🌟 Paradise [5]: Lady-Love & Honey; The Earthly Dreams of Namir Ibn Tawlab al Uqli
Askings of an Arab-Master in Verse
Alamma bi-ṣuḥbatī wa hum hujūʿun | Khayālun ṭāriqun min umma ḥiṣni
Lahā mā tashtahī ʿasalan muṣaffan | Idhā shāʾat wa-ḥawwārā bi-samni
“ Whilst all were wrapped sleeping tight,
Came in vision Umm - Ḥiṣn one night.
She has what she desires: honey purified
young camel meat with butter clarified ”
“How can I feel about An Namr Ibn Tawlab al Uqli? (النمر بن تولب بن زهير العُكلي) would he be fortunate enough to taste that honey? & learn that honey of the transient world compared with this is but bitter camel-thorn?”
“Oh Ibn Qarih!, were it be some of the celestial honey mixed with the bitterest gall, the bitter would be changed into the sweetest of sweet”
🟢 Understanding The Arabic Words in Context:
أَلَمَّ بِصُحْبَتِى وَهُمْ هُجُوعًٌ
خَيالًٌ طارِقًٌ منْ أُمَّ حِصْنِ
=> ألمّ: ‘He visited / came upon suddenly’,
often used for abrupt or fleeting contact.
=> بصحبتي: My company / my presence
(note the singular construct here suggests and implicates intimacy & solitude).
=> وهم هجوعٌ: While they were asleep —
(هجوع = deep night sleep, adds to the secrecy/mystery.)
=> خيالٌ: A phantom / vision / dreamlike apparition —
in ghazal, often the image of a beloved.
=> طارقٌ: Nocturnal visitor —
from the root ط-ر-ق, “to knock at night”.
=> من أمّ حصن: From Umm Ḥiṣn —
likely the name of the beloved (literally it comes to be "Mother of Fortitude" or "Dame of the Fortress").
لَها ما تَشْتَهِي عَسَلًا مُصَفًّى
إذا شاءَتْ وَحُوّارَى بِسَمْنِ
=> لها ما تشتهي: She has all she desires, or She is given what she desires —
suggesting indulgence or luxury.
=> عسلًا مصفى: Purified honey —
ideal image of sweetness and refinement.
=> إذا شاءت: Whenever she wishes —
reinforces the control/power of the beloved.
=> وحوارى1 بسمن: And tender young camel meat cooked in clarified butter —
delicacy and richness, signaling high status or deep desire.
🔵 Intricacies of the Verse:
This verse of Namir Ibn Tawlab2 is two-line classical Arabic love elegy. The context reflects a nocturnal visit by a feminine figure which is a recurring motif in pre-Islamic and Umayyad ghazal poetry.
The scene is set at night (وهم هجوعٌ
), introducing a mysterious apparition (خيالٌ طارقٌ
) tied to a woman (أم حصن
), which then shifts into praise or longing, mentioning sweet offerings like filtered honey and young camel meat with clarified butter.
Genre/Imagery Markers:
خيال طارق: supernatural or dreamlike visitor — common in ghazal and ru'ya (vision) poetry
أم حصن: likely a maqāmiyya (attributed beloved, possibly metaphorical)
Rich in gustatory imagery (عسل، سمن) — which hints at luxury and idealized femininity.
🔘 Root Analysis and Their Classical Usages:
🟡 The Meter of Our Couplet (البحر الشعري):
⏑ – – | ⏑ – ⏑ – | ⏑ – | ⏑ – –
The mentioned verse follows the Kamil meter throughout.
أَلَمَّ بِصُحْبَتِي وَهُمْ هُجُوعٌ
a-lam-ma ⏑ – – | bi-ṣuḥ-ba-tī ⏑ – ⏑ – | wa-hum ⏑ – | hu-jū-ʿun ⏑ – –
خَيَالٌ طَارِقٌ مِنْ أُمِّ حِصْنِ
kha-yā-lun ⏑ – – | ṭā-ri-qun ⏑ – ⏑ – | min um- ⏑ – | mi ḥiṣ-nin ⏑ – –
("ḥiṣ-nin" ends on a kasrah + tanwīn, but is counted metrically as ḥiṣ-nin = ⏑ ⏑)
لَهَا مَا تَشْتَهِي عَسَلًا مُصَفًّى
la-hā mā ⏑ – – | tash-ta-hī ⏑ – ⏑ – | ʿa-sa-lan3 ⏑ – | mu-ṣaf-fan ⏑ – –
إِذَا شَاءَتْ وَحُوَّارَى بِسَمْنِ
i-dhā shā- ⏑ – – | ʾat wa-ḥuw- ⏑ – ⏑ – | wā-rā ⏑ – | bi-sam-nin ⏑ – –
(ḥuwwārā contains a shadda, so metrically it's stretched into two syllables: ḥuwwā = – –, retaining the metre.)
🌟 Forthcoming:
“If Allah (blessed be his name) granted one to drink from these streams, he would catch “fish ” the likes of which he had never seen. If Al-Mutanabbi had seen them he would describe them as…
The verse we will discuss in the next post…
In attempts to find a reference to know more about the Poet; It appears he was amongst the Companions of Prophet PBUH.
He is a narrator of a Hadith found both in Abu Dawud & Nisai where he is mentioned not by name. Rijaal scholars made him out to be our Poet An-Namir ibn Tawlab and he is mentioned 'Tuhfah Al-Ashraaf', The great compendium of biographical Hadith references by Al - Mizzi. This implies Al Uqli not only died a Muslim but was also considered a trusted narrator of Hadith. (Found in glosses of Shaykh Albani’s As Saheehah - 2857).
https://www.islamicboard.com/threads/al-imaam-al-albaanee-on-why-people-dont-make-hijrah-in-this-time-period.15070/#gsc.tab=0
In classical prosody (ʿarūḍ), a final tanwīn fatḥah (ً) — like the one on ʿasalan — is typically treated as a long syllable, not as an additional syllable.
This is because of a phonetic rule that When tanwīn fatḥah (ً) occurs before a pause or at the end of a hemistich, it is followed by an alif al-wiqāyah (ا). So: ʿasalan → ʿasalā (عَسَلًا → عَسَلَا) in pausal recitation, becoming two syllables: ⏑ –.