The Life of the Prophet Muhammad by Ibn Kathir - Volume 1 of 4

IMAM ABU ALFIDA' ISMA'IL IBN KATHiR 85
"So the rider asked, 'Whose verses are those?' He saw our state of exhaustion.
We answered, 'Imru' al-Qays b. Hujr.' Then he said, 'By God, he did not lie;
this is Daij, where you are now.' So we looked, and there was the water about
50 arm's-lengths away. We slowly made our way to it on our mounts and found
it just as Imru' al-Qays had said, with 'green-slime shading it'.
"Then the Messenger of God (SAAS) commented, 'That's a man who is
remembered on earth but forgotten in the next world, honoured in the former
but ignored in the latter. In his hands he will wry the banner of the poets, leading
them to hell-fire."'
Al-Kalbi reported that Imru' d-Qays advanced with his banners flying
intending to battle Banti Asad after they had killed his father and passed by
Tab&. There was the shrine of Dha al-Khdasa, an idol at which the Arabs would
seek divine support. Imru' al-Qays asked for prophecy and the arrow for negation
came out. This then happened a second and a thiid time. At that he broke the
arrows and struck them against the face of Dha al-Khalqa, exclaiming: "You'd bite
your father's penis! If your father were the man murdered, you'd not impede
me!" He then launched a raid against Banti Asad and engaged them in swift battle.
And al-Kalbi commented that (from then on) until the arrival of Islam, support
from Dhn al-Khdasa was not sought.
Some say that Imru' alQays gave praise to the Byzantine emperor and asked
his support and assistance in certain wars but did not receive encouragement
from hi. Consequently Imrul al-Qays spoke verses against him, and it is said
that the emperor gave him poison to drink and so killed him. Death came to him
when he was beside the grave of a woman on a mountain called 'Asib and it was
there he wrote the verses:
"Oh neighhour, the shrine is near and I rest where a mountain cleft is estahlished.
Oh neighhour, we are strangers here and all smgers are of a common kin."
They say that the seven mucallaq~t, the select, displayed odes, were hung up
on the kacba. That was because when one of the Arabs composed an ode he
would exhibit it to Quraysh. If they approved of it they would hang it on the
ka'ba in recognition of its worth. It is from this practice that the seven odes were
gathered. The first of these, as previously noted, was by Imru' al-Qays b. Hujr
the Kindite, as previously mentioned. It begins:
"Halt here, both of you, and let us lament memory of a loved one and a dwelling at
the winding ridges between al-Dakhiil and Hawmal."
The second ode was by al-N2bigha al-Dhubymi, whose given name was
Ziyad b. Mu'iiwiya . He is also said to have been Ziyzd b. 'Amr b. Mucawiya,
who was the son of Dabbab b. Jzbir b. Yarbac b. Ghayq b. Murra b.'Awf b. Sacd