The duality of good and evil in the poetry of Bakr ibn Wa’il in the pre-Islamic era, pride as a model

Abstract

    The duality of good and evil is the most influential of the antithetical dualities in human life today, or in the afterlife, to the point that it has become a source of disagreement between religions or within the same religion in their source. Perhaps it is the most prominent of the antithetical dualities in Arabic poetry, especially pre-Islamic poetry, as the pre-Islamic poet fought its existential struggle with nature and with man, which made pre-Islamic poetry a moral lexicon reflecting those value-based conflicts. The Banu Bakr tribe had the lion's share of those conflicts, as it was the owner of the Basus War, the longest pre-Islamic war, and one of the most deeply rooted wars in Arab memory. In this environment brimming with tumultuous conflicts, the duality of good and evil is the most prominent duality in Bakri poetry, because these dualities are most closely linked to value-based and war-based conflicts. This study seeks to study this duality analytically in selected examples of Bakri poetry. In this study, we have explained the concept of (the duality of good and evil), and we have also mentioned many poetic examples of this duality.