Library Chat #26 Analysis and Deeper Benefits of al Asmas Song of the Nightingale
Date:
Channel: Yasir Qadhi
Series: Yasir Qadhi – Library Chats
File Size: 44.68MB
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AI Generated Summary ©
The speakers discuss the use of theacing stance in Arabic learning, emphasizing the importance of reading the stance and learning about the language. They also discuss the history and characteristics of the largest and most prolific Islamist in history, Al Asinking Al Asinking Al Asinking, and Al As categor. The speakers stress the importance of understanding the language and researching specific subjects to determine which ones are worth going into. They also emphasize the need for research and learning from popular sources to determine which ones are worth going into.AI Generated Transcript ©
First and foremost,
as for me, today is the first of
Shawwal
of the year 1445
a h. And yes, today is the actual
day of Eid. I've had a very long
day and I'm in a good spirited mood
and I thought that,
it is high time that I did another
library chat. I do realize by the time
you are seeing this,
for the first time and obviously those are
gonna be seeing it, when they see it
on the YouTube channel. Of course, it might
not be for you, but for me, today
is and so, from my side to all
of you, may Allah accept all of our,
good deeds.
A little bit about why I've been there's
been a delay in the library chat and
then what our library chat today will be
about.
So as you're aware that, I have left,
interaction on social media, and I must say
that it has been such a breath of
fresh air. May I,
seriously ask those of you that are involved
in online,
wasting time to really consider taking a break
from social media. I have found it to
be extremely refreshing,
dealing with real people. You find, real
comes out whereas the online as you're aware,
it, it really is debilitating, and I think
a lot of time is wasted. Me, personally,
I found too much time being wasted and
not much being done. And I I really,
have enjoyed this, hiatus, and I think it'll
be continuing for a while. Be
coming back onto social media.
But, that has not been the main reason
why I haven't done any library chats. Primarily,
I've been very busy, finishing up a book,
which you are gonna be hearing about very
soon. 500 pages, alhamdulillah,
or even longer and I'm very very,
happy. I've been engrossed with this. I've been
spending my time productively. That was the goal
for me to get off of social media
and to really just do, books and and
longer, and more fruitful projects and,
you'll hear about, the new book, very soon,
but I've already spoken about it previously, and
it involves an academic study of a trend
of Islam, and, inshallah, it will be published
by a, an academic press. So this will
be, the first monograph I have,
inshallah
be coming out, soon this year. And so
that's book has pretty much been finished. The
draft has been done. So that has been
the primary reason why I haven't been doing
any library chats. Also, to be honest, the
political situation in the world,
really, I found it a bit, difficult to
to to do,
specific academic talks, but,
that wasn't the main reason because life must
go on and regardless of what is happening
in the world politically, regardless of what is
happening, we must continue our we must continue
our
studying of knowledge, and, yes, that includes,
deep dives in academic study. That does not
change, permanently.
Yes, Yandi. Obviously, if a moseeb or calamity
happens, it's understood. You're gonna take a little
bit of time to withdraw and to recuperate,
but we never stop preaching and teaching. We
never stop,
you know,
benefiting the people regardless of what is happening,
in the world, and,
we might,
reflect
the circumstances, might be reflected in what we
say and our speech speeches and teaching should
be changed with regards to the political climate,
but still,
the, advanced teaching and deep dives still go
on. And so because of this, I did
take a bit of a hiatus, but, we
must return back. And so today, it will
be a bit of a,
interesting one. I've never done something quite like
this, and,
it's gonna be about one of the most
famous poems that
every single student who has,
been born and raised in any Arab land
will be familiar with at some level.
This poem that we're gonna be, doing very
quickly,
we're gonna be doing this at multiple levels,
so I'm telling you from the outset, we're
gonna be doing this at 3 levels. The
first level, you don't need any background and
it'll just be a quick,
rehash in English of one of the most
famous stories in Arabic.
Every Arab from
Algeria
all the way to,
Iraq and beyond. Every single Arab student that
has gone through an Arab high school
is aware of this poem, and the majority
of them have been forced to study and
memorize portions of it in their high school,
I e, this is required reading across the
curriculums. And I really mean, Tunisia, Algeria,
Libya,
Egypt,
Saudi Arabia, Qatar,
the Emirates, Oman,
Baghdad, Yaniirah, the entire gamut of Arabic speaking
countries. This poem is pretty much required reading
in almost all of the high
schools and even in I've seen some curriculums
as well where it is taught at a
advanced level, at the graduate level, or at
the undergraduate level as a part of, you
know, the, repertoire, as a part of the
or the heritage that one should be aware
of of one's own civilization and culture. And
also as an example of Arabic eloquence and
also, as one of the famous historical
anecdotes or vignettes, if you like, that is
found
in,
the books of history.
