#amr Ibn al as

[suhyla]

Umar Ibn Al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, said one day to his companions, among whom was ‘Amr Ibn Al-As, “What is best of all?”

Each had his say, but ‘Amr said nothing.

“Amr, what do you think?” asked Umar.

He replied: A sea of troubles, but it withdraws.

[hummussexual]

مدرك الشيباني هو شاعر عربي ولد عام (٣٩٠هـ - ١٠٠٠م) في البصرة جنوب العراق، ومن ثم انتقل إلى وسكن في بغداد، وقد عشق الشيباني شخصاً مسيحياً كان اسمه عمرو بن يوحنا، وقال فيه: من عاشق ناء هواه دان … ناطق دمع صامت اللسان وكان عمرو بن يوحنا النصراني يسكن في دار الروم ببغداد من الجانب الشرقي، وكان من أحسن الناس صورة وأجملهم خلقاً، وكان مدرك بن علي الشيباني يهواه، وكان مدرك من أفاضل أهل الأدب والمطبوعين في الشعر، فكتب الشيباني قصيدة غزلية أراد اعطائها لعمرو وهو في مجلس العلم، فعرف الجميع هذه الأبيات، ووقف عليها من كان في المجلس وقرأوها، واستحيا عمرو من ذلك، فانقطع عن الحضور، وغلب الأمر على مدرك، فترك مجلسه ولزم دار الروم، وجعل يتبع عمراً حيث سلك، ولمدرك في عمرو أيضاً أشعار كثير، ثم خرج مدرك إلى الوسواس وسل جسمه، وذهل عقله، وانقطع عن إخوانه ولزم الفراش، فحضره جماعة، فقال لهم: ألست صديقكم القديم العشرة لكم، أفما فيكم أحد يسعدني بالنظر إلى وجه عمرو؟ فمضوا بأجمعهم إليه، قالوا: قد صار إلى حال ما نحسبك ترضى به. فلبس ثيابه ونهض معهم، فلما دخلوا عليه سلم عليه عمرو وأخذ بيده وقال: كيف تجدك يا سيدي؟ فنظر إليه فأغمي عليه ساعةً ثم أفاق وفتح عينيه، وهو يقول: أنا في عافية … إلا من الشوق اليكا أيها العائد بي … منك لا يخفى عليكا لا تعد جسما، وعد … قلبا رهيناً في يديكا كيف لا يهلك مرشق … بسهمي مقلتيكا ثم شهق شهقةً فارق فيها الدنيا ومات، ليترك لنا واحدة من اكثر القصص الرومانسية حزنا في الإرث الكويري الشرق الأوسطي، والتي تعطي المعن، الحرفي لعبارة ومن الحب ما فْتل

[asmaa-7]

[thecurioustale]

When I was younger I used to accept things like this as true, because deep down I have a hard time imagining that people would be deceptive or sloppy. But, having long since learned better, I went and looked to see how much of this meme is real.

First of all, I am happy to report that the poem being excerpted here is indeed real! There really was a poem about (and I paraphrase) "a butt that oppresses us both, me because I can't stop thinking about it and she because it tires her out to to lug around." Which makes me happy, because the only reason I bothered to fact-check this meme or am bothering now to write about it is that this kind of poetry absolutely sizzles! 🥵🥰

Yet this is the only part about this meme that's true. Everything else in that picture—everything else—is either a deliberate lie or negligently false.

First things first: The opening line, "She has an ass below a slender waist," isn't real. Fact-checking this specific line was a key secondary goal of mine because it triggered my "thinwashing" senses. There was a strong vein of fat admiration in Arab culture for many centuries, largely coincident with its era of enlightenment. (The cultural fat admiration arguably still survives in pockets of the Middle East today even though the Arab enlightenment has long since descended into a dark age.) I was suspicious of this line because "big butt, small waist" a very popular Western fad at this moment in time whereas the Arabs of a thousand years ago didn't tend to be that self-deceiving and more so just celebrated fatness openly when they saw fit to celebrate it at all. So I suspected that whomever translated this poem into English as was thinwashing it.

