The Life of the Prophet Muhammad by Ibn Kathir - Volume 3 of 4

74 THE LIFE OF THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD
Ihn Ishnq stated, "Hassnn b. Thnbit, God be pleased with hi, responded with
the following verses."
However, Ihn Hishim said that these were also attributed to Ka'b h. Mnlik
and others. In my view the attribution Ibn Is&q makes to Hasszn is more
widely and frequently accepted. But God knows best.
"It was your foolishness that made you blindly lead Ki~na
against the Messenger,
for God's forces would humble them.
You brought them down to pools of death that morning, for being killed and
hell-fre await them.
You gathered up Abyssinian slaves, devoid of ancestry, you chiefs of disbelief,
deceived by your tyrants.
Did you not remember God's horsemen when they killed those at the well, and
those they threw therein?
How many were the captives we freed without wst and how many a forelock we
cropped of those we mastered!"
Ibn Ishnq went on, "Ka'b b. Mdik also spoke the following verses in response to
Hubayra b. Abii Wahh al-Makhziimi,
'Has, then, Ghassan heard about us, even though between us and them there is
desert land difficult to traverse?
Wastelands and mountains, their dark forms from the distance looking like barren
dust columns, widely scattered,
Where young, hardy camels weaken and the annual heavy rain clouds pass over
when they come,
Where the bones of the carcasses of exhausted beasts appear stretched out like the
linens of traders.
There the wild cows and the antelopes walk in file and ostrich eggs have their shells
scattered far.
Our fighters defending our faith are all fme warriors, the crests of their helmets
glinting.
Every chain-mail in storage when put on seems like a full-running stream.
But at Badr ask any man you meet and any news of people far away may be useful.
There we were in the land of fear and had others than us been there, they would
have left by night, in flight.
When one of our out-riders came he would say, "Prepare for what Ibn Harb is
gathering and preparing."
No matter how others would react at what affects us, we would have remained
more calm than them.
If others than us had faced such a host, they would have given up and dispersed.
We battled them and no tribe could have withstood us without hemming terrified
and takimg flight.
When they went to live at al-'Ird,li our chief said, "If we do not protect al-'Ird, the
seed, why sow it?
15. A place on the outskirts of Medina. The use of the word 'ird again in the same verse,
meaning "seed", is, of course, a deliberate pun.