And so,
I've so I'm gonna be,
doing this poem in 3 levels. Level 1,
I'm gonna be doing it basically at a
high school level, and that is
how an Arab student who has gone through
high school would have been exposed to it,
and I'll just do it the English version
of it so that you know, you're aware.
And even if we get to level you
don't get to level 2 and 3, you
should be aware this is what the average,
you know, Arab reader, and Arab student is
exposed to, level 1. Level 2, I'll be
doing it at the, let's say undergraduate level
very quickly. Very quick, that's not gonna be
a very deep dive. And I'm gonna talk
about how,
variations might occur and we might understand things
differently at the level 2. My my point
really is, as usual in library chats, is
to go deep. Almost all of my library
chats, they have a, a a a a
deeper, if you like, message, that I want
to give to the advanced students. So,
if you are not an advanced student, don't
worry about it. You can just skip to,
or skip over level 3. Don't worry about
it. And you can just benefit from level
1 and then level 2 will be a
few minutes and then you can skip over
and just stop the video before I say
now we're going to level 3. But level
3 is where I really this is for
the actual students. So believe it or not,
levels 1 and 2, what I'm gonna be
doing is basically
it's not the primary purpose of the of
the video even though it's gonna be the
bulk of the video. So with that,
6 minute introduction, let me now get to
the level 1. This is our beginning, level
1. Now,
what is level 1? Level 1 is a
high school introduction. Level 2 is an undergraduate.
Level 3 is where I'm gonna go into
the deep dive and analysis where I want
you to I'm gonna have a a deeper
message. So level 1, what is level 1?
Level 1 deals with a very beautiful story,
an anecdote
that is taught, as I said, in almost
every single high school across the Arab speaking
world, and it deals with an encounter between,
Abu Ja'afal al Mansur, the founder of the
Abbasid dynasty,
and one of the most famous poets of
early Islam, Al Asmai. Al Asmai is a
Basran poet who interacted with, great scholars like
Al Shafi'i, perhaps even Ahmed Al Hambad and
others, and he met with,
all of the icons of that era. Al
Asma'i dies around 216 Hijra,
so yeah. 216 Hijra,
and that's, around 800 or a little bit
before 800, 740, I think, CE. So Al
Asma'i 216 hijra,
is at the the pinnacle of, the beginning
of Islamic sciences, the flourishing of Islamic Sciences,
and Al Asmai is known to be a
polymath. He has written books on Arabic poetry,
on Arabic philology, on Arabic grammar. He has
written books about civilization and a little bit
of history. He is also, believe it or
not, a zoologist
and a botanist. He actually writes about plants
and animals, and he's just an observer of
many different natural sciences. So Al Asmari is
somebody who has a very high reputation
as an intellectual and a polymath, And the
story goes as follows, that Abuja'afar al Mansur,
the famous Khalifa, the founder,
one of the primary icons of the Abbasid
dynasty,
Abu Jafar al Mansur, it is said that
his memory was so powerful that he was
able to memorize a poem as soon as
it was recited to him. And so he
could recite it directly from his as soon
as he heard it, he had a photographic
memory. If he heard a poem, he would
recite it immediately.
And there was in his,
entourage in the palace, there was a young
lad, a slave, who was able to memorize
after the second time. And there was also,
a a slave girl who was known for
poetry, and she was able to memorize if
she had heard something, you know, three times.
So she had heard it 3 times, then
she would be able to memorize it. And
so,
Abu Jafar al Masur, one day, he decided
he's gonna become stingy,
and he would not reward the poets what
they deserve.
In the,
Islamic,
time frames,
poets would have,
open sessions with the Khalifa,
and there would be competitions. And if the
poetry was approved by the Khalifa, So the
goal was that the khalifa would give some
money, and the poet would go away happy.
So Abu Jacqueline also one day became stingy
and said, I'm not gonna give any poet
any money. So they said, how are you
gonna get out of it? He said, don't
worry. I have a plan. Next time the
poet came
and recited a poem, Abuja'afir Mansur said, what
are you talking about? This is plagiarism. This
is a well known poem, and the poet
would be become,
indigene. What do you mean? I I I'm
the one who who who wrote this poem.
How can you possibly
say that this poem has been written by
somebody else? Abuja'far al Mansoora said, look, I
know this already. And because he had already
wanted to memorize the poem when he heard
it the first time, and so he would
recite it back. And then he would say
and then in fact, you know what? Even
the slave of mine knows it. And so
that slave, because he'd memorized everything if you
heard it twice, so he heard it once
from Al Asmari, sorry, once from the poet,
sorry, not Asmari yet. Once from the poet,
once from the caliph, and then he would
say it. And then he goes, look even
this girl here, and then he would bring
the slave girl, and the slave girl would
recite the same couplet or the same poem.
