"Abou Ben Adhem"[1] is a poem written in 1834[2] by the English critic, essayist and poet Leigh Hunt.
Hunt claims through this poem that true worship manifests itself through the acts of love and service that one shows one's fellowmen and women.
[6] The poem draws from Arabian lore, where in the Islamic month of Nous Sha'ban, God takes the golden book of mankind and chooses those dear to Him who He will call in the coming year.
[3] The verse "Write me as one who loves his fellow men" came to be used in Hunt's epitaph,[5] unveiled by Lord Haughton in 1869 at Kensal Green in North Kensington.
The poem is mentioned as a subject for public recital by a child character in Arnold Bennett's novel Hilda Lessways (1911).
[7] In the Not the Nine O'Clock News episode "Don't Get Your Vicars in a Twist" (1980), a sketch featured a reading of the poem, with Rowan Atkinson's part delivered in mock-Welsh gibberish.