The One Who Dwelt There

In these Arabic couplets, Majnūn does not love the walls merely as walls. The dwellings have become dear through their association with Laylā: the place is precious because it carries the trace of the one he loves.

These famous lines are conventionally attributed to Qays ibn al-Mulawwaḥ, remembered as Majnūn Laylā. The attribution should remain cautious. Al-Jāḥiẓ observed that verse of unknown authorship mentioning Laylā was attributed to Majnūn. By al-Ghazālī’s time, the lines were already in circulation; in the Iḥyāʾ, he quotes them as the words of “Majnūn Banī ʿĀmir.”

The Poem

Below, I give a normalized Arabic text, a readable transliteration, and my own translation. I retain the wording used in the Iḥyāʾ:

وَمَا حُبُّ الدِّيَارِ

Wa-mā ḥubbu l-diyāri

Another version in al-Ghazālī’s al-Mustaṣfā reads:

وَمَا تِلْكَ الدِّيَارُ

Wa-mā tilka l-diyāru

أَمُرُّ عَلَى الدِّيَارِ، دِيَارِ لَيْلَى أُقَبِّلُ ذَا الْجِدَارَ وَذَا الْجِدَارَا

وَمَا حُبُّ الدِّيَارِ شَغَفْنَ قَلْبِي وَلَكِنْ حُبُّ مَنْ سَكَنَ الدِّيَارَا

Amurru ʿalā l-diyāri, diyāri Laylā Uqabbilu dhā l-jidāra wa-dhā l-jidārā

Wa-mā ḥubbu l-diyāri shaghafna qalbī Wa-lākin ḥubbu man sakana l-diyārā

I pass by the dwellings—the dwellings of Laylā— and kiss this wall and that wall.

It is not love of the dwellings that has taken hold of my heart, but love of the one who dwelt there.

Conventionally attributed to Qays ibn al-Mulawwaḥ, known as Majnūn Laylā. Translation by the author.

In the transliteration, ā and ī mark long vowels, ḥ is a deeper h, and ʿ marks ʿayn. The final -ā of jidārā and diyārā sustains the rhyme.

Words and Meanings

Key expressions in the Arabic poem

Expression	Meaning and significance
al-diyār الدِّيَارُ	The plural of dār: dwellings, habitations, or an encampment. It evokes more than buildings; it holds the life and memory once present there.
dhā al-jidār wa-dhā al-jidār ذَا الْجِدَارَ وَذَا الْجِدَارَ	Literally, “this wall and this wall.” The repetition makes each wall immediate; “this wall and that wall” is the natural English idiom.
shaghafna qalbī شَغَفْنَ قَلْبِي	“Have taken hold of my heart.” The same root describes love penetrating the heart in Qurʾān 12:30. Grammarians cite the line because the masculine head noun ḥubb takes feminine-plural agreement from its genitive complement al-diyār.
man sakana al-diyār مَنْ سَكَنَ الدِّيَارَ	“The one who dwelt there.” The perfect verb recalls Laylā’s dwelling there; set against Majnūn’s continuing “I pass” and “I kiss,” it deepens the sense of absence.

The Trace and the Beloved

The second verse does not undo the first; it explains it. Majnūn kisses the walls, then names the true cause of the kiss. Laylā is absent, yet her absence fills the poem with place. The dwellings become particular because she inhabited them.

Al-Ghazālī’s Spiritual Analogy

Al-Ghazālī reads this relational logic as a sign of overpowering love: affection extends from the beloved to clothing, home, neighborhood, and whatever is connected with the beloved. He then applies the principle to love of God, which should awaken love for what bears relation to Him. Yet the poem itself is human love poetry, not an explicitly Sufi composition. Its spiritual meaning is an analogical reading, and that distinction matters.

The Wall as a Trace, Not a Destination

For a spiritual reader, then, the wall may become a trace, not a destination. This does not mean that a created thing contains the Divine or possesses holiness of its own. Its value lies in remembrance: it points beyond itself. That is the lesson I take from Majnūn’s distinction—the walls are dear, but the true love belongs to the one who gave them meaning.