Stop.
Get to know the Companions, the scholars, and the prominent figures.
A new challenge: Who am I?
I am the poet of the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, and his companion.
I am the master of the believing poets.
I am the one supported by the Holy Spirit, Jibril, peace be upon him.
I am from the Ansar, from the tribe of Banu al-Najjar.
The maternal uncles of the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him.
I was born in Medina sixty years before Islam.
And I lived in Islam for sixty years.
When the Prophet, peace be upon him, arrived in Medina,
The Quraysh satirized him through their poets.
So the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said to me:
"Satirize them."
But I feared that I might be struck by what they were struck by.
So I said to him, "By the One who sent you with the truth,
I shall extract you from them as a hair is extracted from dough."
So I satirized them.
Then the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said to me:
"You have healed [our hearts] and found healing."
And the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said to me:
"Satirize the Quraysh,
for it is more painful to them than a volley of arrows."
The Prophet, peace be upon him, used to
set up a pulpit for me in the mosque,
so I would stand upon it and defend him.
And the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, would say:
"Allah supports you with Jibril, the Holy Spirit,
as long as you defend His Messenger."
Al-Muqawqis, the King of Egypt, gifted two slave girls to the Prophet, peace be upon him.
They were Mariyah and her sister Sirin.
The Prophet, peace be upon him, kept Mariyah for himself,
and gifted her sister to me.
She embraced Islam while with me,
so I freed her and married her.
She bore me 'Abd al-Rahman.
Thus, my son 'Abd al-Rahman
and the son of the Messenger of Allah, Ibrahim,
were cousins.
'Umar ibn al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, passed by me one day
while I was reciting poetry in the mosque.
He looked at me with a disapproving glance,
so I said to him:
"I used to recite in this mosque while someone better than you was present."
'Umar replied, "You have spoken the truth."
I have struggled alongside the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, with my soul and my tongue,
and I witnessed every battle with him.
I was never a coward for a single day in my life,
contrary to what has been rumored about me.
I have been favored over other poets in three ways:
I was the poet of the Ansar during the Age of Ignorance,
the poet of the Prophet, peace be upon him, during his Prophethood,
and the poet of all of Yemen during Islam.
So, who am I?
If Allah wills.