"Cut Off His Tongue"

From al-Zuhrī: the Messenger of Allah gave al-Aqraʿ ibn Ḥābis a hundred camels, and he gave ʿUyaynah ibn Ḥiṣn a hundred camels, but he gave al-ʿAbbās ibn Mirdās, who was also the chief of a tribe, only fifty. So al-ʿAbbās composed some lines of poetry about this, saying: how can my share be less than the share of al-Aqraʿ ibn Ḥābis and ʿUyaynah, when my father and their fathers stood on an equal footing? And al-Zuhrī, as he mentions this narration, says that these words reached the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said to him: are you the one who says —? And then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) quoted one line of this poem: that my share and the share of my horse is less than the share of al-Aqraʿ and ʿUyaynah. Whereas in the poem ʿUyaynah is mentioned before al-Aqraʿ, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) mentioned al-Aqraʿ before ʿUyaynah; so the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) did not quote the line of poetry correctly.

So Abū Bakr told the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him): that is not how he said it — but by Allah, you are not a poet, and it is not fitting for you to be one. And then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: what did he say? So Abū Bakr quoted the line as it should be, and the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: they are the same; it does not matter which one is mentioned first. And the reason for bringing up this narration is to show that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was not a poet: even when he came to recite that line, he did not follow the metre of the poetry as it was known in those times, because Allah (ʿazza wa jall) kept the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) away from poetry. But Abū Bakr mentioned it to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) and said that it is not al-Aqraʿ before ʿUyaynah, but ʿUyaynah should come before al-Aqraʿ.

Anyway, the man said yes. So the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: cut off his tongue. Some people thought that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) literally meant that the tongue of al-ʿAbbās should be cut out, when what the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) meant was: give him another fifty, and that will cut off his tongue — figuratively speaking; he will not go around saying these words any more. And he was given a hundred, just like al-Aqraʿ and ʿUyaynah.