So the,
the poet would go away mystified. How is
this I'm the one who, wrote this poem.
How could Elasmai
and this random, you know,
ghulam, and this slave girl, how could they
all know this poem? So this happened a
few times and the news spread amongst the
poets that what's going on here? That doesn't
make any sense. And so it is said,
Al Asmari, this polymath
said, this is a matter that has been
preplanned.
This is a trick that the Khalifa is
doing, and I am going to break this
trick. And what the khalifa had announced, what
was usually done in the past, was that,
the poem
the poem would be written on parchment whatever,
And so, the Khalifa would say whatever is
the weight of the parchment, give the gold,
you know, in return. So whatever how how
how much the poem weighs, if it's a
short poem, if it's a long poem, depending
on that the gold or the silver would
be given. So Al Asma'i decided to trick
the Khalifa,
And Al Asma'i,
went he said, I'm gonna prepare a poem
that nobody can possibly memorize, and this poem
is considered to be, this is how it
is taught in high school. So remember, this
is level 1. It is said to be,
the most eloquent or the most difficult poem
ever written,
and it is mentioned,
as a part of the legacy of Al
Asmari. And so Al Asmari said, I'm gonna
trick the Khalifa. So what did Al Asmari
do? Al Asmari went,
in disguise. He put on a turban, and
he wrapped it all around himself because the
Khalifa would recognize him. So he went as
if he's a Bedouin. He dressed up in
a very different manner, and he kind of,
you know, partially covered his face, which was
common at the time. If you were from
a particular area, you, you know, you would
be covering the face even as a man.
And so he did this, he dressed up
in that garb and he was granted the
audience. And he said, I have a poem,
but remember the condition,
that if it is a new poem and
you like it, you must pay me its
weight, how heavy it is. And the Khalifa
said, yes, indeed, I will do that. And
so he composed this famous poem, which is
called the
song of the nightingale, the song of the
nightingale. And
I will quickly recite it, not in a
I don't have a melodious voice, but, I
will just quickly recite it, in whatever voice
I can, and the translation hopefully will be
coming on your screen and we'll go over
it. And all of this is is level
1 as I said. Then after we're done,
we're gonna quickly go over level 2, and
then the point really of the whole, library
chat is really the level 3. So, what
how does this point begin? This is the
song of the nighting nightingale by Al Asmari.
Al Asmari said,
Now obviously, you can find this in much
better voices online. Literally, just Google,
on YouTube, Sohu To Sufid Al Bulburi, the
Nightingale song, and you will find people in
much more melodious voices than,
mine. And of course the point is that,
he is now writing a poem that apparently
the khalifa cannot memorize, so the khalifa is
completely,
you know, jaw struck. He's like completely bamboozled.
What is this? I've never heard this. Obviously,
you even without knowing any Arabic, you see
how complex these, you know, bizarre words are
used, the sounds and whatnot, and he wasn't
able to memorize it. So he said to
the gholam, were you able to memorize? He
goes, I couldn't do anything. And he said
to the jadiya, to the slave girl, were
you? He goes, I couldn't I couldn't do
anything. So he said, okay. Well, I have
to give you your gift then. And so
he says, the apparently
said that, oh, Khalifa,
I only had a large marble slab that
I inherited from my father, and I wrote
the poem on the slab. And so he
brought the slab out, and the slab obviously
is gonna weigh like a ton of gold
or whatever. And so, Abu Jafar al Mansoor
said, this is a trick.
You must be Al Asmai. And so Al
Asmai unveiled himself, and he goes, indeed, I
am Al Asmai.
And, Khalifa, you have to honor me by
giving me the gold. And the Khalifa said,
I cannot do this. So because obviously it's
a ton of gold. So, Al Asma'i said
that
in that case, I have one request, and
that is you start giving the poets their
share and stop tricking the poets. And so
Abu Jafar al Nasr agreed to this,
condition, and things came back to normal. Now,
very quickly, as usual, all Arabic poem, and
this might be a shock to those of
you that have never never studied Arabic poem,
Arabic poems are always are almost always romantic.
There's always a romance. There's always a ghazal.
And by the way, this is even pre
Islamic early Islamic. This is the reality
of poetry.
Again, people just as this is how it
is, and you just have to, realize that
it is what it is. That even even,
a lot of times, the poetry that we
find over the early Umayyad and the Abbasid
era that is written by mainstream Muslim scholars
and whatnot,
there's always a kazal, and that is how
it is. And so he begins,
with this point. He goes, so to Safir
al Bulbuli, the singing of the nightingale, al
Bulbul is the nightingale.
