talents, possessions and goodness (whether materialistic and tangible like wealth or conceptual like uprightness), a community becomes stronger, progresses forward and allows people to live well.

ومَنْ هابَ أَسْبابَ المَنايا يَنَلنَه *** وإنْ يَرْقَ أسبابَ السماء بِسُلَّمِ
Whoever fears the causes the death, shall only be met by them
Even if he ascends to the heavens upon a built stairway

Death is written for us all, even though the causes and ways may be different for us. Courage and the act of delving into the heat of battles, taking up challenges and defending one’s tribe have always been seen to high calibre traits. So the more fearless a person is, the higher of a status they occupy among their people. This is Zuhayr effectively saying not to fear the causes of death because those who fear a certain cause of death will no doubt be met by it. And there’s no running away from death even if you took a staircase to the heavens. This is a true concept and belief reflected in the Qur’anic verse:

“Wherever you may be, death shall overtake you, even if you should be within towers of lofty construction…” [al-Nisa: 78]

ومَن يَجعَلِ المَعْروفَ فِي غَيرِ أهله *** يَكُنْ حَمْدُه ذَمَاً عَليه ويَندَمِ
And whoever pays good duty to those who do not deserve it,
Then his act of praise becomes blameworthy and he shall come to regret

Paying good duty to people and giving them credit is a standard which we all must live by. However there are times when our act needs to be reviewed depending on who exactly we are dealing with. Hence it’s not a proper measure of our intellect if we give pay high credit to someone who does not deserve it in the least, rather we should just let them be without harming them. It is only those who deserve it that should attain our key attention, service and goodness; otherwise we’ll come to regret the fact that we perhaps wasted our efforts on one person when there was someone else more deserving of all that effort.

ومَن لم يَذُدْ عَن حَوضِه بِسِلاحِه *** يُهَدَّمْ ومن لا يَظلم الناس يُظلم
And whoever does not defend his water well with his weapon
Will be overpowered; and whoever does not oppress shall be oppressed

This poem was written in the Days of Jahiliyyah (Ignorance) and so you can really see the nature and outlook of the people at that time. There were no governing laws and no accountability except those simple standards set out by tribal chiefs. Effectively, it was ‘each man to his own’ or ‘each tribe to their own’ and in the poetic lines above you can understand what Zuhayr is alluding to. He is saying that whoever does not protect his own possessions will lose them to others; and the scene he sets is that of a water well. Historically in the desert and open fields, the tribes would usually settle around sources of water and build a well which sustained them. Without this well, the tribe will die off due to lack of water. Now what would happen if another tribe tried to take possession of that well? Yes, you got it: Warfare (now now, don’t be surprised, leading countries do it in our times too; but it’s oil rather than water!). So here, Zuhayr says that part of wisdom is to fight for what is yours, particularly those things which are essential to your survival. ‘And whoever does not oppress shall be oppressed’ – this was a jahili (pre-Islamic) concept which unfortunately led to much bloodshed and oppression. They were of the belief that if you didn’t prove stronger than others before they did, then you would only get pushed, shoved and trodden upon. But Islam came and forbid this concept completely, ruling out oppression in its entirety.

ومَهْمَا تكُنْ عِندَ امْرِئ مِن خًليقة *** وإن خَالها تَخْفى على الناس تُعلَم
And whatever trait of character a person does possess
It will come to be known, even if he thinks it’s hidden to the people

And how often have we seen this subhan’Allah. Guard yourself and perfect your character, because those things which you think are hidden to the people (and you make no attempt at changing for the better), will soon come to be known by the people. This is actually one of the purposes behind trials and tribulations; they bring out those traits that a person has long hidden or did not know was there…

وكائِن تَرى مِن صَامِت لك مُعْجِب *** زبادتُه أو نقصُه في التكلم
How often do you see a silent one and you become amazed!
But richness or deficiency truly lies in his speech alone

I could think of nothing better to illustrate this than the saying: ‘Better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt.’ Most of the time, if you remain silent and have a quiet demeanour, you become praiseworthy to the people who might think very well of you (because the wiser, more intelligent a person is, the less they speak – well, that should be the case anyway!), but it is only upon speaking that the true reality of a person is known, and this could increase the good perception people had or it could remove it.

لسانُ الفتى نِصْفٌ ونصفٌ فُؤادُه *** فلم يبقَ إلا صورة اللحم والدَّم
The tongue of a man is his half, and the other half is his heart
So there remains nothing afterwards, except flesh and blood

The tongue and heart of a person are called أصْغَرَيه / أصغران (the two small essences) because they were considered the smallest organs in the body which had the greatest effect on a person’s life. As the Arabic saying goes, ‘A man only lives amongst the people by his ‘أصغريه’ (heart and tongue),’ and anything beyond that is just flesh, bones and blood i.e. nothing of great influence.

Although this poem was written many centuries ago, its message and wisdom is still relevant to us today.