The Life of the Prophet Muhammad by Ibn Kathir - Volume 2 of 4

IMAM ABU AL-FIDA' ISMA~L IBN KATH~R
"Quraysh learned at Badr, that day of captive-taking
and terrible fighting,
That we were the war's champions at that battle of Ahn
al-Walid, when the long spears clashed,
We fought both sons of Rabib when they came at us
dressed in double suits of chain-mail,
With which Hakim fled on that day when the Banii
al-Najj2r wheeled in battle like lions.
Whereupon the Fihr forces ran away, little Harith
giving them up from a distance,
You met humiliation and death that came quickly,
penetrating beneath the jugular.
All the force fled together, caring nothing for their
inherited honour."
Hind, daughter of Uthatha h. %ad b. al-Mutwlib, spoke the following elegy for
Wbayda b. d-Harith b. al-Mu~alib:
"It was Wbayda who ensured glory, leadership and a
well-bred gentility full of intelligence and wisdom,
Weep for him, a towering mountain visible from afar, for
guests and for widows bent over dishevelled infants.
Mourn him for the masses every winter when the sky's
horizons turn red with the drought,
Mourn him for the orphans when the storms blow, for
whom he would heat a pot that would boil and foam,
And if the light of i s fires died down, he would
relight it with cut sticks,
Mourn him for those who would knock during the night,
or those seeking food, or the travellers he would comfort."
Al-Umawi stated in his work on the magh~zi, the early military expeditions,
"Sa'id h. Qup related to me as follows: "Atika, daughter of 'Abd d-Mutplib
spoke the following verses about the visions she saw, and in commemoration of
the battle of Badr:
"Were my visions not true, now thata fugitive fleeing
from the force brings you its interpretation?
He saw and brought you the certainty he had seen with
his own eyes; swords striking do not lie.
You spoke; I did not lie to you, rather it was those
who lied who charged me with lying.
He came hack in flight for fear of death, Hakim,
knowing no other way out.
Indian swords were there in front of your heads, along
with spears glinting and victorious,
As though flames of fire on their edges when the raging
lions charged.