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

IMAM ABU AL-FIDA'
ISMAqL IBN KATH~R
And this day 'Amir lament their misformnes; how I would
wish to see them at hand!
They are my brothers, their parentage above suspicion, and
one under their protection would never be harmed.
Our brothers 'Abd Shams and Nawfal, may I be your
ransom! Do not excite war between us!
Do not become, following love and friendship, mere tales
you all fill with complaint.
Do you not know how it was with the war of Dahis, and that
of Abii Yaksum when they filled the defile?
Were it not for the protection of God and Him alone, you
would have ended by not defending your people.
We in Quraysh have committed no great sin, but merely
protected the best man who ever trod the earth,
A man of trust and a support in troubles, a man noble in
repute, neither miserly not evil.
Supplicants resort to him, crowding his door, seeking a river
that never fails nor dries up.
By God, my soul will always be sad and ill at ease until you
smite Khazraj full well."
Ihn Ishaq quoted much fine poetry of the polytheists in which they mourn their
dead at the battle of Badr.
One poem he gives is that of Dirzr h. al-Khan%b b. h.lirdas, a brother of the
Bana Muhzrih h. Fihr. He eventually accepted Islam; al-Suhayli wrote in his
work al-Rawad (The Meadows) about the verses of those poets who later became
Muslims:
"I am amazed at the pride of Aws, for tomorrow fate will
turn against them, and destiny can be foreseen,
And at that of the Banii al-Najjiir, though a group were
struck down at Badr, all of whom there being h e men,
Even if some of our men were left there dead, we have
others after them yet to be so left.
Our swift horses will carry us in your midst, 0 Banii
al-Aws, until vengeance quiets our spirits.
Amidst the Banii al-Najj%r we will charge, panting
beneath the mail-clad spearsmeo.
We will leave corpses with vultures circling above them
and with only their hopes to give them aid.
The women of Yathrib will mourn them who will have
passed sleepless nights there.
And that is because our swords will keep hacking at
them, dripping with the blood of those they struck.