It caused my drunken heart to stir. So
he gives the impression again, this is how
many poets were that there's a lot of
wine and intoxication in women in their poetry
as is always the case. So he said
that I was lying in a drunken stupor
and I heard the nightingale sing.
Now he is,
saying that when the nightingale is singing, I'm
imagining
the girl that I love. Her face is
as beautiful as water and roses combined
together with her eyes, dark pupils tinged with
rosy red. So this is again a common
trope to describe the beauty of your beloved,
and typically you describe it in a manner
that is not vulgar,
that you describe it with her face or
her hair or her eyes. You know, this
is the reality of, even pre Islamic and
Islamic that you don't really get to stuff
that might be considered vulgar, and so you
describe, you know, stuff that is generic, and
especially the eyes, her beauty of the eyes.
And so as the the the rosy cheeks
are being described over here. So he says
that the sound of the nightingale,
it reminded me of the beauty of my
beloved, the girl that I like.
And and you, oh my master, my esteemed
leader, my benefactor,
How great is my desire?
How can I explain to you how strong
I desire to be with my hosayil, my
gazelle? The English word gazelle and the Arabic
word gazelle or hosayil. It's from the same
thing.
Hosayil. Is a little gemstone, a ruby. So
he's describing his his his beloved, his his,
you know, fiancee, not even a fiance, just
the girl that he loves, the little gazelle,
my gemstone. So he said, oh, my master,
if I could only explain to you how
much I desire my,
beloved,
It is as if I plucked a rose
from the redness of pecking her shy cheek.
So again, he's giving this metaphor
that when I kissed her on the cheek,
you know, she turned red, and the redness
was so beautiful. It is as as if
I could pluck a rose from that, redness.
When I kissed her, you know, she exclaimed,
No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.
You know, don't do this.
And she turned away and she fled.
Even though Ashi is fleeing,
her her nubile figure, she's a young girl,
so her nubile figure almost danced from what
the man had done. In other words, she's
ecstatic and her shyness is there, but also
she's excited that her beloved has kissed her.
So she so, Al Asmai is,
describing both the excitement and the shyness at
the same time.
And she cried out, woe to me, woe
to me. And she said,
My guardian, my guardian, oh, woe to me.
Like she's getting help from the guardian.
Or it depends on how you wanna describe,
you know, this translation.
You could say that,
Al Asma'i is saying that I feared her
guardian, that what if her Wali comes and,
oh,
woe, Timmy, what if her guardian were to
come? You know, her father, whatever to come.
And, you know, I've done this kiss to
her. So he's now, you know, describing his
own fear. So both of them can be,
translated in a different way in this regard.
Yet I persisted, and I said to her,
no need for all of this wailing, no
need for all of this woeing, and instead
show me your beautiful pearls, your smile. I
wanna see your smile.
She said, if that be the case, then
show some seriousness
and bring the requisite goods. Bring the mahar,
I. E. What do you have to offer
and come and propose for my hand. I
wanna see what you have to offer and
come and propose for my hand. Then just
like with
classical poetry, even in English that this happens,
another act begins. So when you're reading early
Islamic poetry or pre Islamic poetry, you have
to realize it's composed in scenes. And if
you don't understand this, when a new scene
occurs, you're like, what is going on here?
This is now a completely new scene here.
And the scene now,
he is now imagining himself in a previous,
memory. So he is so ecstatic that the
girl has said that, you know, bring me
your and I'll accept your proposal. The girl
has basically said, I'm willing to marry you,
but I need to see what you have
to offer. So then he now goes back
to another part of his life. Either this
is imaginary,
I e, he is literally imagining this, he's
so ecstatic, or he's basically describing another scene
that has
occurred
to him. That it was, maybe in the
past where it was as if a young
group of ladies or a group of young
ladies
is, are feeding me wine.
Now,
the classical Arabs actually had a a term
for,
wine that is
and then it was then used only for
coffee. But in early,
times
was actually used for,
for wine.
A little bit of wine.
Now again, guys, I'm sorry to burst your
bubble, but poetry is full of references to
wine women, and music and whatnot. That's all
even by great scholars, this is just the
way it is, because that is what poetry
is. Not necessarily that they did it, many
of them did, many of them didn't. That
is the way of poetry. So
So he's now either imagining a scene or
he's going back to another time where he
had a great time with his life that
he's surrounded by beautiful young ladies and they're
feeding him wine, or they're giving him wine
as sweet as honey.
I smelt its fragrance of the wine with
my own nostrils. I could smell it. It
was purer than clothes. I could smell it,
you know, that smell that I like, it
was purer than clothes.
