🌟 Meeting Zuhayr Ibn Abi Salma in Heaven: An Unbelievable Contrast

Ibn Qarih stunned by The Zuhayr of Paradise & Zuhayr of the World

✨ The Story Continues:

It was two towering palaces Ibn Qarih had seen, and he desired to see who these belonged to. He found on a sign telling the palaces belonged to Zuhayr Ibn Abi Salma¹² & Abid Ibn Al Abras³. (Both Pre-Islamic Figures).

Ibn Qarih, quite surprised by this remarks to himself “Both these men died before heaven, but Allah’s mercy embraces all. I shall get in touch with these two men and ask by what merit, they obtained pardon.”

He begins with Zuhayr, finding him young as a full blossom, given a castle of erected pearls.

It seemed as if he had never donned the garments of age. Had never encountered the old-decrepitude and never once sighed from the weariness of life.

It was impossible to believe He was the one who had composed the following verse in the earthly life;

Sa’imtu takālīfa al-ḥayāti wa-man yaʿish || thamānīna ḥawlan — lā abā laka — yas’ami

I have grown tied of the burdens of life. Mind you, He who lives
For eighty years — I swear to you — gets weary!

Neither could it have been he who could’ve had said this;

A-lam taranī ʿummirtu tisʿīna ḥijjatan || wa-ʿashran tibāʿan ʿishtuhā wa-thamāniyā

Have you not observed? My long life of ninety pilgrim years
ten more I lived successfully — and eight still followed after that.

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[Lets understand the verse further & learn Arabic using this couplet!]

🟢 Understanding The Arabic Words in Context of The Verse:

Couplet 1:
سَئِمْتُ تَكالِيفَ الحَياةِ وَمَنْ يَعِشْ
ثَمانِينَ حَوْلاً — لا أَبا لَكَ — يَسْأَمِ

💎 Meanings:

=> سَئِمْتُ :– “I have become weary / fed up / grown tired”: from the root سأم, implying mental and emotional fatigue, not just physical.
=> تَكالِيفَ الحَياةِ :– “the burdens of life”: takālīf here carries a broader semantic field — obligations, trials, strains, and the existential costs of living.

=>وَمَنْ يَعِشْ ثَمانِينَ حَوْلاً :– “and whoever lives for eighty cycles⁴ (years)”: ḥawl is a full year. Eighty years is a metonym for a long life.

=> لا أَبا لَكَ :– literally “may you have no father!”, but functionally it's an idiom expressing something like “for heaven’s sake!” or “I swear to you”. It is a classical idiom that implies emphasis without true insult.
=> يَسْأَمِ :– “he shall grow weary”: root سأم, same as the first hemistich, which creates a circular unity and rhetorical cohesion.

Couplet 2:
أَلم تَرْنِى عُمِّرْتُ تِسْعينَ حِجَّةً
وعَشْرًا تِباعاً عِشْتُهَا وَثَمَانِيا

💎 Meanings:

=> أَلَمْ :– “Have [you] not…” (interrogative with negative emphasis)
=> تَرْنِي :– “You see me / observe me”: 2nd person tarā with 1st person object suffix -nī
=> عُمِّرْتُ :– “I was granted long life”; from ʿamara meaning “to live a long time”
=> تِسْعينَ :– “ninety”
=> حِجَّةً :– “pilgrimage years” (used metonymically here to mean years of life)⁵

=> وَعَشْرًا :– “and ten (more)”
=> تِباعًا :– “in succession, consecutively”
=> عِشْتُهَا :– “I lived them”
=> وَثَمَانِيَا :– “and eight more” (the final part of the total lifespan: 90 + 10 + 8 = 108 years)

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🔵 Intricacies of the Verse:

The first couplet:
The couplet in the ṭawīl meter, Zuhayr merges personal declaration with universal wisdom, Beginning with the emphatic first-person verb "سَئِمْتُ" (meaning I have grown weary). The verse generalizes his personal state into a stoic truth about human experience. The second hemistich uses a conditional clause ("وَمَنْ يَعِشْ...") leading into a natural philosophical consequence: whoever lives long enough will eventually grow weary.

The mention of Eighty years; this was seen in ancient Arab tradition as a full life span. More notably however is the use of "لا أبا لك"⁶, a fascinating idiom. It functions as an exclamatory interjection, not literally insulting (as some mistranslations imply); but rather expressive of emphasis, urgency, or affectation. We'll examine this further in the footnotes.

