He is the poet Al-Hassan Bin Hani, his nickname is "Abu Ali", and he is known as Abu Nawas. He soared with his ideas, defying the map framed by traditional poetry with its themes and classics to build a new concept outside of standards. And to reveal his character clearly.

Abu Nawas was born in the middle of the second century AH in Ahvas, to an Arab father and a Persian mother.

His father died when he was young, so his mother sent him to an Attar who worked for him in the markets of Basra.

But, in addition to his work, Abu Nawas went to the gatherings of knowledge, so he mixed with the "Masjidites".

Then he became acquainted with Khalaf al-Ahmar, and he used to review it in poetry and its meanings. At the same time, his relationship with the Majan of his time in Basra and Kufa was strengthened, such as Walaba bin Al-Habbab, Muti` bin Iyas, and Hammad.

He moved to Baghdad after leaving a full year to the desert to correct his tongue on the correct Arabic.

He was linked by strong ties with Al-Baramkeh, and he had poems in praise of them, and he also received some tender from the Caliph Harun Al-Rashid, but he was imprisoned more than once.

But life laughed at Abu Nawas when al-Amin (Ibn Harun al-Rashid) included him in his council, and he was cut off and he became his close poet.

Poet reflecting the contradictions of the Abbasid environment

Abu Nawas possessed a diverse, contradictory intellectual culture, rebellious against the social peculiarities that prevailed in his time, and this is evident in his call for emancipation from everything that the mind rejects, but he maintained the original formulation of the Arabic language.

Imam al-Shafi’i said about him, “If it were not for the slander of Abu Nawas, I would have taken knowledge from him.”

The poet achieved a balance in a personality that combined seriousness and humor. He was a diversified poet, touching all the topics of poetry.

It was said that he was in love with a slave girl named Jinan, and he was fond of her, and then they separated.

Among his poetry:

I have a heart that disputes me for it, and eager longing between my ribs

She saw my duty to her and the permanence of my covenant, and she frustrated me, and this is how the conversation was

The personality of Abi Nawas reflected the Abbasid environment with all the contradictions it witnessed, and he tried with his poetry to express an intellectual and civilized experience based on his interaction with his society and his era.

He also benefited from the Abbasid cultural environment, which is evident in the depth of meanings, verbal controversy and the use of psychological logic that reflects his understanding of human nature:

So tell the one who claims to have a philosophy of knowledge that you have memorized something, and you have missed some things

Do not prohibit forgiveness if you are a critical person, for prohibiting it in religion is blasphemy

He also sided with renewal by linking poetry to life and its development. He said in his response to Ibrahim al-Nizam:

Leave my blame, for the blame is a temptation, and it is down to me that it was the disease

Poems of wine and poems of asceticism

The poet has poems describing wine, in which he demonstrated the liberating power of wine, raising it to the level of one of the elements of existence, which is the light:

If you mix it with light, it will mix it until it generates lights and lights

And before his death he repented and asceticism, and what he organized in asceticism made his poems rise to a world of artistic creativity.

I wish my hair was how you are on the back of the bed, and you don't know

What is my argument for what I came and what I say to my Lord, and what is my excuse?

Abu Nawas died in 198 AH, after severe weakness in his body and grief over the death of Al-Amin. Under his pillow he found a poem in which he says:

O Lord, if my sins are great, I know that your forgiveness is greater

I have no means to you but hope and the beauty of your forgiveness, then I am a Muslim

It is noteworthy that the episode (7/26/2022) of the “Reflections” program also dealt with various topics, including the origin of the word “Askar” and the story of the proverb “It does not harm a sheep to flay it after it has been slaughtered.”