The true opening line of the poem makes a metaphor with a tree. A very literal translation from Google reads:

She walked like a branch bent by the breeze The breeze blows and it straightens up

I checked out the vocabulary word by word and, literally at least, I am confident that this is what the text actually says. What I can't attest to is the figurative depth of the text. I tried mightily to picture this metaphor in a way that might shed light on whether the poet had any deeper meaning in the line (which he almost certainly did). So I can't categorically rule out that there is something in this text that implies a slender waist. But it seems very unlikely, as evidenced by the following line:

She has a buttock that hangs in a gentle way That buttock us unjust to me and to her

My best effort to visualize this metaphor on the human body is that what the poet is saying is that this lady's butt is so fat that it bounces and sways as she walks, like a droopy tree (e.g. a willow) in the breeze.

If that reading is correct, it still doesn't categorically rule out a "slender waist," but it does make it exceedingly unlikely.

If I am honest, my single biggest purpose in writing this little essay is to call out the thinwashing that is likely occurring here: the perhaps-unintentional but nevertheless malicious erasure of one of history's relatively fewer examples of art that glorifies fatness and fat bodies. Big butts are hot in Western culture right now, but fatphobia is concomitantly so incredibly strong that most people fall over backwards to ensure that everyone knows they only like "big butts" and not "fat bodies"; they perform all kinds of horrible contortions to depict exaggerated, almost caricaturized female bodies that are completely thin except for a large butt (not "fat"; just "large" i.e. like a thin butt that is drawn physically bigger but with none of the characteristics that actually accompany a big butt). (And they usually add big breasts too). I say "almost" caricaturized because these bodies do naturally exist, and are valid; but they are very rare and the cultural celebration of big butts merely exploits this body type to celebrate fatness while simultaneously denying and erasing fatness.

Whomever did the translation that appears in this meme—assuming it was all done at the same time by one person; it's also possible the thinwashing was added later by somebody else—clearly decided that the poem would be better if it started by saying that the subject is thin. Maybe they didn't know what to make of the tree metaphor, or didn't believe that it landed effectively or upheld the core image of the poem. Maybe the tree metaphor does contain some insinuation of thinness that I am missing. Maybe they were just being horny on main and decided to intensify the sexual appeal by altering it to fit their own ideal of a skinny waist and a big butt. But in any case, I tend to frown on this kind of translation, translation that erases the original text (in this case the tree metaphor) and replaces it with something else. Even if there were no further harm caused, I think this does an injury to readers, because it obscures the original imagery. That's bad enough in general, but especially glaring in poetry. And of course in this case there is additional harm, the aforementioned thinwashing that occurs because of this alteration. And I would caution anyone who may find themselves translating stuff in the future to be better than the person who translated this.

If you're curious about the other lines, the literal translation from Google reads:

It tortures me when I think about it It tires her out when she gets up

So the meme is fundamentally correct that this is a poem about celebrating somebody who was some degree of fat, particularly in the butt.

We don't know how much or how little. Supersized people have always existed, albeit for most of history as a much smaller percentage of the population than today. But there were absolutely folks living a thousand years ago who weighed a quarter of a ton or more.

It isn't clear to me how literal versus how hyperbolic the poet was being. Maybe this beautiful lady of his was merely chubby, and the bit about her butt tiring her out when she stood up was purely a sexual exclamation point. Or maybe she was five hundred pounds and literally did struggle to stand up. Or anywhere in between.

Either way, the text is absolutely electric—both the literal Google translation of the original Arabic, and the edgier translated version in the meme. "An ass that oppresses us both" is an excellent translation, conveying the original artistic intent to our modern sensibilities much better than the original text does, without obscuring or erasing the original text whatsoever.

Anyway! Now that that gyatt's out of my system, let's continue the fact-checking. I mentioned that, other than the core premise of the poem, everything about this meme is false.

