Umama al-Muzayriyya's two verses on the killing of Abu Afak

Two verses that Ibn Ishaq gives after the killing of Abu Afak, in the words of Umama al-Muzayriyya. ¹ In them she addresses Abu Afak: he denies the religion of God and the man who is most praised; she swears by the one who bore him that what he bore was evil; and then she says that Hanif, who is the Muslim as the editors explain, struck him at the end of the night with a spear, so let him take it despite his old age. ¹ The sense is given here; the text is read in the edition.

It is rare in the biography for the consequence of a killing to be told in the words of a woman poet. The two verses carry the attitude that the account is meant to be read with: the spear is the price of denial. ¹