Ameru' al-Qays, or Imru'u al Quais, Ibn Hujr Al-Kindi, Arabic (امرؤ القيس بن حجر بن الحارث الكندي), was a celebrated pre-Islamic Arabian poet of the sixth century, circa 500-535 C.E. and the author of one of the Muallaqat, an anthology of Arabic literature attributed to seven famous poets. Reputedly, al-Qay's poetic skill was praised by Muhammad and by such early Muslim leaders as Ali[1] but he was also the subject of condemnation because of the content of his work. Muhammad Non-Muslim scholars have argued that the Qur'an borrows from al-Qays’ poetry, a charge that Muslims strongly refute. However, he helped shape the literary style in which the Qur'an is written. Love poetry, too, continued to be written, especially by the Sufis and his thematic influence can be identified.
He wrote passionate love poetry, and is believed to have invented the Qasida, or classical Arabic ode. He wrote one of the famous “seven odes” in the work known as Al-Mu'allaqat. This means “hung” and it is said that the poems “hung in the pagan shrine of the Ka’ba in Mecca.”[2]
In Translation, an example of his poetry are the opening stanzas of "The Poem of Imrul-al-Qays, “Stop, of my friends”:
Stop, oh my friends, let us pause to weep over the remembrance of my beloved.
Here was her abode on the edge of the sandy desert between Dakhool and Howmal.
The traces of her encampment are not wholly obliterated even now.
For when the South wind blows the sand over them the North wind sweeps it away.
The courtyards and enclosures of the old home have become desolate;
The dung of the wild deer lies there thick as the seeds of pepper.
On the morning of our separation it was as if I stood in the gardens of our tribe,
Amid the acacia-shrubs where my eyes were blinded with tears by the smart from the bursting pods of colocynth
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