Let's start with the fact that the poem doesn't end there. This was hard to track down, but luckily there was some redditor a month ago who posted a link to the original poem in the comments. This is a website of Arab-language poetry:

Using Google Translate on that works a charm, and that's what I've been doing here.

The part of the poem we saw is just the beginning; the full poem actually goes on quite a bit longer: The speaker states that his love for this person is a torment, and compares her to gazelle, and apparently she killed some dude and is on the lam or otherwise fleeing (I'm not entirely clear), and there's lots of flowery language about love toward the end that I would classify as downright boring. Honestly, the poem kind of loses the thread of the plot; I can see why only the beginning part made it into the meme. The rest of the poem is just not memorable. Art is often like this, with moments of brilliance interspersed amid mundanity like diamonds in ore.

Finally, the last two ways in which the poem is false are that the author and the time period are both misstated. I'm a little more tenuous on this one, but it does seem that Ibn Amr Al-Aghmati—with "Amr" sometimes written in English as "Omar," and his full name being Abu Hafs Amr ibn Abdullah ibn Muhammad ibn Abdullah ibn Amr al-Sulami al-Aghmati—is the true author, not Abu Hasan al-Sari. Going by the artist's lifetime, then, this poem must have been composed in the 12th century, not the 10th. In my efforts to find out more, I discovered a comment on Reddit from just a few weeks ago. (I imagine the newness of all this discourse is because the meme is presently going viral.) This Redditor states that the person wrongly named in the meme, Abu Hasan al-Sari, actually compiled an anthology of poetry at some later point in the timeline, and his anthology included this poem. A pretty honest mistake!

I also found another Reddit comment in the same thread by someone who had bothered to track down the original and offer a translation, as well as a link to the Arab Wikipedia page for the poet.

Indeed, except for the thinwashing (which there is a sliver of a possibility that the tree metaphor actually somehow accommodates), there seems to be no bad faith in this meme. It looks to be more likely that it was just poorly researched.

One last thing before I go! Over on Twitter, someone got upset at the crassness of the English translation, and, in a rather unflatteringly gatekeepy way, nevertheless wrote his own, flowery translation.

Upon her slender frame doth rest a form ⠀⠀⠀most ample, fair yet bold, This sight beheld from aft doth prove a burden ⠀⠀⠀joint we both must hold, It haunts my thoughts with fervent fire, While she, to stand, doth strain and tire.

On one hand, his translation is pretty underwhelming. But on the other hand, and the reason I mention it, is that, 25 years ago, I would totally have been that person too. So I get it, and I do think the contrast between "an ass that oppresses us both" and "this sight beheld from aft doth prove a burden" offers a reminder that so much of poetry lies in the infinite possibilities of expressing the same ideas in different ways, thus fundamentally transforming our relationships with those ideas.

[julaibib]

AbdAllah Ibn Amr Ibn al-As رضي الله عنها said:

"Leave alone what you have nothing to do with, and do not speak about what does not concern you, and secure your tongue like you secure your money."

[rudar āleuqala•140]

[pmamtraveller]

SNAKE CHARMER /1879/ by JEAN-LÉON GÉRÔME

This artwork exemplifies Orientalism during its peak in Western European art. Orientalism replicated the aesthetics of Middle Eastern culture. In France, Orientalism gained popularity following Napoleon’s conquest of Egypt and Syria. The French population was truly introduced to Egyptology and became captivated by all things Egyptian.

It is possible that Gérôme spotted a snake charmer while travelling in Egypt. Snake charmers occasionally removed their clothes to prove the authenticity of their act. Gérôme's photo-realistic painting features vibrant colors and intricate detail, yet it is actually a fusion of various cultural stereotypes woven into one image.

