Quss was a composer of
saj' (rhymed prose). As translated by Qutbuddin, the following are compositions attributed to him: O People! Listen and retain! He who lives dies. He who dies is lost [forever]. Everything that could happen will happen. A dark night…a bright day…a sky that has zodiacal sign…stars that shine…seas [whose waters] roar…mountains firmly anchored...an earth spread out…rivers made to flow. Indeed, there are signs in the sky. There are lessons in the earth. What is the state of the people—going and never returning? Have they been satisfied, thus choosing to reside [there]? Or were they abandoned, [are they] sleeping? Quss swears an oath by God in which there is no sin: God has a religion that is more satisfactory to Him and better than the religion in which you believe. Indeed, you do evil deeds. In those that went before in eons past, are instances for us to take heed. When I looked at the watering holes of death, from which there is no returning—[When] I saw my people towards them going, young and old—The one who passed not coming back to me and not from those who remain, he who goes. I became convinced that I—without a doubt—will go where the people have gone.Another translation of some of the material attributed to Quss is by Dadoo:O People! Listen and heed! Once you have heeded, benefit from it! Each one who lives will die. And he who dies will go into oblivion. Everything that is to transpire shall come to pass. In the rains and vegetation, sustenance and provisions, mothers and fathers, living and dead, groups and individuals, are recurring signs. There is information to be gained from the skies and admonition from the earth as well as in dark nights, and in the heavens with constellations, and in the earth with gateways and the oceans with waves. Why do I see people going; never to return? Were they pleased with their status that they could live on? Or did they leave behind items there that they could sleep on? Quss swears an unblemished oath in God’s name: God has a religion more beloved to Him than the one you observe. The time for a new prophet’s arrival has come. His era has already cast its shadow over you. And He has made you understand his epoch. Glad tidings be to the one that believed in him and his guidance; and cursed be he that disobeys him and rebels against him. Cursed be the leaders of negligence among preceding generations and times. O people of Iyād! Where are the people of Thamūd and the ᷾Ād? Where is the sick person and his visitor? And the mighty pharaohs? Where is the one that built and fortified buildings; and embellished and reinforced them? Did wealth and children deceive him? Where is the oppressor who amassed wealth and stored it; and then said ‘I am your lord most high?’ Were they not wealthier than you, and aspired to more things than you and had longer lives than you? The dust pulverised them and destroyed them with its extended reach. There lie their decayed bones and their vacant homes in which only howling wolves live. Indeed! God is the only one worthy of worship; without father or son.
Michael Sells has argued that this stylecontains many of the features found in the short-verse, apocalyptic suras [of the
Quran] ascribed to the first period of qurʾānic prophecy: intense use of rhyme along with striking shifts in rhyme; highly rhythmic but not strictly metric verses; and the feature notable in passages such as Sūra 82:1–6 of several very short, staccato verses of adjuration followed by a longer versed and assonance-rich proclamation. == References ==