Get up the chests of your camels and leave!, O Sons of my Mother. I lean to a tribe other than yours. Go! You have all you need, the moon is out.
-Lamiyyat al-Arab, Al-Shanfara (d.525)
Al-Shanfara was a Su’luk poet, an Outcast Thief, and his pre-Islamic ode, with all its lines ending with the letter Lām, begins with the denunciation of his own tribesmen. I wonder if this verse came to Yusuf’s mind when he abandoned KhairAllah at night midway on the Darb in order to race ahead of his mentor, companion, and fellow Khabīr whom he found too slow for his selfish desire to be first to Egypt.