The artwork draws inspiration from various origins and blends elements of Ottoman and Egyptian cultures. The complex turquoise wall in the background is inspired by a wall adorned with Iznik tiles from the Topkapı Palace in Istanbul, Turkey. The stone floor takes inspiration from the floor in the Mosque of Amr ibn al-As in Cairo, Egypt.

The figures in the painting are also composite, and they wear garments inspired by various cultural influences from Middle Eastern and Asian nations. Even the snake itself more closely resembles a boa constrictor than a python.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

"If you find men engaged in a homosexual act - kill the active one as well as the passive one."

Don't start asking: "Are you active or passive?" Just kill both.

The companions of the Prophet Muhammad unanimously agreed that homosexuals should be killed, but they had disagreements about the method of killing.

Some said that they should be burned alive. That was (the Caliph) Ali. Abu Bakr supported this ruling. Others said that they should be thrown off a high place and this should be followed by stoning. Yet others said that they should be stoned to death. Both Ali and Ibn Abbas agreed on this.

With regard to girls - people ask if the same ruling applies to lesbianism. The Islamic scholars have said, unanimously, that lesbianism is prohibited.

Some of them say: "I am not homosexual, I'm gay." They want it to sound nice. No! You are a homosexual, a sodomite, and a lesbian.

--

https://quranx.com/Hadith/AbuDawud/USC-MSA/Book-38/Hadith-4447/

Narrated Abdullah ibn Abbas:

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: If you find anyone doing as Lot's people did, kill the one who does it, and the one to whom it is done. Abu Dawud said: A similar tradition has also been transmitted by Sulaiman b. Bilal from 'Amr b. Abi 'Umar. And 'Abbad b. Mansur transmitted it from 'Ikrimah on the authority of Ibn 'Abbas who transmitted it from the Prophet (ﷺ). It has also been transmitted by Ibn Juraij from Ibrahim from Dawud b. Al-Husain from 'Ikrimah on the authority of Ibn 'Abbas who transmitted it from the Prophet (ﷺ).

https://web.archive.org/web/20130331091657/http://www.hudson.org/files/pdf_upload/Excerpts_from_Saudi_Textbooks_715.pdf

Homosexuality is one of the most disgusting sins and greatest crimes. God did not afflict any people with this before [He afflicted] the folk of Lot, and He punished them as He punished no one else. It is a vile perversion that goes against sound nature, and it is one of the most corrupting and hideous sins.

Homosexuality is forbidden. It is a great sin. The Qur’an and the majority opinion [of scholars] confirm the prohibition on it. The Qur’an states: “We also (sent) Lut: he said to his people: "Do ye commit lewdness such as no people in creation (ever) committed before you? For ye practise your lusts on men in preference to women: ye are indeed a people transgressing beyond bounds." [7:80-81] God the Most High said about His prophet, Lut: And to Lut, too, We gave Judgment and Knowledge, and We saved him from the town which practised abominations: truly they were a people given to Evil, a rebellious people. [21:74]

Muslims have been unanimous in prohibiting this practice.

Punishment

The punishment for homosexuality is death. Both the active and passive participants∗ are to be killed whether or not they have previously had sexual intercourse in the context of a lawful marriage. The Qur’an and the unanimous opinion of the Prophet’s companions show this.

The companions of the Prophet were unanimously agreed upon killing [those who commit this sin]. Ibn Qudamah said, “The companions of the Prophet were unanimous on killing, although they differed in the description, that is, in the manner of killing.”2 Some of the companions of the Prophet stated that [the perpetrator] is to be burned with fire. It has also been said that he should be stoned, or thrown from a high place. Other things have also been said.

==

I wonder whether the "Queers for Palestine" prefer to be burned alive, stoned to death, or thrown off a high place and then stoned?

🤔

Happy Pride.

[reverthelp]

Abdullah ibn Amr reported: A man asked the Prophet, “Which Islam is best?” The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “To feed the hungry and to greet with peace those you know and those you do not know.”

Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 28

[39mmn]

‘Amr ibn Qays رحمه الله said:

‎“Glad tidings to the one who improves himself before Ramadān.”

