Ali Ibn Abi Talib - Volume 1 of 2

434 Re oath of allegiance to 'Ali, his characteristics & his way of life
(g). 'Ali ibn Abi T2ib (&) would listen to poets and to what he
was asked to listen to of sincere words and sublime meanings. He
would give rewards for poetry if he liked it and was impressed with
it, as we have seen above when the Bedouin said (in verse):
You gave me a suit to wear, the beauty of which will wear out,
but I shall clothe you with many suits of praise.382
'Ali's evaluation of poetry was fine and astute. His standards of
criticismremain valid and are still referred to by critics today. He said:
"Poetry is the standard of speech."383 This means that poetry has
characteristics by means of which good wording can be distinguished
from bad according to the standards of this verbal art, even though the
values mentioned may differ from those of other people.384
With regard to Amir al-Mu'mineen 'Ali (&) as a poet, there
is a difference of opinion concerning most of the poetry that is
attributed to him. However, this dispute does not undermine his
position as a poet with regard to what is most likely to be his poetry,
nor does it affect his linguistic and literary pre-eminence. But it
seems to the researcher that poetry was not his main focus. Moreover,
his political career and the major events that accompanied it did not
give him the opportunity to focus on the composition and narration of
poetry, or to seek beautiful meanings and choose moving rhythms.
Nevertheless, there is a great deal of poetry that is attributed to him,
including a collection of poetry that includes a number of odes and
shoa poems, as well as some statements that were made
spontaneously and some sublime and wise opinions.
The first one who shed doubt on the attribution of some odes to
him was Ibn Hishh, who narrated that 'Ali used to say some lines of
verse during the construction of the Prophet's Mosque in Madinah:
There's one that labours night and day,
to build us mosque of brick and clay,
and one who turns porn dust away!385