أَلَا لَا يَجْهَلَنْ أَحَدٌ عَلَيْنَا فَنَجْهَلَ فَوْقَ جَهْلِ الْجَاهِلِينَا[
Let no one act recklessly against us, lest we answer with greater recklessness.
Key vocabulary:[ The emphatic prohibition lā yajhalanna warns against provocation; jahl here means reckless aggression, not mere ignorance.
The verse advances the speaker’s claim of autonomy, his reply to an opponent, or his ancestral prestige.
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ʿAmr ibn Kulthūm: Defying Royal Authority, the Spear Metaphor, and Ancestral Honour (verses 52–63)
أَلَا لَا يَجْهَلَنْ أَحَدٌ عَلَيْنَا فَنَجْهَلَ فَوْقَ جَهْلِ الْجَاهِلِينَا[
Let no one act recklessly against us, lest we answer with greater recklessness.
Key vocabulary:[ The emphatic prohibition lā yajhalanna warns against provocation; jahl here means reckless aggression, not mere ignorance.
The verse advances the speaker’s claim of autonomy, his reply to an opponent, or his ancestral prestige.