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and do not be displeased.
He will sing you a song which the
beardless and the bearded enjoy.
Ma'bad's songs, for your leaders, neither enter the bag nor
ass = t50>tie it.
In this manner the Caliph, whose book is the lute,
provides his soldiers with the means of subsistence.
Have you seen this mockery at the leader of the singers
who provided his soldiers with singing?
His Satire upon al-Mu'tasim
As for Di'bil's satire upon al-Mu'tasim, it is bitter and
severe, for al-Mu'tasim was tyrannical and oppressive, had neither compassion
nor mercy. Di'bil is truthful when he satirizes him with these poetry lines:
A sad lover weeps for the dispersion of the religion, and
his eyes overflow with tears (for it).
An Imām has undertaken (the caliphate) while he has
neither guidance nor religion nor intellect.
None has brought news that the like of him will someday
rule or the Arabs follow him.
However, it is just as the past ancestors said when the
misfortune became great:
The 'Abbāsid kings are seven in the books, and the books
have not told us about the eighth of them.
Likewise, the People of the Cave were seven noble ones in
the Cave when they are numbered, and their eighth was a
dog.
Surely, I regard their dog as higher than you in
exaltedness, because you have sins while it had no sin.
When you have had an authority over us
because of our misery, you look like an old woman who
wears a crown, a necklace and a gown.
The authority of the people has become lost when Wasif
