Khosrow asked Al-Nu'man ibn Al-Mundhir for a purebred Arab horse, but Al-Nu'man deemed it too precious to give and refused the request. After some time, Khosrow sent a delegation seeking to betroth himself and his sons to Al-Nu'man's daughters. The noble Arab, who had considered a horse too fine for a Persian, refused to marry off the finest daughters of the Arabs to him. Khosrow then resolved to kill Al-Nu'man treacherously, summoning him under the pretext of discussing certain matters. Al-Nu'man sensed the trap and went with his family to seek support from Arab tribes, but most of them shrank from helping him, until he reached Hani ibn Mas'ud, chieftain of the Banu Shayban, who told him: "Every state befits a man except to become a commoner after having been a king. Death comes to all, and to die with honour is better than to swallow humiliation."
Al-Nu'man went to meet Khosrow, who ordered him killed by being trampled under elephants, as the accounts relate. Khosrow then sought to seize Al-Nu'man's daughters by force from Hani ibn Mas'ud Al-Shaybani, who refused. When Hani learned that a Persian army, along with their Arab collaborators, was marching against him, he called on the Arab tribes for support. Bakr ibn Wa'il responded and its leader Hanzala ibn Tha'laba Al-'Ijli came to his side. Some defeatists and cowards — the "experts in de-escalation and balance of interests" — told him: "A minor loss is easier to bear than total collapse, and among evils there is choice; that some of you should ransom others is better than that you all be annihilated." Hanzala replied with the pride of a true Arab: "God curse this counsel! The freemen of Persia shall not drag their foreskins across the sands of Dhi Qar while I can hear a voice." He ordered his tent to be pitched and swore he would not move from the battle unless the tent itself fled.
Thus was fought the Arabs' most celebrated pre-Islamic battle — Dhi Qar — between a brutal army with an arrogant command and treacherous Arab collaborators on one side, and the Arab lords who said "No" with full voice on the other, fully aware of the vast disparity in strength and arms. Yet the noble man does not bow, the honourable man does not accept degradation, and the Arab does not entertain a discussion of options when dignity is at stake. Death is more honourable than a life purchased with humiliation and the kissing of thresholds. Even Arab slaves in those days refused dishonour and the creed of "balance and flexible diplomacy." So it was that Antara said:
Do not water me with the water of life in abasement, but water me in honour with a cup of colocynth.
When Toledo fell to Alfonso VI, some of the Taifa princes feared they would be next. Rather than uniting and standing as men against him, they rushed to offer him congratulations and sent delegations of submission and servility. Abd Al-Malik ibn Hudhayl, prince of Santarém, went so far as to lead a delegation in person, bearing lavish gifts — thoroughbred horses, silk fabrics, curios, and jewels — to congratulate Alfonso on his occupation of an Arab Muslim city. Alfonso's only response was to gift him a monkey, the better to humiliate him. But Ibn Hudhayl's entourage and the "media flies" of that era portrayed the monkey as a mark of honour and esteem for their prince, and anyone who saw it otherwise was, they said, nothing more than an envious wretch whose heart was consumed by jealousy.
No one has ever been unaware of the Persians' hatred of the Arabs in ancient times, nor of their malice and scheming against them in the present era. Recent events have demonstrated that this treacherous faction, throughout the 47 years of its ill-omened revolution, laboured night and day to build and develop its military arsenal in order to occupy and destroy the Gulf states. Thus, when American and Israeli strikes began dismantling its offensive bases, it rapidly executed its criminal plan and commenced shelling the Gulf states around the clock. Anyone who believes their attacks were merely retaliation for the American and Israeli strikes is divorced from reality: the missiles they fired at the United Arab Emirates and the other Gulf states were many times more numerous than those launched at Israel. We all know what followed — the positions of true men were distinguished from those of half-men.
In recent days, some fell prey to a loss of memory, a loss of balance, or a loss of dignity. We witnessed Gulf delegations rushing to mourn the unlamented war criminal Ali Khamenei. Our mouths were stopped by astonishment as we watched yesterday's champions of bluster, who had filled the world with threats, walk with bowed heads to stand before his corpse in a scene that would make even the grief-stricken laugh. To compound the humiliation, the Persians chose Quranic verses to be recited — verses that described those present as having failed to stand with those who defend religion against the oppressive faction, others implying that they were among those pardoned, and yet others suggesting they had not championed the truth — a vile manipulation of God's verses by criminals who have wrought destruction, devastation, and killing across the Gulf, Iraq, the Levant, and Yemen. Let the members of these condolence delegations swallow the bitterness of humiliation and the sting of insult. But as Al-Mutanabbi said:
He who accepts humiliation finds it easy to bear; a wound inflicts no pain upon the dead.
Diplomacy is one instrument for managing interests, but it has never been a filter for transforming an enemy into a friend or a criminal into a "hero" and "martyr" before whom tears of cowardice are shed and delegations of brokenness are dispatched. Delegations that went without thanks and returned without merit. How heartening it was to hear their foreign minister say that they had not invited the hostile states — an allusion specifically to the United Arab Emirates — and this is an honour we bear as our noble Arab forebears bore theirs. There is no life without dignity, and no diplomacy without self-respect. As for our own "delegation" to them — they know it well, for it is no stranger to them.