🌟 Conversations in Paradise: Al A'shaa & His Afterlife Journey
We hear a voice which tells it's story of how it reached Paradise.
✨ The Story Continues:
As Ibn-Qarih was reciting the previous verse, a voice calls out to him!
“Do you know, O Servant of God who has been forgiven, who composed this poem you recite?” (from our previous post)
“Yes”, replied Ibn Qarih. “We have been told by scholars whom we trust, who themselves relied on trusted predecessors transmitting it from generation upon generation, all the way back to Abū ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAlāʾ. Who transmitted it on the authority of Bedouin elders, Hunters of lizards in rough terrain and Truffle-gatherers in desert and plain. Those who have not eaten curds and whey, nor put fruit into their pocket to take away, that this poem is by Maymūn ibn Qays ibn Jandal i.e Al-A’shaa!”
The voice answers, “I am that man! God showed me His mercy after I was already on the brink of Hell’s damnation, and despaired of forgiveness and expiation.”
Ibn-Qarih turns to him, happy, smiling, and glad. He sees a young man with a skin fair and light, now living a blissful life.
Ibn Qarih asks him, “Tell me how you escaped from Hell’s fire and flame? and how you were saved from horrible disgrace and shame!” Al-Aʿshā replies, “Hell’s angels dragged me to the Fire, but then I saw a man standing on the Courtyards of Resurrection. His face shone like the moon; people were calling to him from every direction: ‘Muḥammad, O Muḥammad (SAW), intercede for us, intercede for us We have such-and-such a connection!’
So I also shouted, still held by the hands of Hell’s angels, ‘Muḥammad, save me, for I deserve to be spared by you!’
He ordered, ‘ʿAlī, go to him quickly and find out why he should be spared!’
Then ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (God’s blessings be upon him) came to me, as I was forcibly dragged away to be cast into the lowest reaches of Hellfire. But he drove them away and asked
‘On what grounds should you be spared?’
I said, “I am the one who composed these following verses;”
Alā ayyuhādhā al-sā’ilī ayna yammamat | Fa-inna lahā fī āli Yathriba mawʿidā
Listen! O questioner — asking where she rode:
She has an appointment with Yathrib’s abode
Fa-ālaytu lā arkabu lahā min kalālatin | Wa-lā min ḥafā ḥattā tulāqiya Muḥammada
I’ve sworn no weariness shall make me dismount,
Neither her bare feet, till we reach Muḥammad’s ﷺ account.
Matā mā tana’khī ʿinda bābi ibn Hāshim | Tarayḥī wa talqay min fawāḍilihi nadā
When she kneels by the door of Hāshim’s son,
She’ll rest and taste of his bounteous dew.
Ajiddaka lam tasmaʿ waṣāyata Muḥammadin | Nabiyya al-ilāhi ḥīna awṣā wa ashhadā
By Your Seriousness! Have you not heard Muhammad’s ﷺ Counsel?
God’s own Prophet, who testified, with witness to his plea?
Idhā anta lam tarḥal bizādin mina altaqwā | Wa abṣarta baʿda al-mawti man qad tazawwada
When you depart without provisions of piety,
And see after death those with provisions themselves
Nadimta ʿalā an lā takūna kamithlihi | Wa annaka lam turṣid limā kāna arṣadā
You’ll grieve you didn’t prepared like they,
You did not set aside deeds for your reckoning day
[Allahumma Ajirna Min An-Naar]
Al-A’shaa (Maymun Ibn-Qais Al-Jandal) said, “I had believed in Allah & the Day of Judgement whilst I was still in the age of ignorance (before Islam)”.
Ali Ibn Abi Talib, then went to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ & said, “This is A’shaa al Qais who has sung in praise of you, and has testified that you are the Prophet sent”. To which the Prophet ﷺ said, “Would it not have been better…” “…If this has been done in the former world?” to which Ali said, “That Quraysh and his taste for wine made him a backslider.”