While this is happening, I'm in the midst
of a garden, beautiful garden,
bizuhr. It is a bizahri. It is adorned
with flowers,
wassurururi,
and all pleasure belongs to me. I own
happiness.
So he's so happy. He is saying,
I am surrounded by these beautiful young ladies,
they're giving me this wine,
and I'm in this garden, and I'm all
happy. On top of this,
the guitar is stringing away, and it is
coming closer.
So
is, so again, although this is alliteration, that's
one of the reasons why this poem is
so interesting.
So
means that the guitar
was right stringing away,
coming close to me. What Pablo and the
drums,
that they were beating away all of it
for me. And then to give you the
impression, he literally puts the sound of the
drums.
So the the the the music to my
soul.
So the last is like music to my
soul. Like like it's music to my soul.
And at the beginning part,
that's like the drumbeat. So he puts the
drumbeat
into a poem. Was
and the roof was whistling for me with
the wind blowing through it. Right? So there
was
so there's wind blowing, and the roof is
now just whistling along with the tunes that
I'm hearing, along with the women, along with
the sharab, along with the garden. So again,
this is for him, Jannah, on earth here.
And the dancing was a remedy for me,
so the girls were dancing around him. Right?
So grilled meat is being given to him.
Some say this is trying to look like
a king. I'll get to this level 2.
What does it translate into?
Could mean over here, like, from
type of a king. Right? So
that
that grilled meat is being presented to me
plenty on a quince tree leaf on the
leaf of a quince tree. A a nice
nice tree plate is being given, and I
felt like a king with all of this.
And the dove itself is singing. So
is the dove, the the beautiful bird,
and that the dove itself is is is,
you know, singing in its.
Adding even more delight to the delight that
I was in. Now this is scene number
2. We're finishing scene number 2. Now we
go to scene number 3. Scene number 3
is the current state where he is most
likely going to the king. So he's describing
how he's going to the king. So now
he's going to the king. So the girl
has accepted his proposal. He was so happy
he gives this act 2,
surrounded by young ladies being fed wine in
this in this garden that has all of
the things around it, and he then says
act number
3. If you can only see me riding
on my lame donkey, so he doesn't have
that wealth, his donkey, he doesn't have a
horse, he doesn't have a camel, he has
a donkey, on top of that it is
it is lame. It's not even a proper
donkey.
It is walking on 3 legs,
like that of a cripple. Doesn't he have
a 4 you know, proper legs to do?
And the people are pelting my right, he
calls it Jammal even though it's he just
said it is, a camel because you're allowed
to call any mount a a jambal.
In the sukh with large pebbles, so they're
irritated, they're frustrated at this guy, either because
he's dressed in a poor manner or because
he has this mount or because he's irritating
them, whatever it might be, he's not liked
by the people, and so they're throwing pebbles
at him.
And the people are running away from me,
from behind me, and all around me. They
don't like me.
But I still rushed forward, fearing an evil
demise. I didn't stop. I rushed through the
crowd, fearing that I would have an evil
demise. And where am I going?
I'm going to meet a great king, one
who is admired and respected. Now obviously, the
purpose of the poets is to flatter the
king. The purpose of the poets is poets
is to flatter the Sultan and the Amir.
And the more they flatter, the more gold
they get. So this is his flattery now.
He's getting to the end here. So the
people don't like me, but I have a
girl waiting for me. Now I'm rushing to
the palace, and I'm gonna meet a malekin
Mu'avam in Mubajali,
a great king who is admired and respected.
He's gonna give me a royal robe. He's
gonna grant me a beautiful garment that is
as red as the blood from a fresh
wound, and red as a royal color. So
I'm gonna have a beautiful robe that's gonna
be as red as the wound from a
fresh blood.
I shall be walking around for it in
this grand garment, and I can now be
boastful that I have this beautiful clothes, and
I can even let it trail behind me
It's gonna go behind me like a royal
king.
I am the poet, Al Almari.
Al Almari can also mean a pearl stone,
as if he's trying to say I'm from
Al Almari, but in reality he's
so he invents the name
from the land and district of Musil. This
is where his ancestors were from. I
wrote a poem so intricate and beautiful
that the greatest of poets are incapable of
producing something similar what I have written,
I
state I say in its first stanza,
the song of the nightingale, the singing of
the nightingale. So he begins the poem as
he ended it, and he ends the poem
as he begins it.
Is the first stanza.
Is the last stanza. Now this is level
1, and if you wanna stop here, realize
this is what your average high school student
has to memorize in the Arab land. He
has to literally memorize Al Asma'i. I remember
when I was at the University of Medina,
one of my teachers also told us this
story, and he recited this whole poem from
memory, and he said that, oh, I spent
so many hours memorizing this poem. And I
have to admit I was very impressed, and
that was my introduction to this poem because
it really sounds so beautiful when it is
done by somebody with a better voice than
than yours truly. And so please do listen
to it, online,
in a in a more beautiful voice. You
can listen to the sotto's available Now, that's
level 1.
