Zuhayr ibn Abi Sulma belongs to the Arabic poetic tradition of the period before Islam, around the late sixth and early seventh centuries. Precise biographical dates are uncertain. His best-known poem is one of the Mu‘allaqat, the celebrated long odes transmitted through later generations of Arabic poetry and scholarship. It begins with remembered places and people, turns toward the work of peacemakers, and develops reflections on conduct and the limits of life. We encounter a poet through that transmitted work, not through a surviving manuscript in his own hand.
The poem praises efforts to end conflict between the tribes of ‘Abs and Dhubyān. Its admiration falls on those who take responsibility for repairing relationships, while its account of war stresses the damage that renewed violence can bring. Generosity, keeping one’s word and the uncertainty of tomorrow belong to this social setting. The poem considers obligations within a world of loyalties and assumptions different from our own. The existing Alrewaq rendering of generosity is preserved alongside short excerpts from named English translators; none is presented as an English sentence written by Zuhayr.
Quotations retain the wording of the cited editions. The explanations are Alrewaq’s editorial readings.
01Abundance carries responsibility
Whoever has abundance but withholds it from his people will be dispensed with and reproached.
The Arabic line links having something to give with responsibility toward one’s people. Its setting is a community bound by mutual obligations, not a theory of unlimited self-sacrifice. Our reading asks how a resource we hold might become useful to someone around us.
Mu‘allaqa of Zuhayr Wisdom passage beginning وَمَنْ يَكُ ذَا فَضْلٍ
English meaning by Alrewaq; not a quotation from a published translator
Alrewaq’s English rendering of the Arabic verse. The corresponding passage on generosity also appears in the published translations by F. E. Johnson and A. J. Arberry.
Noble chiefs! You reconciled Abs and Dhobyan after their bloody conflicts
The poet is praising the men who helped restore relations between ‘Abs and Dhubyān. Peace is an accomplishment involving responsibility and material contribution. Whose work helped make a reconciliation possible?
Source & edition · Repair as an achievement
Mu‘allaqa of Zuhayr Mu‘allaqa · verse 19 in the Jones edition
William Jones, as reproduced in Arabian Poetry for English Readers (1881)
The first statement of the verse, before a second image of the conflict; the translator’s spellings of the tribal names are retained.
It grinds you as a millstone grinds on its cushion
War becomes a machine that consumes the people who set it going. In the surrounding passage, its damage multiplies rather than remaining within anyone’s control. Alrewaq reads the image as a warning about how violence escalates.
Source & edition · The cost of rekindling conflict
Mu‘allaqa of Zuhayr War passage · Arberry, The Seven Odes (1957), p. 116; quoted in Farrugia, p. 148
A. J. Arberry (1957)
A continuous line excerpt; the final punctuation of the longer sentence is omitted.
as to the events of to-morrow, I confess my blindness.
The speaker contrasts knowledge of yesterday and today with uncertainty about tomorrow. The poem’s older voice does not claim that experience makes the future transparent. Our reading makes space for preparation accompanied by humility: a plan can be useful without being a promise.
Source & edition · The boundary of foresight
Mu‘allaqa of Zuhayr Mu‘allaqa · verse 59 in the Jones edition
William Jones, as reproduced in Arabian Poetry for English Readers (1881)
The second clause contrasts uncertainty about tomorrow with experience of the past; historical spelling is retained.
Keeping one’s word is praised within a world where reputation and mutual dependence carry great weight. This is a poetic maxim, not a guarantee that reliable people will never be criticized. Our reading asks which commitments we can make honestly and then sustain.
Source & edition · Reliability among others
Mu‘allaqa of Zuhayr Wisdom passage · sentence beginning with the keeping of one’s word
F. E. Johnson; reproduced in The Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East, vol. 5
Opening clause of the sentence, before its second statement about benevolence.
