God Arises
The Challenge of The Qur’an
~ 282 ~
outstanding poets used to be honoured after annual
gatherings by having their works hung on the wall
of the entrance to the Kabah, so that the public
could read them, the whole year round.
Before his acceptance of Islam, Labid once
composed a poem in reply to the Quran which was
thus displayed. Shortly after this, a Muslim brought
some verses from the Quran and hung them
alongside Labid’s poem. The following day, when
Labid read them, he was so moved that he declared
that they must be the work of some superhuman
mind, and, without further ado, he embraced Islam.
But this was not the end of the matter. Famous as he
was as an Arabian poet, he was so greatly
impressed by the literary excellence of the Quran
that he decided to give up writing poetry
altogether. When asked why he did not continue to
write poetry, he replied, ‘What? After the Quran?’
Once, when asked by Umer, the Second Caliph, to
recite a poem, he said, ‘When God has given me
such compositions as are enshrined in the Quran, it
does not behove me to recite poems.