Level
2 would be to,
go into
a detailed analysis of every single word and
sometimes even differences because here's another point. Every
poem, without exception, has variations. There are different
warnings, different Arabs, different halakats.
Now for this presentation, I ignored it and
I just chose one version. In reality, there
are plenty of versions out there. And, even
the famous there
are not preserved word for word. No poem
I repeat, no poem is preserved word for
word, letter for letter. The poems are preserved
by their gist, and every single poem,
has variations,
that are recorded because that's human nature. You
cannot memorize, you know, poems,
literally every harakah for harakah. And even sometimes
the writer himself has written his poem, but
still the harakah might differ, the arab might
differ, and that is reality to every single
famous Arabic poem. This is no different. And
this poem at level 2, we're not gonna
do it, because it's I don't see the
point in English. A level 2 analysis would
be to look at the variations of the
poem and to look at the alternative
meanings
and the obscure words and the grammatical
usages to deconstruct
the eloquence of the poem.
And also a lot of times,
poetry, it is allowed to use phrases
that would not be allowed outside of poetry.
This is called the of the poets,
And what the poets are allowed to do,
the average Arabic speaker is not allowed to
do. So for example,
like, that's not really or
Right? So,
this is not something that is typically allowed
to do. So he said,
You don't say
You will
say It's not really something you do. Also,
4 times repetition. Right?
And, so many other, words. So for example,
It's nobody knows what it means. I already
said
The word
nobody it's not a pure Arabic word. It
seems to be taken from another language and
Arabicized. Right? You have different meanings of, if
you are serious,
then bring me a nookal.
Be serious and bring me a nookal. What
is a nukal? It could mean food, it
could mean a mahar, it could mean furniture.
Again, all of this is level 2, that
what exactly is the meaning of the word,
what is the grammatical analysis, and I'm not
gonna go there because frankly it's not an
interest to English speaker. You have to understand
Arabic, to to really benefit this. Now, let
us get now to the real point of,
the lecture for me.
I hope, inshallah, this is understandable so far
because again, these are obscure topics. My purpose
again for the library chats really is always
a deeper dive and a bit of a
critical analysis. Now level 3.
Level 3 is
to point out that in fact,
despite the fact that this poem
is studied by pretty much every single literate
Arab on the face of this earth who
has gone through schools in Arabic speaking lands,
despite the fact that if you do a
simple Google, the most famous poem of Al
Asmai, you will find this come up numerous
times despite the fact that this is a
a well known,
anecdote
that is pretty much like,
if you like, in terms of, its narrations
in in in in the popular
sphere.
The fact of the matter is that the
story is simply too good to be true,
and it is, of course, a complete
a complete
myth and fabric. It is a complete
fairy tale. There is no
authenticity to this whatsoever,
and in fact, we can be certain 100%
that this story never occurred. Now,
what I'm saying is not shocking to Arabic
academics,
to Arabic linguists.
Every single professor of the Arabic language who
cares about
academics knows exactly what I'm saying. There are
many professors who don't care and so they
will. My own teacher, I remember also thought
it was real and he just said it
to me as well. And this leads me
to my point number 3, which is really
the point of,
the the the library chat.
And that is
the reality of the very difficult,
topic
that
when you start
taking
a look into
concepts and ideas that might be very
fairy tale or myth. Now I chose a
topic and I chose an example that would
actually be zero level controversy, and I did
this on purpose. Because
the goal here is to demonstrate for you
something
that,
has been accepted by large segments of even
scholars. The fact of the matter is many
Rudama,
you will find this their anecdotes. Many famous
preachers, many famous,
you know, people who have graduated from seminaries
are gonna be quoting Al Asma'id's poem. And
of course, it doesn't matter theologically. There's no
aqeedah that's based on that. There's no fith.
There's no I'm making a point here. And
the point is that
sometimes,
something becomes very very popular, and it becomes
a type of normative understanding
of something.
And yet when you do a deeper dive,
you actually find out that,
they might not be true, or there might
be alternative understandings. Now in this particular case,
it's actually very, very easy to demonstrate that
this poem is a complete fabrication.
Of them, of course, is the fact that
there's a and now every now every single
science or every genre, it has its tools
to do a deep dive and to look
into it. So hadith has its own way,
Aqeda has its own way, fiqh has his
own way. Poetry has his own way. Now
because library chat is about poetry, so in
poetry, how can you do this? A number
of ways. 1st and foremost, obviously,
you look at the the, the the the
the of the poet himself. The the the
is his collection of poems. And then sometimes
the poet himself has written it, sometimes his
students write it. And generally speaking, obviously, if
a poet, poet poet has written,
a poem, generally speaking, you will find it
in his earliest, the ones or dawaween.
