🌟 Wisdom Echoes Far & Wide: The Conversation with 'Abid Ibn Abras
The re-occurring theme of timeless Wisdom, which 'Abid claims sufficed for him.
✨ The Story Continues:
After concluding the conversation with Zuhayr, Ibn Qarih now turns his attention to 'Abid ibn Al Abras1 who was present besides them, intently listening to the happening dialogue, anticipating the very questions Ibn Qarih now wishes to ask him.
“O 'Abid!”, “You too have been granted a life of eternity to lead”, said Ibn Qarih, as he turned to him. “Greetings to you, Friend of the Tribe of Asad.”
“Greetings to you too!, Perhaps you want to ask me as well why I have been forgiven?”
“Indeed I do, For it is rather odd and surprising to find you here.” answered Ibn Qarih.
ʿAbīd replied, “I had already entered Hell’s abyss. But when I was alive on earth I had said,
man yas’ali-n-nāsa yaḥrimūhu || wa sāʾilu Llāhi lā yakhību
Who seeks of men, denied shall be,
But none who seeks of God, shall grieve.
“This verse of mine spread to the ends of the country.” said ‘Abid.
it kept being recited, while I was gradually relieved of my pains and freed of my fetters and chains. It kept on repeating and repeating until God’s mercy enveloped me through the blessing of this verse. Indeed «Our Lord is truly forgiving and merciful»2
As soon as Ibn Qarih had heard the stories of these 2 men and what they had to say, in his mind, He hoped that many different poets also attained salvation3. [He goes on to continue his journey through Heaven].
[Lets understand this classical verse further & learn Arabic using this couplet!]
🟢 Understanding The Arabic Words in Context of The Verse:
The Couplet :
مَن يسألِ الناسَ يَحرِمُوهُ
وَ سائلُ اللهِ لا يخيبُ
💎 Meanings:
مَن => Whoever / the one who
يَسْأَلِ => Asks (verb, 3rd person masculine singular, jussive)
النَّاسَ => The people (plural of insān)
يَحْرِمُوهُ => They deprive him (verb: yaḥrimū, “they deprive” + -hu, “him”)
وَ => And
سَائِلُ => The one who asks / beseeches (noun of active participle from س-أ-ل)
اللَّهِ =>Of God (genitive, governed by sāʾil)
لَا => Not / never
يَخِيبُ => Fails / is disappointed (verb, imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular)4
🔵 Intricacies of the Verse:
The verse is a monorhyme with end sounds in -ū (yaḥrimūhu / yakhību). Note the parallel syntactic structure (مَن يَسْأَلِ الناسَ … وَ سَائِلُ اللهِ …), a binary opposition that underscores the contrast between human and divine generosity SubhanAllah.
The entire verse functions on a moral axiom, placing social dependence against spiritual reliance. The former ends in deprivation, the latter in divine fulfillment. In the verse, we find the notion also that asking humans may often result in rejection, but asking God; through prayer, duʿā’, or sincere intent shall will never return void. Implied also is a theological aspect of tawakkul (reliance on God) here. The sāʾil Allāh is the spiritually attuned person who turns away from the humiliation of worldly begging and lifts his hands toward the unseen.
The verse, written before the on-coming of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) reflects a classical Arab ethos of self-sufficiency, where asking people is viewed as a kind of loss of honor, whereas asking God is seen as elevation. Interestingly, (though I may be stretching it here) the verse can be found to contain early traces of what later evolved into Sufi ethics: absolute poverty before the Divine, total richness in Him. Compare with later expressions in Ibn ʿAṭāʾ’s ḥikam5 or even pre-Sufi wisdom in Luqmān’s advice.
🔘 Roots of words and Their Classical Usages:
🌟 Forthcoming [Story]:
Hoping that many different poets also attained salvation,
Ibn Qarih proceeds to ask 'Abid, “Have you any knowledge of Adiyy Ibn Zayd al Ibadi?”. ‘Abid then points to Adiyy’s house, for which then, our protagonist departs.
Upon Meeting Adiyy, Ibn Qarih asks him on how he managed to cross the الصراط (The Path) for He was reputed to have died a Christian.
As we uncover the conversation, Ibn Qarih with all his curiosity proceeds to ask Adiyy of this couplet of his, which Sibawayh quoted as an Authority on a point of Grammar.
we shall discuss this and more too I.A in our upcoming post.
Footnotes & Trivia:
One of the most enigmatic figures among the muʿallaqāt-era poets. A member of the Banū Asad tribe, he is known for terse, dense, and often esoteric language. Notably:He was once a rival of Imru’ al-Qays in poetic competitions. His Muʿallaqah, though disputed in attribution, contains references to cosmology, rain, and the temporality of wealth as well as themes seen in this verse as well.
'Abid was Executed by al-Nuʿmān ibn al-Mundhir, the Lakhmid king; sharing the same fate met by Tarafah and other rebellious poets.
إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ غَفُورٌۭ رَّحِيمٌ
'Abid in Jannah, recited this Ayah of Quran from Al Maida (5:39).
A Misraa in Urdu language by Meraaj Faizabadi goes on these lines as well. He passed away in 2013 & I used to adore him in my childhood.
"جو مانگتے نہیں رب سے وہ سب سے مانگتے ہیں".
The difference in the Arabic & Urdu however, can clearly be felt. Urdu comes with its syntactical constraints as a language to be used for poetry.
The choice of translating this as ‘grieve’ is to preserve the Rolling cadence of the Arabic of the Verse in English, otherwise it just feels a sentence bland.
" He who asks of people will be denied; but he who asks of God will not be disappointed.”
The idea in this verse inspired later writers such as al-Junayd, al-Muḥāsibī, and Ibn ʿAṭāʾ, who emphasized that divine aid is never withheld from the one who truly asks with ikhlāṣ.