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[by a poet] and gave [him largesse,] and therein[1] is an exemplar to every Muslim.” Quoth Omar, “And who praised him?” “Abbas ben Mirdas[2] praised him,” replied Adi, “and he clad him with a suit and said, ‘O Bilal,[3] cut off from me his tongue!’” “Dost thou remember what he said?” asked the Khalif; and Adi said, “Yes.” “Then repeat it,” rejoined Omar. So Adi recited the following verses:
I saw thee, O thou best of all the human race, display A book that came to teach the Truth to those in error’s way.
Thou madest known to us therein the road of righteousness, When we had wandered from the Truth, what while in gloom it lay.
A dark affair thou littest up with Islam and with proof Quenchedst the flaming red-coals of error and dismay.
Mohammed, then, I do confess, God’s chosen prophet is, And every man requited is for that which he doth say.
The road of right thou hast made straight, that erst was crooked grown; Yea, for its path of old had fall’n to ruin and decay.
Exalted mayst thou be above th’ empyrean heaven of joy And may God’s glory greater grow and more exalted aye!
- ↑ Or “in him.”
- ↑ Chief of the tribe of the Benou Suleim. Et Teberi tells this story in a different way. According to him, Abbas ben Mirdas (who was a well-known poet), being dissatisfied with the portion of booty allotted to him by the Prophet, refused it and composed a lampoon against Mohammed, who said to Ali, “Cut off this tongue which attacketh me,” i.e. “Silence him by giving what will satisfy him,” whereupon Ali doubled the covetous chief’s share.
- ↑ Bilal ibn Rebeh was the Prophet’s freedman and crier. The word bilal signifies “moisture” or (metonymically) “beneficence” and it may well be in this sense (and not as a man’s name) that it is used in the text.