In this case, there is no reference whatsoever
to a Asmari's poem for over 800 years.
We don't find this at all. In fact,
the first,
book that has ever mentioned this, it is
a book
written,
I think,
1,000
hijrah, if I'm not mistaken. 1,100
hijrah, and it's called
and it is by an obscure
unknown author. We have the manuscript. The manuscript,
the author lived around 1,000 hijra and he's
mentioning this incident that allegedly occurred quite literally
900 years before he wrote this book,
this manuscript, there is a gap of 900
years. And not just this, it's not just
about
the earliest,
time it occurs. We also look at other
in other indications. We look internally.
And with regards to poetry, we look at
concepts and adiz and words that would it
be acceptable to use this in the earliest,
period of the Abbasids. And again, that's a
little bit deeper for our, analysis, but no.
Could not and would not have used some
of the words that are found in this
poem,
and even the the fact that the poem
has non Arabic words. Right?
These are non existent words.
There is no Arabic word. And
as Asmari was a,
how to put this, a proud Arab in
his own way. He was very proud of
his culture in a halal manner,
very very much involved in his, pre Islamic
poetry and and classical poetry. There is no
way that he would have written a poem
that has actually number of grammatical
mistakes and unknown, and words that are quite
clearly invented.
Allah subhanahu wa'ih would never do such a
thing. So even internally. So externally there's evidence,
internally there's evidence. Also, another thing you can
do is to look at, the concepts that
are mentioned
and the,
reality. So for example,
Abu Jafar al Mansur, the founder of the
Abbasid,
dynasty,
Abu Jafar al Mansur, as far as we
know, never interacted with Asmari. It doesn't make
any sense. Al Asmari would have been in
his early thirties when Abu Jafar al Mansur,
was in power. And he wasn't famous at
all for him to already have come to
this level. This is a complete
ahistorical
myth that nobody who understands history could have
actually done properly because
Abu Jafar al Mansur
was not known to be associated with,
Al Asmai. Actually, Al Asmai was known to
be a close friend and a close,
associate of Harun al Rashid. Harun al Rashid
is the grandson of Abuja'far Mansur. Harun al
Rashid is coming 30 years later when, when
Arasmay is in his sixties. Now he has
a relationship with,
Harun al Rashid. So to claim that when
he was in his twenties thirties, he had
a relationship, this is again,
nonsensical.
So you look at the content of the
poem, and you look at, you know, the
whether
the internal structure and the internal concepts and
the internal wording,
would it match what is being ascribed to?
And, to give you a little bit little
bit more, you know, controversial example, but again,
this is a, a factual example.
There is a famous poem allegedly
attributed to Hassanib
in which,
it is it is alleged that he said,
that when he was diversified, he said
that,
you have,
that you have been created without any flaw
as if you have been created the way
you desire to be created. Right? Now,
I'm sorry to again burst your bubble, but
again, this is simply factually speaking. This is
not, an authentic poem of Hasan al Zayb.
It cannot be an authentic poem simply because,
the content of this notion of perfect creation,
and you are creating yourself as you desire
to create yourself, it is impossible that these
sophisticated
theological
notions,
would have been prevalent, you know,
in that time frame, in that society. These
are concepts and constructs that are coming 4,
5, 6 600 years later. The notion of
a purity of creation, and the notion of
you have been created in this form and
whatnot,
you don't find this in this time frame.
It is simply
impossible. Now that's not the only evidence. There's
other evidence as well that this poem, cannot
be from Hasan in the in the habit.
But again, it's clearly not, and,
the the motif of being created as you
yourself wish in perfect form,
this motif, it is clearly stemming and emanating
from a time and place far after the
first generation of Islam in Madinah and Mecca.
And this is just one example, internal inconsistency.
Now but again, go back to our example
of,
and
of,
this story is a simple and clear cut
indubitable
example
of why
just because something is popular,
just because something is normative, just because something
is accepted, it doesn't mean it has to
be a fact. And this poem,
if you were to tell your average,
you know,
person who has has has, again, studied it
since childhood that this is a fabrication,
your average even,
well read
Arab. In fact, your average sheikh again, I'm
just this is the way they are. If
you would tell them that this is, this
is a factually incorrect poem,
they would scoff at you. What do you
mean? Everybody says it's his. You know, this
is reality. Like I said, for the record,
every serious academic, whether they're Arab or non
Arab, every serious scholar who is more interested
in the integrity of the discipline will tell
you this is a fabrication. There's no
it is not true. Right? Even the story
itself, it reeks of fabrication,
but it is actually disconcerting
to find
how popular it is, and in fact, again,
how
it is. Now
this leads me to, the deeper point, and
I'm not going to give any other examples
because the goal is to cause you to
to think about this. Right? And that is
that. The deeper point, and this is my
level 3 and we're gonna conclude on this
point, is that
generally speaking,
in these types of books of history and
hearsay and and just popular culture,
a lot of what you find, generally speaking,
there is little to no
actual evidence, and in fact, in all likelihood,
a lot of hearsay and a lot of
popular tropes and a lot of popular statements
that one finds that we are raised up
on. In reality, if you go, you know,
deeper into this, you know, we find them
to be simply without any basis whatsoever.
