Al-Mutanabbi's ode 'If you venture for a noble aim'

By al-Mutanabbi

قصيدة المتنبي «إذا غامرت في شرف مروم»

An ode in the wafir metre on the rhyme mim containing the famous line "do not be content with anything below the stars"; the edition introduces it with the raid on Antioch while the poet was there, in which al-Tukhrur and his mother were killed {1}.

Depth

At a glance

Era
The Buyid, Fatimid and Seljuk Era

Literature

The long-form text for this entry has not been written yet. The facts and connections below come from the museum's data.

People and things also explored

Correspondence (al-mukatabat)· Diwan al-Insha' (the chancery)· The wise sayings attributed to Ali· The fires of the Arabs· Poetry attributed to Ali ibn Abi Talib· The delegation of Banu Tamim and the boasting contest· al-Jahiz's works on the imamate win al-Ma'mun's praise· Ka'b ibn Zuhayr's pardon and recitation of Banat Su'ad

Sources

  1. Diwan al-Mutanabbi, Dar Beirut (1983) , p.232
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Al-Mutanabbi's ode 'If you venture for a noble aim'”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/work/mutanabbi-la-taqnaa-bima-dun-al-nujum/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-11-02.

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Related

Correspondence (al-mukatabat)

In the tradition's idiom, al-mukatabat is the exchange of letters and written messages between kings, sultans, caliphs, governors, envoys and correspondents — what is written, sent, read and answered. The museum opens this genre with the Qur'anic letter of Sulayman to Bilqis al-Naml 30، the Prophet's letters to the kings — Heraclius reading the Prophet's letter in Sahih al-Bukhari 7541 and the sealing and dispatch of letters to Chosroes، Caesar and the Negus in Sahih Muslim 5482 — and what the history and chancery books carry of the caliphs' correspondence; the [[/en/mukatabat/|Mukatabat Browser]] gathers it with every mention and letter in the Qur'an، the Sunnah، the seerah and every harvested book — and whatever is harvested later.