The Poet Who Made War With Words

Kaʿb ibn al-Ashraf's father was an Arab from the tribe of Ṭayyiʾ. He got married to a Jewish woman from the Banū al-Naḍīr, so Kaʿb became a Jew — even though his father was an Arab, he followed the religion of his mother. He was a wealthy man, he was very eloquent, he was a good poet, and he was respected among the Arabs; he had a good position, wealthy, well connected, famous. Kaʿb ibn al-Ashraf was leading a poetic campaign against the Muslims, and was very active in his hostility towards Islam. After the Battle of Badr, he lamented the battle in some lines of poetry, expressing his sorrow at what had happened to the noble men of Quraysh, saying that if these noble men of Quraysh had been killed, then it was better to die — so bad did it seem to him. He said that dying was better than living. And then he started making lines of poetry against the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) and against the Muslims, all over, and he was travelling from one place to another. For example, after the Battle of Badr, he went to Makkah and spent time with the people of Quraysh, inspiring them to fight back, and it is reported that he did not leave until he got their commitment that they would set up an army to go and fight the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) — Quraysh probably did not need a Caliph ʿUmar to do that; they would have done it on their own initiative regardless, but this is what is mentioned in the sources. What is a fact is that he did go to Makkah after the Battle of Badr to give his condolences to the people of Quraysh; this is reported in various sources on the sīrah.

Kaʿb ibn al-Ashraf went further, describing Muslim women in his poetry — talking about the beauty of so-and-so, mentioning names. Muslims have great respect for the honour of their women, and consider it a great crime to violate the sanctity and privacy of a Muslim woman, so Kaʿb ibn al-Ashraf was getting into that area. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said, "Who will rid us of Kaʿb ibn al-Ashraf, because he has harmed Allah and His Messenger?" — it was so bad that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) wanted this man to be assassinated. Ibn Ḥazm said he then returned to Madīnah, where he composed verses that were suggestive about Muslim women and criticised the Prophet of Allah and his followers. Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah said he harmed the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) by ridiculing him in verses. So his war was a war of words, and Ḥassān ibn Thābit, the poet of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), was fighting back.

One might wonder what the big deal was about poetry. Poetry was the media of the day: for the Arabs, poetry was how the news was conveyed, how history was written. It was done through poetry — they did not write books about their history. Their history was narrated through poetry, and this poetry would be handed down from one generation to another; it was an oral tradition, since the Arabs were not literate. Their history, their pride, the criticism of one tribe by another, was all done through poetry, and one line of poetry could honour a man or a tribe, and one line of poetry could dishonour a man or a tribe. There is the tribe called Numayr, for instance: one line of poetry wrecked it and destroyed its reputation for good. The poetry could mention facts or fiction, but this made little difference if the people did not know whether the information mentioned in the poetry was true or not — and that is the case with reputation carried by word of mouth today: it leaves an effect on people regardless of whether it is true or false. So this was what Kaʿb ibn al-Ashraf was doing: it was a war of words against the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him).