Poetry is the only way to master Arabic
By understanding poetry, you will understand Quranic vocabulary in a new light and gain the ability to comfortably read the books of history, hadith, and sirah.
In-depth Vocabulary Explanations
We look beyond simple translations to explore each word's root origins, unlocking the deep connotations, imagery, and subtle emotional nuances woven into every line.
Full Grammatical Parsing
We break down the complex syntax and structure of every line, giving you a complete grammatical map to fully comprehend how each verse is built.
Rhetorical Analyses
We introduce classical Arabic rhetoric step-by-step, revealing the hidden layers of eloquence, literary devices, and artistic depth beneath the surface text.
Poetry Memorization
Committing poetry to memory cements advanced vocabulary and familiarizes you with rare grammatical patterns, making all future Arabic texts far easier to decipher.
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Why I Teach Poetry
As-salaamu alaykum! I'm Ibrahim.
What set me on this journey is the absolute and utter inadequacy of almost all Arabic poetry explanations I was able to find online, both in Arabic and in English.
The root of the inadequacy beings with a poor explanation of the vocabulary.
To give you a concrete example, here is how most commentaries explain Imru' al-Qays' description of a woman's hair in the verse:
غدائرُه مُسْتَشْزَراتٌ إلى العُلا
الغدائر: جمع الغَدِيرة: وهي الخصلة من الشَعْر، الاستشزار: الارتفاع
Al-Ghadaa'ir is the plural of ghadeerah, which is a lock of hair. Al-istishzaar means lifting up.
From this description, you would think that the meaning is a lock of hair that has been raised up on the woman's head.
In actual fact, ghadeerah means a braid or pigtail. As for istishzaar, it refers to traditional rope making, as can be found in this video and this video. In traditional rope making, the rope is often twisted against the rope makers body in a particular direction (left to right, upwards, toward his stomach, and so on.) Therefore, what Imru’ al-Qays is describing here is a braid of hair, the stands of which have been twisted upwards, just as how a rope maker twists strands to make a rope.
If you did not know this, you would think from the traditional commentators that istishzaar is a synonym for “to lift” or “to go up” when it has almost nothing to do with that. Indeed, the meaning of upward is actually coming from الى العُلا in the verse, not from مُسْتَشْزَراتٌ ! The way the traditional commentators explain it, you would mistakenly think that الى العُلا is simply redundant, when in fact it is what carries the meaning they attribute to مستشزرات ! Moreover, you would understand nothing of the dynamic imagery that Imru’ al-Qays is trying to portray, the care it implies by recalling the manner in which the woman beautified herself by braiding her hair.
Unfortunately, the majority of teachers, even in Arabic, do not supplement the traditional commentaries by explaining the root meaning of the words being used in order to correct the potential misunderstanding.
Moreover, often times commentators or Arab teachers of poetry will assume the student is already familiar with the main meaning of the root and will therefore only explain the meaning of the word in the specific context and often fail to distinguish between literal usages and metaphorical usages. Here is an example of this from a line from al-Mutannabi:
وَمِنَ الخَيرِ بُطءُ سَيبِكَ عَنّي
أسْرَعٌ السُّحْبِ في المَسِيْرِ الجَهامُ
"From among what is good is the slowness of your sayb because of me. The fastest clouds in travelling are rainless clouds."
The vocabulary explanation in a teaching text no less, البلاغة الواضحة , states the following:
السَيْب: العَطاء
Al-Sayb: The act of giving.
But is this actually what al-sayb means? In this context, yes, but this is actually a metaphorical usage.
سابَ الماءُ means, “The water flowed at random, in any which direction or multiple directions or every direction” (i.e. as when rainwater falls on a mountain and then makes it’s way to the carved out channels that run in multiple directions through the mountain, or as in the case when you spill a glass of water and the water spreads in every direction). The idea here is that the water is not in a controlled flow or channel, as opposed to when water flows in a river, for instance.
From here, the word was used in a metaphorical meaning a gift that flows forward any which way i.e. the giver is not particularly concerned with whom he is giving to, because he is so generous the gift simply flows at random, plentifully and in any which direction.
Lane mentions:
"One says,
فَاضَ سَيْبُهُ عَلَى النَّاسِ
His gifts overflowed abundantly upon the people.
The word sayb is also used in praying for rain:
وَٱجْعَلْهُ سَيْبًا نَافِعًا
"And make Thou it to be a beneficial gift: or the meaning in this instance may be, a flowing rain."
I.e. a rain that flows in any which direction.
Therefore, al-Mutannabi is actually engaged in a type of word-play by using the word سَيْب with the idea of clouds and rain. It's a double entendre.
Because of how inadequate the explanatory note is, unless you’re a native Arab already familiar with the base meaning of السَيْب , the entire imagery, connotation, distinction (i.e. of what exactly the type of giving being referred to here is, the idea of it being plentiful, uncontrolled, and so on), and wordplay is lost on you. Native Arabic teachers teaching in Arabic seldom take the time out to explain these subtleties, even when teaching non-Arab students. Arabic teachers teaching poetry in English are almost non-existent, and they usually don’t go in-depth either.
I am very passionate about Arabic and about understanding words precisely and correctly. As I came to the frustrating realization that nobody else bridges this gap correctly, I decided to take on the responsibility myself. I am here to help the countless intermediate Arabic students who have come up against the intimidating wall of Arabic poetry and feel in their bones that something is missing. That no matter how hard they try, they feel like they don't fully grasp what is being said. I am here to throw you a rope and help you climb over the wall.
