{"collection":"Islam","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/isl/arp/arp146.htm","path":"isl/arp/arp146.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/isl/arp/arp146.htm","text":"Arabian Poetry, by W. A. Clouston, [1881]\nTHE purpose of God is a serious matter, and not a subject for jesting; employ thyself; therefore, my comrade, in religious works.\n2. How is stability possible with diversities of temperaments, and the everlasting recurrence of night and morning!\n3. Time is the best of counsellors to admonish a young man; and its ad vice surpasses that of the most friendly monitors.\n4. Direct thine eyes to what is certain; and inquire not, oh thou drunken one, from him who is recovering from intoxication.\n5. The world runs away with us towards peril, like as the boat of the seaman hastens to it;\n6. It runs away with us into a sea of waters, in which there is neither shore nor shallows.\n7. The occupations of mankind divert them from the worship of their Lord; the seductions of their world and its contentions,\n8. And the love of the world which enters ever with the souls into bodies.\n9. All mankind are drinkers of the cup of Death; by natural means or by bloodshed.\n10. Do not despair at evil accidents, and be not too joyful over happy events.\n11. Where is H\u00fbd, the man who feared God, and his testamentary injunctions? or Kaht\u00e2n, of the seed of the Prophet and of holiness?\n12. Where is Ya\u2019rub, who was the first to speak Arabic, and who introduced articulate language among man?\n13. Where is Yashjub, whom his fate betrayed; and for whom sorrow was ordained by the decree of destiny?\n14. And Sab\u00e0, the son of Yashjub, who in foray was the first to lead into captivity the women who wore girdles?\n15. Or Himyar and his brother Kahl\u00e2n, who perished through the accidents of all-destroying Time?\n16. And the Kings of Himyar?\u2014a thousand kings have betaken themselves to the dust, to rest in graves beneath slabs of stones.\n17. Their monuments in the land give us information of them: and the books in their stories record the truth.\n18. Their generations are made manifest in them, and their renown is fragrant as the perfume of ambergris.\n19. They reigned over the East and the West; and obtained possession of all the country between Ankarah and Nejd-el-j\u00e2h.\n20. Tham\u016bd and the latter \u2019Ad reigned together; from them proceeded noble princes in whom was no covetousness.\n21. Where is El-Humaisa\u2019, and A\u00efman after him, and Zuhair, a king brilliant in splendour?\n22. In course of time Tham\u00fbd came to destruction through a she-camel, and met with great grief on her account.\n23. And \u2019Ar\u00eeb and Katan and Haid\u00e2n together?\u2014They were smitten as though they were date-stones in the crusher.\n[Of the next 105 verses, in which the Poet continues his recital, begun as above, of the names of famous princes and heroes of Himyar, the five following, referring to the visit of the celebrated \"Queen of Sheba\" to King Solomon, are selected as being of general interest.]\n45. Where is Bilk\u00ees, the mighty-throned one, or her palace, lofty above all palaces?\n46. She visited Solomon the prophet in Tadmor, coming from M\u00e2rib on an errand of faith, without thoughts of marriage,\n47. With thousands upon thousands of the armed men of her people; she did not approach him with jaded camels.\n48. She came to acknowledge Isl\u00e2m, at the season when his writing came, with which he invited her with a loud-voiced Hoopoe.\n49. She bowed in worship to her mighty Creator, and humbly became a Muslim; and formerly her adoration was to the Sun.","title":"Arabian Poetry: Extracts From The Lay of the Himyarites: Opening Verses of the Poem","type":"page"}