Then, tells Al-A’shaa to Ibn Qarih, that the Prophet ﷺ interceeded for me & I got into Paradise on condition that I shall drink no wine. So here I am, content with Honey & the Water of Life. But whoever does not repent from drinking in the False World, will surely not have it be given to him in the next…
[Lets Understand the verse further & learn Arabic using this couplet!]
🟢 Understanding The Arabic Words in Context of The Verse:
Couplet 1:
أَلَا أَيُّهَذَا السَّائِلِي أَيْنَ يَمَّمَتْ
فَإِنَّ لَهَا فِي آلِ يَثْرِبَ مَوْعِدَا
💎 Meanings:
=> أَلَا — A classical particle of attention, meaning "Behold!" or "Listen!"
=> أَيُّهَذَا — Vocative construction ayyuhā, meaning "O you", directed toward someone.
=> السَّائِلِي — "The one asking me" (first person possessive attached to active participle).
=> أَيْنَ — Interrogative adverb, "where".
=> يَمَّمَتْ — From root y-m-m, meaning “to head toward, to direct oneself”; feminine past tense verb meaning "she headed".
=> فَإِنَّ — "For indeed".
=> لَهَا — "For her" (i.e., for the she-camel or the journey).
=> فِي آلِ يَثْرِبَ — “Among the people of Yathrib1 (Medina)”.
=> مَوْعِدًا — "An appointed meeting" or "a promised time/place".
Couplet 2
فآليتُ لا أَرْكَبُ لَهَا مِن كَلَالَةٍ
وَلَا مِن حَفًى حَتَّى تُلَاقِيَ مُحَمَّدَا
💎 Meanings:
=> فآليتُ — “So I swore,” from ālà (to take an oath).
=> لا أَرْكَبُ — “I will not ride (her)”.
=> لَهَا — “For her” (the she-camel or symbolic journey).
=> مِن كَلَالَةٍ — “Out of fatigue/exhaustion”.
=>وَلَا مِن حَفًى — “Nor barefootedness” (lit. ‘without sandals’).
=> حَتَّى تُلَاقِيَ — “Until (she) meets”.
=> مُحَمَّدًا — “Muḥammad” — the Prophet ﷺ.
Couplet 3
مُتَى مَا تَنأْخِي عِندَ بَابِ ابْنِ هَاشِمٍ
تَرَيحِي وَتَلْقَيْ مِنْ فَوَاضِلِهِ نَدَى
💎 Meanings:
=> مُتَى مَا — “Whenever”.
=> تَنأْخِي — “You kneel down” (camel kneeling for rest).
=> عِندَ بَابِ — “At the door of”.
=> ابْنِ هَاشِمٍ — “The son of Hāshim” (i.e., Muḥammad ﷺ).
=> تَرَيحِي — “You’ll be relieved/rested” (2nd person feminine for camel or journey).
=> وَتَلْقَيْ — “And you will receive/encounter”.
=> مِنْ فَوَاضِلِهِ — “From his generosity/excess bounty”.
=> نَدَى — “Dew” (used here metaphorically for generosity, grace, favor).
Couplet 4
أَجِدَّكَ لَمْ تَسْمَعْ وَصَاةَ مُحَمَّدٍ
نَبِيَّ الإِلهِ حِينَ أَوْصَى وَأَشْهَدَا
💎 Meanings:
=> أَجِدَّكَ — Exclamatory; could mean “By your seriousness!” or emphatic “Surely!”
=> لَمْ تَسْمَعْ — “Have you not heard?”
=> وَصَاةَ — “The counsel” or “advice”.
=> مُحَمَّدٍ — “Muḥammad”.
=> نَبِيَّ الإِلهِ — “The Prophet of God”.
=> حِينَ أَوْصَى — “When he gave his counsel”.
=> وَأَشْهَدَا — “And made (others) witness to it”.2
Couplet 5
إِذَا أَنْتَ لَمْ تَرْحَلْ بِزَادٍ مِنَ التُّقَى
وَأَبْصَرْتَ بَعْدَ الْمَوْتِ مَنْ قَدْ تَزَوَّدَا
💎 Meanings:
=> إِذَا — “If” or “when”.