‎[Latā'if al-Ma’ārif, page 138]

[satellitebroadcast]

The Cradle: Telegram

According to the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, israel has bombed 16 shelter schools in the Gaza Strip since the start of August, 15 of them in northern Gaza. These attacks resulted in the deaths of at least 217 displaced Palestinians and the injury of hundreds. Euro-Med reports that this comes as part of israel's dangerous escalation in systematically targeting schools housing displaced Palestinians without prior warning. Yesterday night, Israel bombed the Halima al-Saadia school in northern Gaza's Jabalia, killing at least 4 displaced Palestinians. This came hours after targeting the Amr Ibn al-Aas school in Gaza City, killing at least four others – one of them a child.

[paganimagevault]

Statue found near Penjikent, possibly depicting Sogdian King Devashtish or a deity 7th-8th C. CE.

"Divashtich (also spelled Devashtich, Dewashtich, and Divasti), was a medieval Sogdian ruler in Transoxiana during the period of the Muslim conquest of Transoxiana. He was the ruler of Panjikant and its surroundings from ca. 706 until his downfall and execution in the autumn of 722.

Divashtich was the son of a certain Yodkhsetak, who belonged to a noble Sogdian dehqan family from Samarkand, which could trace its descent back to the Sasanian king Bahram V Gur (r. 420–438). The family bore the title of sur and began ruling parts of Sogdia during the 6th century. There were five members of the family bearing the title of sur, Divashtich being the last of them.

In 720, Divashtich, along with another Sogdian ruler named Karzanj, are mentioned as the leaders of an anti-Arab rebellion in Sogdia. They managed to earn the allegiance of at-Tar, the Sogdian ruler of Farghana, who promised to give them protection in case their rebellion turned into a failure. While the army of Karzanj was staying at Khujand, at-Tar betrayed him, and told the Umayyad general Sa'id ibn Amr al-Harashi where Karzanj and his army was stationing. Al-Harashi quickly marched towards Khujand, where he defeated the army of Karzanj, brutally massacring over 3,000 Sogdian inhabitants in the city.

Al-Harashi then left for Zarafshan, the location of Divashtich. A battle shortly took place near the city in 722, where al-Harashi managed to emerge victorious once again. Divashtich then fled to a fortress near Zarafshan, but eventually agreed to surrender to Arabs, and was taken prisoner, where he was treated well. The Arabs then began burning several houses and a temple in Panjikant.

The Umayyad governor of Iraq, including other high officials, wanted to set Divashtich free. Al-Harashi, however, had Divashtich crucified on a Zoroastrian burial building, and sent his head to Iraq.

Archaeologists have found evidence that Panjakent was founded around 400 AD. The town of Panjikent grew during the Hephthalite period, its fortifications were strengthened and temples were rebuilt. The city itself did not long outlive its last ruler. Consisting of a fortified castle of the ruler (kuhendiz, or citadel), the city itself (shahristan), surrounded by a fortress wall with numerous towers, a suburban settlement (rabad) and a large necropolis, with separate small crypts - nauses, in which there were assuaries (small clay boxes) with the remains of the dead, Penjikent ceased to exist after the death of Divashtich, and the inhabitants left it."

-taken from IranicaOnline, UNESCO, Wikipedia, and DCAT

[fluffy-appa]

Ibn Taymiyyah:

When commanding good and forbidding evil one must have:

• knowledge

• kindness

• patience

Source: Al-‘Amr bil-Ma’roof (p. 30)

[julaibib]

Amr Ibn Qays al Mala'i رحمه الله said;

"Verily, the wife will quarrel with her husband on the day of judgement in front of Allāh.

She will say; "He didn't use to discipline me or teach me anything, he would only bring me bread from the market."

