قصيدة اعتذار.. إلى عرفات الله

To the Arafat of God, O best of visitors

Upon you be the peace of God in Arafat

And on the day when the direction of the house is radiant

And the countenance of humanity and destinies

On every horizon in Hijaz, there are angels

Delivering the greetings of God and blessings

When the camels of kings are guided, indeed they

Are the best guides for your camels in the wilderness

At the door, Gabriel the trustworthy with his hand

Brings messages of divine inspirations

And in the splendid Kaaba, there is a welcoming corner

For the Kaaba of the pilgrims and the corner of the righteous

And what the rainwater has poured is not merely

But rather it has poured upon you rewards and blessings

And Zamzam flows between your eyes, springs

From the sweet Kauthar, bursting forth

And they throw the accursed Satan, and he burns

And your enemies are flames from the embers

Journeys are sometimes measured by the doors they open in memory, not by the distances they cover.

The journey of Abbas Hilmi II, Khedive of Egypt, to the holy lands in 1909 was one of those journeys that transformed into a historical scene where politics intertwines with the spirit, and authority with religious meaning, forming layers of literary narrative and precise documentation around it.

At the heart of this procession, the presence of Ahmed Shawqi emerged, the court poet and the voice of rhetorical grandeur in his era. He was expected to be the companion of the journey as he was accustomed to being the companion of glory, but the scene took an unexpected turn. The desert, with its harshness, and the riding of camels, with the difficulties it imposes, created within him a heavy hesitation, which ended in a silent decision to withdraw from the caravan in a moment of distraction.

He returned to Cairo, while the caravan continued to Hijaz, leaving behind a void in the procession and a wound in the relationship with the Khedive. However, poetry, as it usually does, took on the task of mending what the footsteps had spoiled. The result was a poem that would remain one of the most famous texts of pilgrimage in Arabic literature (To the Arafat of God), a rhetoric of apology in the form of poetry. The poem did not merely come as a congratulation for a safe return, but rather as a text saturated with acknowledgment and apology, carried on a high language that leans towards spiritual grandeur as much as it leans towards political courtesy.

Shawqi says:

(To the Arafat of God, O son of Muhammad

Upon you be the peace of God in Arafat)

Then the text flows into a poetic structure that combines the religious status and the status of the addressee:

(The righteous son of Muhammad called me to you

And my response was the good supplications

And he chose for me a swimmer or a she-camel

To you, and I chose nothing but tears)

Here, a subtle paradox is revealed; a poet who is supposed to be the voice of presence turns into a witness to his own inability, content with tears instead of movement, and with apology instead of participation.

The scene intensifies in his saying:

(And I presented my excuses, my humility, and my fear

And I came with my weakness as an intercessor and my complaints)

In this context, weakness transforms from a negative meaning to an aesthetic element, reshaping the image of the poet within the text, not as a fugitive, but as a human who collided with the limits of his capacity.

Between the sanctity of the place and the features of authority, the poem transcends its religious dimension to touch on the relationship between the poet and his patron. The address directed to the Khedive reveals another layer of meaning, where the sanctity of the place coexists with the symbolism of authority, in a single text where voices and significations multiply.

Over time, the poem was re-read in a completely different context. Umm Kulthum re-presented it in a lyrical formulation that softened the presence of personal praise and shaped it with a general spirit, relying on the melody of Riyad Al-Sunbati, which granted it an everlasting chant-like quality.

The opening transformed from a private address:

(To the Arafat of God, O son of Muhammad)

To a broader call:

(To the Arafat of God, O best of visitors)

Thus, the poem was liberated from the confines of the individual to the realm of general meaning, where the pilgrim is addressed as a symbol rather than an individual.

Escape created immortality; yes, the scene may seem, on the surface, a departure from duty, but the effect that followed made that decision a literary turning point. The poet lost the journey of the body, but he gained the journey of the text, one that did not stop at his time but extended to become part of the collective consciousness in the seasons of pilgrimage to this day.

Thus, the presence of Ahmed Shawqi appears as a poet who managed to transform a moment of human weakness into a solidly structured text, glowing with meaning, transcending times without losing its original tone.

The poem (To the Arafat of God) has become more than mere lines of poetry for apology; it has become a poetic document that redefines the relationship between experience and expression, between inability and creativity, and between action and its corresponding imagination. In every season of pilgrimage, the verses return to be summoned from memory, as if they were written to be read anew, not just to be memorized.

May God accept on the plain of Arafat all who stood, responded, and mentioned the name of their Lord, and may He guide the leaders of the nation to serve the guests of the Merciful.