Lessonsal-Ḥārith ibn Ḥillizah: Ḥujr, Royal Kinship and the Dhū al-Majāz Covenant (verses 56–67)Quiz

مِثْلُهَا تُخْرِجُ النَّصِيحَةَ لِلْقَوْمِ فَلَاةٌ مِنْ دُونِهَا أَفْلَاءُ
Meaning: Such kinship brings forth sincere counsel for the people; without it stretches the barrenness of distance and separation.

Mithluhā points back to the kinship described in verse 63. Al-naṣīḥah is sincere counsel rather than convenient flattery; falāh ... aflāʾ supplies a picture of distance and emptiness.

Kinship is personified as a source from which counsel can be drawn, while the absence of that relationship is conveyed through the language of desolation. This is an argument offered by the poet, not a universally valid rule about every relative.

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Verse 64: Kinship as a basis for counsel

al-Ḥārith ibn Ḥillizah: Ḥujr, Royal Kinship and the Dhū al-Majāz Covenant (verses 56–67)

مِثْلُهَا تُخْرِجُ النَّصِيحَةَ لِلْقَوْمِ فَلَاةٌ مِنْ دُونِهَا أَفْلَاءُ
Meaning: Such kinship brings forth sincere counsel for the people; without it stretches the barrenness of distance and separation.

Mithluhā points back to the kinship described in verse 63. Al-naṣīḥah is sincere counsel rather than convenient flattery; falāh ... aflāʾ supplies a picture of distance and emptiness.

Kinship is personified as a source from which counsel can be drawn, while the absence of that relationship is conveyed through the language of desolation. This is an argument offered by the poet, not a universally valid rule about every relative.