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Recordings › Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth 173 · 14 Jul 2020 › Segment 35 of 42

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Arabic poetry: Antara ibn Shaddad's love for Abla

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OtherRecorded 14 Jul 2020Segment 35 of 42 in the recording2020-07-14-S35

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Mufti Abu Layth reads and translates love poetry by Antara ibn Shaddad for Abla, including his lines of pride in his dark skin and his courage.

In more detail

Answering a viewer who said he never recites anything in Arabic, Mufti Abu Layth reads from Antara ibn Shaddad, the pre-Islamic warrior poet of the Mu'allaqat, who was also overcome by love for Abla. He explains the motif of the tayf, the night apparition of the beloved, and translates lines in which her apparition visits and kisses him and leaves a flame within his bones that his tears must put out, and in which he asks how he can get over a love held since childhood. He notes that Antara was black, of partial African descent, and translates his lines that his dark skin is something he wears with pride, that his heart is firmer than mountains and that he hunts lions. He jokes about whether Antara was friend-zoned, and in passing says he has read only extracts of The Satanic Verses.

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Transcript

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2:01:03

depression her bosom mayhem now say of sword ahi Becca kaa for us and German Arabic Abita he says that even though we find him in every gathering to be depressed but people say that for us once upon a time used to be the life of a party Allah Allah Allah people poetry poetry's what does it oh that reminds somebody had said to me look he you don't do any justice he never recite

2:01:41

anything in Bill Arabiya in Arabic so I thought what the hell what the hell people what the hell you know what this is a double bonus going down for you this is from one of the epic poets the foolish Allah from pre Islam his name's untied assured that he was a great warrior but he was also somebody who'd fallen him huh he was knocked down by love and he's his beloved the darling of his life her name was a hablar it's a bit of an

2:02:20

interesting I mean the peculiar name habla he says attorney 34 ability Phil Minami [ __ ] anything Philippa Allah Allah you know in Arabic poetry they have this concept this motif of the faith and the faith is the guest the of its like an apparition the appearance of a person usually somebody they love but like as a kind of like a mirage form like a vision of that person comes to them at night maybe walks past or something but it's not actually them it's like they they

2:02:59

kind of visual as a person comes and they had a term for it you know that's the amazing thing life they used to call it so he says that the faith of AB Allah visits me at night Allah and kisses me three times on my lips see the Arabs were like Welling today with this straight out they were like and so you can see three times is still a sacred ritual well what do I need for older Aniela Hebrew or Satoru Hawaii Shia

2:03:36

Luffy Yami Allah and then it would see me say farewell to me and it would leave with me a a flame that burns with him despite how no matter how much I would cover it up this flame within me this passion was a terrible boyish I Luffy I thought yet it would be set ablaze within my bones Allah Allah well Ola and me lewb enough see what fee

2:04:14

or bid the more I Jawahar ami and if it wasn't that I would be left to my own to myself at times and I would with my tears have to put out these flames look at this guy he says llama to assume welcome ash Cooley Annie Evaro alaikum Allah Allah he says I'm gonna die of this agony look at what lo is doing to him yeah this is an epic warrior by the way he was a huge absolutely known as a

2:04:52

warrior he says because I'm so I'm kind of jealous of her in the sense lot of people being around her yeah but er otama you know this he's saying calling her the fool the whole perfect moon a lot oh yeah bernetta Malik in kafir to Sally well I do her work him in Idol Fatah me he says you tell me how can I get over this and I've loved you since childhood Allah whoa I'll have to cut it short

2:05:30

let's just select some this is too much in here but he says Robby to be happy heart or Anwar Quran for he'll ever be ha habla hey mommy says I have accepted her love in sadness and in happiness of in grief and enjoy but will I actually get anything before death and you know he was he was dark-skinned he was black whether he was of African descent or partial I think he was of partial

2:06:08

African descent so he was black generally he says what in our but Sawadee for who affari Leonie Faris ominously hammy says an if they say about my dark skin and that is something I wear with pride because I am a warrior from the the ham you know the kind of black people and he says Wally Alban acheté de manera Wasi was the creme isla our film is kina he says and I have a heart that is more stable than these mountains that you can

2:06:47

see and he means the in terms of courage Annie and he goes on woman I'd be a seed rooster Karen were after Assad noir ECAL Hawaa me he says I'm from my courage you see that I hunt lions people ion-ion Terra Don antara and he says a leaky and then worldís in the a leaky a year obey letter kulla yawmin Salam une fille Salam in Allah Allah what holy can do I guess he's been

2:07:26

struck by Chara little better ah huh I don't know whether he was friend-zoned or what the problem was but somebody said the darker the berry the sweeter the juice well definitely with antara right so people have you read Satanic Verses I've read certain extracts from it I haven't read the whole book right so antara what is going on people

Paragraphs overlapping 2:01:41 to 2:08:00. Full text on the recording page.

Cite this segment

Stable id, transcript version and tier are part of the citation. Every change to a transcript is logged.

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 2020-07-14-S35, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/a6h5lye4mn8/s/35/ (accessed 1 November 2026)

APA 7
Mufti Abu Layth. (2020, July 14). Arabic poetry: Antara ibn Shaddad's love for Abla [Video, segment 2020-07-14-S35, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/a6h5lye4mn8/s/35/
Chicago author-date
Mufti Abu Layth. 2020. "Arabic poetry: Antara ibn Shaddad's love for Abla." Video, segment 2020-07-14-S35, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded July 14, 2020. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/a6h5lye4mn8/s/35/
BibTeX
@misc{abulayth-2020-07-14-S35,
  author = {Mufti Abu Layth},
  title = {{Arabic poetry: Antara ibn Shaddad's love for Abla}},
  year = {2020},
  month = {7},
  date = {2020-07-14},
  howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/a6h5lye4mn8/s/35/}},
  url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/a6h5lye4mn8/s/35/},
  organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive},
  urldate = {2026-11-01},
  note = {Segment 2020-07-14-S35, auto-transcribed, may contain errors}
}
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