LessonsZuhayr ibn Abī Sulmā: War, the Grinding Mill, and the She-Camel Metaphors (Verses 28–32)Quiz

فَتُغْلِلْ لَكُمْ مَا لَا تُغِلُّ لِأَهْلِهَا ۞ قُرًى بِالْعِرَاقِ مِنْ قَفِيزٍ وَدِرْهَمِ
Meaning: It will then yield for you what even Iraqi villages do not yield to their inhabitants in grain measures and dirhams—yet this “yield” of war is ruin, not prosperity.

Tughlil lakum comes from the language of ghallah, yield or income. The verse compares war’s “produce” with what villages in Iraq generate for their inhabitants in measured grain and money. Superficially the description sounds like abundant revenue.

But this is not a promise of profit. The commentary makes clear that the “yield” is the many forms of injury caused by fighting. Qafīz refers to a grain measure, and dirham to money; the economic vocabulary exposes the bitter irony.

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Verse 32: war’s bitterly ironic yield

Zuhayr ibn Abī Sulmā: War, the Grinding Mill, and the She-Camel Metaphors (Verses 28–32)

فَتُغْلِلْ لَكُمْ مَا لَا تُغِلُّ لِأَهْلِهَا ۞ قُرًى بِالْعِرَاقِ مِنْ قَفِيزٍ وَدِرْهَمِ
Meaning: It will then yield for you what even Iraqi villages do not yield to their inhabitants in grain measures and dirhams—yet this “yield” of war is ruin, not prosperity.

Tughlil lakum comes from the language of ghallah, yield or income. The verse compares war’s “produce” with what villages in Iraq generate for their inhabitants in measured grain and money. Superficially the description sounds like abundant revenue.

But this is not a promise of profit. The commentary makes clear that the “yield” is the many forms of injury caused by fighting. Qafīz refers to a grain measure, and dirham to money; the economic vocabulary exposes the bitter irony.