And of course,
when it comes to Arabic poetry, the reality
is who cares? And I agree, who cares?
The problem comes. The problem comes that when
you go to other genres of knowledge,
when you go to things that are more
important,
And lots and lots and lots of people
are taught something, and they say it.
And
somebody comes along and
figures out or researches and is like, hey,
hold on a sec.
Even if all of these people are saying
it,
the reality is that when you really go
back,
there's just no basis for this statement. And
this is where, again, it gets extremely difficult
to,
for the
serious researcher,
the question arises.
Should you start bursting
popular myths, or should you let the people
believe that which
maybe, you know, they're just hear hearsay and
there's not much harm to it. But again,
the problem comes, what if there is harm
to it? And so this is where I'm
gonna leave over here and that is the
goal here, is to be brave enough to
do your own research and to choose, you
know, which subjects do you wanna go do
do a deep dive in and which areas
where
do you think it is wise to,
be a bit more blunt, or is it
wise to let people believe what they wanna
believe?
This is where, again, it gets very difficult
here, and we have to look at our
own internal biases.
Just because
a lot of people say something and just
because
they are good people, it doesn't mean what
they're saying is correct 100%.
Now of course, I'm not talking about Astaghfirullah,
the Usur al Din, that's something that is
understood. I'm talking about historical
vignettes and anecdotes. And I'm talking about maybe
some other facts that are more than just
history. But obviously, you know, as for the
alhamdulillah, the usul of our deen, alhamdulillah, Allah
is al Haqq. He has revealed al Haqq.
He has sent a messenger that teaches us
the Haqq. Of course, we're not talking about
that. But I am talking about tropes. I'm
talking about vignettes and anecdotes. I'm talking about,
concepts even that are not from the core
of the deen, because the core of the
deen, obviously, alhamdulillah, Allah has promised to protect
it. I am talking about especially,
aspects
that of our popular culture that we just
assume is Islamic
or a core of the deen. And even
if it might not be un Islamic, just
because a lot of people are doing it
doesn't actually make it Islamic. And that's something
that again, a case by case basis. I
purposely chose a topic and a example that
is super easy and it is non controversial.
Who cares if the singing Nightingale's poem is
actually complete fabrication?
It doesn't change anything.
However, there are other,
anecdotes and other issues that sometimes it does
cause some disconcerting
and perhaps even more than this. This. And
the point here was to illustrate
something
as clear cut as a well known fabrication
amongst academics.
It is the curriculum
of
so many places of learning across the Muslim
world. It is in the standard curriculum.
And the irony again is that even within,
those institutions,
I guarantee you, you will find
academics who care about the truth, who will
point out this poem is fabrication,
yet still popular
teachers and preachers and popular, you know, people.
And these are, again, these are erudite. These
are people that are learned, but not every
learned person
really does a critical investigation of every fact
they're taught, and that's really one of the
points of this library chat, that you can
have a degree
even in Arabic,
literature,
and still many people are gonna assume that
this is from Al Asmih. Why?
Because when something is so
nice to listen to, and it's so beautiful,
and it it just makes you feel good,
you don't even feel like
correcting it. And you just would rather it
be true. Well, I made an example or
I gave you an example that is non
controversial,
and I want you to understand
there are examples,
that for various aspects that might actually be
a little bit more difficult
and bring about more disconcerting thoughts. And this
is the problem that, again, many people have
when they do research is that is it
worth it to,
go into a deeper dive or not and
to explain this or just let the people
believe? And that is really
a difficult question to answer, but the goal
of this library chat is very simple and
that is to understand that
sometimes
what is popular,
even amongst people who have studied, is not
necessarily
what is academically
correct, and the 2 are not exactly the
same. So we constantly ask Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala for hidayah and ikhlas and tawhir, and
we should be brave enough to
understand and accept the truth even if large
groups of people,
are saying otherwise.
And with that, insha Allah, we'll stop this
library chat, and insha Allah, I hope to
I hope this was of some benefit.
I hope this was of some benefit.