Many scholars have long regarded the ornamental figures of Arabic rhetoric (al-badi') as mere decorative devices that lend musical beauty and verbal splendour to a text — an approach that reduces their function and overlooks their semantic dimensions. In the great models of poetry, however, badi' does not serve only an aesthetic role; it becomes an active instrument in producing meaning, intensifying vision, and constructing the poetic experience. Among the most prominent of these figures is "antithesis" (al-tadad), which transcends the formal opposition of words to shape intellectual relationships that reveal the essence of human experience.
This dimension is clearly manifest in the elegy composed by the late Emirati poet Habib Al Sayegh for the founding leader, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, may God rest his soul, which opens with the lines:
Your gifts gazed down upon dreams, And what you bestowed overflowed across the days.
Here the poet did not resort to antithesis as a passing device; rather, he made it a structural axis around which the poetic vision revolves. This is evident in the duality of death and life, when he says:
Your life after death is more alive than life itself, And your rain is poured out, and your river flows.
The poet redefines death through the legacy of the leader, which continues and renews itself after departure, so that death is transformed into a gateway to life and physical absence becomes a form of spiritual presence. The meaning is reinforced through the paronomasia (jinas) between "ahya" (more alive) and "al-haya" (life/rain), lending the image a suggestive power that links immortality to abundant giving. The poet then moves to a deeper level of reflection through the duality of absence and presence, saying:
They saw him as absence, yet he is present like a landmark, They saw him as presence, yet he is absent like a dream.
Here, presence and absence are no longer concepts tied to place and time; they become two intertwined emotional states. The great personality remains present in the conscience even after departure, while its overwhelming presence appears closer to a dream in its singularity. The paronomasia between "al-'ilm" (the landmark) and "al-hulm" (the dream) lends the image a musical balance that parallels its semantic balance.
In the duality of peace and war, Al Sayegh sketches the features of a leader who combined wisdom with resolve, saying:
For peace, there are still from you written dispatches, And for war, there are still from you battalions.
The antithesis here does not present two contradictory images but rather reveals a personality capable of managing the balance between dialogue and strength, between diplomacy and the capacity for decisive action. The phonetic proximity between "makatib" (dispatches) and "kata'ib" (battalions) underscores this harmony between the two values.
In the following line, the poet employs the duality of the heart and the eye to embody the relationship between insight and sight:
For the heart, from the light of eyes, there are claws, And for the eye, from the light of hearts, there are talons.
The senses and meanings intertwine in a composite image revealing that true vision is only completed through the union of sight and insight, while the deployment of synonymous and contrasting words deepens the semantic value and enriches the symbolic structure of the text.
The singularity of Habib Al Sayegh in this poem lies not merely in his invocation of opposites but in his ability to transform them into a cohesive intellectual and aesthetic system. Antithesis for him is not a conflict between discordant values; it is a creative dialogue that reveals the character of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, may God rest his soul, as a human model encompassing complementary qualities. The poem thus becomes a vibrant poetic canvas and an artistic testimony affirming that true eloquence lies in the capacity to deepen meaning, embody vision, and keep the legacy alive in memory.