The verse employs ḥikmah⁷ (wisdom poetry) technique: gnomic, distilled, timeless, and pithy; being both a personal lament and a universal commentary. Zuhayr, in his this verse from his elder years, offers a poeticized memento mori, articulating that longevity carries its own burdens: repetition, disillusionment, and a certain existential fatigue.

On the surface, the couplet may just read as an elder’s complaint; an ennui earned from the repetition and demands of life, but this refers also philosophy of endurance: the longer one lives, the more cycles of joy and grief, war and peace, loyalty and betrayal one experiences, until all of it becomes too familiar and fatiguing. This alludes too to in-built psychic phenomenon of longing of death as life goes on.

This verse of Zuhayr is frequently quoted in Arabic philosophical writing, especially in discussions of al-zuhd (asceticism), aging, and the nature of human striving.

The second couplet:

The second couplet continues the tone of meditative reflection, even escalating it. Not only is the weariness expressed here (saʾama), but it is illustrated why that weariness is earned.

Zuhayr, a patriarchal sage-poet, claims to have lived 108 years⁸, a lifespan near-mythical in pre-Islamic Arabia, thereby giving weight to his philosophical perspective here⁹. Structurally, the verse is in Ṭawīl again. The -iyā ending in ثَمانيا rhymes with the previous يسأمِ which is accordance with a recitation convention (ʿarūḍīyya).

The Opening with interrogative negation: "Have you not seen..." draws the listener in, and the Climactic progression 90 → 10 → 8¹⁰, i.e layering feels in the couplet both impressive and burdensome.

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🔘 Roots of words and Their Classical Usages:

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🌟 Forthcoming:

The conversation ensues between Ibn Qarih & Zuhayr. Ibn Qarih asks Zuhayr of the Pardon that brought him to Jannah, & The Merit he had to meet for it. Zuhayr describes to him a dream of his, which we shall go through.

& Then describes a couplet of his, which we shall go through in the next post.

Footnotes & Trivia:

1. Zuhayr ibn Abī Sulmā (d. 609 CE) was one of the most venerated poets of the pre-Islamic period. Known for his wisdom poetry, Zuhayr’s Muʿallaqa was admired by the Prophet Muhammad, who once said: “The most truthful poet is Zuhayr.”

2. Lineage: Zuhayr is also father of Kaʿb ibn Zuhayr, who would famously convert to Islam and present the Bānat Suʿād poem before the Prophet ﷺ, receiving his mantle (burda) — a powerful generational poetic legacy.

3. ʿĀbid ibn al-Abras (عَابِد بن الأبرَص) was a renowned pre-Islamic Arab poet of the Muʿallaqāt era (circa 6th century CE). Belonging to the Banu Asad tribe, he was known for his rich language, melancholic tone, and deep reflections on fate, time, and the hardships of life. His most famous poem is part of the celebrated Muʿallaqāt.
He is said to have had a poetic rivalry with al-Nabigha al-Dhubyani, and eventually, due to court intrigues, he fell out of favor with the Lakhmid king al-Nuʿman and was reportedly executed. (Next conversation will be with him after Zuhayr)

4. Eighty years was seen in ancient Arab tradition as a full life span. It echoes Qur’anic and Biblical ideas of longevity, often implying not vitality, but burden and wisdom through endurance.

5. "حِجَّةً": Though literally “pilgrimage,” it functions metonymically here to mean “years” — as the lunar calendar was measured often by the annual Hajj cycle. It's also likely an elevated term (rather than simply ʿāman for “year”).

6. “لا أبا لك” is a classical idiom used to emphasize or swear something with intensity, not an actual curse. It's a vestige of tribal Arabic where lineage references intensified emotion. Comparable in tone to “by your life!” or “by God!”

7. The line is sometimes cited in Islamic ethical works to emphasize the vanity of worldly pursuits, echoing Qur’anic themes of “laʿib wa lahw” (play and distraction)

8. Zuhayr's Age: Classical tradition holds Zuhayr lived over 100 years, possibly up to 120. This verse may exaggerate, or reflect the poetic genre of autobiographical hyperbole, where age serves as a symbol of endurance and authority.

9. Long-lived Poets: Zuhayr’s long life contrasts with many poets of the Jāhiliyyah who died in war or vengeance. He was seen as wise, peace-seeking, and a moral voice of his tribe, often mediating disputes.

10. Numerical Structure: The poetic effect of "ninety, then ten, then eight" is cumulative — it mimics oral enumeration, where dramatic pauses increase the weight of each segment.