(Tafsīr Sam'āni 475/5)

[farisjax]

'Abdullah ibn 'Amr (radiyAllahu 'anhu) said,

“A man came to the Prophet (sallAllahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) and made a pledge to him that he would migrate (do Hijrah). He left his parents who were in tears. The Prophet said, 'Go back to them and make them laugh as you made them weep.'"

[al-Adab al-Mufrad (A Code for Everyday Living for the Muslims), Imam Bukhari (rahimahullah), no. 13, Grade: Sahih (al-Albani - rahimahullah)]

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

https://quranx.com/7.80-83

And [We had sent] Lot when he said to his people, "Do you commit such immorality as no one has preceded you with from among the worlds? Indeed, you approach men with desire, instead of women. Rather, you are a transgressing people." But the answer of his people was only that they said, "Evict them from your city! Indeed, they are men who keep themselves pure." So We saved him and his family, except for his wife; she was of those who remained [with the evildoers].

https://quranx.com/26.165-173

Do you approach males among the worlds And leave what your Lord has created for you as mates? But you are a people transgressing." They said, "If you do not desist, O Lot, you will surely be of those evicted." He said, "Indeed, I am, toward your deed, of those who detest [it]. My Lord, save me and my family from [the consequence of] what they do." So We saved him and his family, all, Except an old woman among those who remained behind. Then We destroyed the others. And We rained upon them a rain [of stones], and evil was the rain of those who were warned.

https://quranx.com/29.28-31

And [mention] Lot, when he said to his people, "Indeed, you commit such immorality as no one has preceded you with from among the worlds. Indeed, you approach men and obstruct the road and commit in your meetings [every] evil." And the answer of his people was not but they said, "Bring us the punishment of Allah, if you should be of the truthful." He said, "My Lord, support me against the corrupting people." And when Our messengers came to Abraham with the good tidings, they said, "Indeed, we will destroy the people of that Lot's city. Indeed, its people have been wrongdoers."

https://quranx.com/Hadith/Bukhari/USC-MSA/Volume-7/Book-72/Hadith-774/

Narrated Ibn `Abbas: The Prophet (ﷺ) cursed effeminate men (those men who are in the similitude (assume the manners of women) and those women who assume the manners of men, and he said, "Turn them out of your houses." The Prophet (ﷺ) turned out such-and-such man, and `Umar turned out such-and-such woman.

i.e. Islam despises they/thems.

https://quranx.com/Hadith/AbuDawud/USC-MSA/Book-38/Hadith-4447/

Narrated Abdullah ibn Abbas: The Prophet (ﷺ) said: If you find anyone doing as Lot's people did, kill the one who does it, and the one to whom it is done. Abu Dawud said: A similar tradition has also been transmitted by Sulaiman b. Bilal from 'Amr b. Abi 'Umar. And 'Abbad b. Mansur transmitted it from 'Ikrimah on the authority of Ibn 'Abbas who transmitted it from the Prophet (ﷺ). It has also been transmitted by Ibn Juraij from Ibrahim from Dawud b. Al-Husain from 'Ikrimah on the authority of Ibn 'Abbas who transmitted it from the Prophet (ﷺ).

https://quranx.com/Hadith/AbuDawud/USC-MSA/Book-38/Hadith-4448/

Narrated Abdullah ibn Abbas: If a man who is not married is seized committing sodomy, he will be stoned to death. Abu Dawud said: The tradition of 'Asim proved the tradition of 'Amir b. Abi 'Amr as weak.

https://quranx.com/Hadith/AbuDawud/USC-MSA/Book-31/Hadith-4007/

Narrated AbuSa'id al-Khudri: The Prophet (ﷺ) said: A man should not look at the private parts of another man, and a woman should not look at the private parts of another woman. A man should not lie with another man without wearing lower garment under one cover; and a woman should not be lie with another woman without wearing lower garment under one cover.

[reverthelp]

Abdullah ibn Amr reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “Bind the knowledge.” I said, “How to bind it?” The Prophet said, “Books.”

al-Mu’jam al-Awsaṭ lil-Ṭabarānī 848