=> أَنْتَ لَمْ تَرْحَلْ — “You did not depart”.
=> بِزَادٍ — “With provisions”.
=> مِنَ التُّقَى — “Of piety”.3
=> وَأَبْصَرْتَ — “And (you) saw”.
=> بَعْدَ الْمَوْتِ — “After death”.
=> مَنْ قَدْ تَزَوَّدَا — “Those who had prepared/provisioned themselves”.
Couplet 6
نَدِمْتَ عَلَى أَنْ لَا تَكُونَ كَمِثْلِهِ
وَأَنَّكَ لَمْ تُرْصِدْ لِمَا كَانَ أَرْصَدَا
💎 Meanings:
=> نَدِمْتَ — “You regretted”.
=> عَلَى أَنْ — “That you had not”.
=> لَا تَكُونَ كَمِثْلِهِ — “Become like him”.
=> وَأَنَّكَ — “And that you”.
=> لَمْ تُرْصِدْ — “Did not prepare/allocate”.
=> لِمَا كَانَ أَرْصَدَا — “For what he had prepared for”.
🔵 Intricacies of the Verse:
This is a rhymed qaṣīda (قَصِيدَة), following the classical structure of Arabic odes with each verse split into two hemistiches, with the rhyme fixed at the end of every second hemistich (in this case, the rhyme is "-dā" / ‘دَا’). The verse appears to be written in Bahr al-Kāmil (البحر الكامل).
The opening is an exclamatory Address (خطاب) to an anonymous questioner, evoking the oracular mode. The verse actively employs Iltifāt (التفات) with there being a movement from 3rd-person to 2nd-person to 1st-person, showcasing the A’shaa’s personal reflection and exhortation. The verse includes direct reference to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, spiritual preparedness, and the afterlife.
This verse quite beautifully speaks of the ethos of early Islamic piety. Voice of the poet here is that of a believer yearning for a sacred journey, both physical and spiritual, to the Prophet ﷺ in Yathrib (Madīnah), the city depicted as the locus of redemption, guidance, and generosity. No wonder Al A’shaa and Ma’ari presented this verse as perhaps a redemption of Al A’shaa in Qayamah.
The she-camel4 mentioned there-in is long recognized in Arabian culture for its symbolism. Here, it represents the soul's journey toward divine truth. Fatigue, hunger, and barefootedness emphasize sacrifice, while the refusal to stop until one "meets Muḥammad (S.A.W)" metaphorically exhibits the perseverance required in the path of seeking truth.
In the last two couplets, the poem shifts from praise of the Prophet to personal admonition: that if we don’t pack provisions of taqwā, we may very well end up regretting our unpreparedness when we meet those who did…
Allahu Akbar Kabeera, Alhamdulillahi Kaseera…
🔘 Roots of words and Their Classical Usages:
🌟 Forthcoming:
Ibn Qarih then gazes at the meadows of Paradise and sees two towering Palaces. He says to himself, “I’ll go to these Palaces and ask who these belong to”, and as he gets near to the Palace, he reads on the sign the name of Zuhair Ibn Abi Sulma, the other to Abid Ibn ul Abras. Surprised he was to find them here as both had died before Islam.
Ibn Qarih then converses with Zuhair, and the story continues…
Footnotes & Trivia:
يَثْرِب (Yathrib):
The pre-Islamic name for Madīnah, where the Prophet ﷺ migrated during the Hijrah. Its use here is deliberate, invoking both the historical and spiritual significance of the place.
أَوْصَى وَأَشْهَدَا:
These terms often appear in Islamic legal and ethical discourse. The Prophet's advice being "witnessed" is a Quranic idiom as well (e.g., wa shahid).
زاد التقى:
The Quran uses the term wa tazawwadu fa-inna khayra al-zādi al-taqwā (Surah al-Baqarah, 2:197) "Take provision, and the best provision is piety", directly mirrored in this poem. So many of these go unnoticed, even by me.
The use of second person in تَرَيحِي and تَلْقَيْ feminizes the camel — a common Arabic poetic device for the mount symbolizing a journey.