Quss Ibn Sa'ida al-Iyadi (d. c.. 610 AD) was a pre-Islamic Arabian bishop of Najran, then in Yemen, but now located in Saudi Arabia.
He lived in the 6th and early 7th seventh centuries, and his genealogy took him back to the North Arabian Iyad tribe.
He was famous for his eloquence in his poetry, rhymed prose (saj'), sermons, and rhetoric, and Quss was held up as a model for literary excellence, if not the greatest orator of all the tribes.
Sources differ in saying how long he lived, some saying he reached the age of 380, others 600 or 700, old enough to have known the disciples of Jesus.
[4][5] Islamic writers including Ibn Abd Rabbihi, Al-Masudi, Al-Bayhaqi, and Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi say that Quss met with the Byzantine emperor Heraclius (r. 610–641) to discuss ethics concerned with monotheism, life in this world, and life in the next world.
[8] As a cultural hero, Quss became a part of the awāʾil genre of Islamic literature, which identifies certain figures as being the first to have held a belief or developed a practice.
Along with Quss, other attributions for the "first" of this tradition included David and Muhammad's grandfather Abd al-Muttalib.
[9] Quss is also said to have invented a juridical rule whereby "proof is incumbent on the plaintiff and the defendant who denies his guilt must speak an oath".
Shahid also argues that Quss would have acted as a natural source of stylistic influence on Muhammad.
[11] Nicholson writes:At ‘Ukádh, we are told, the youthful Muhammad listened, as though spellbound, to the eloquence of Quss b. Sá῾ida, Bishop of Najrán; and he may have contrasted the discourse of the Christian preacher with the brilliant odes chanted by heathen bards.
Muhammad is also said to have exclaimed "I hope that on the Day of Resurrection, he wil return to life and form a people of his own".
A dark night…a bright day…a sky that has zodiacal sign…stars that shine…seas [whose waters] roar…mountains firmly anchored...an earth spread out…rivers made to flow.
When I looked at the watering holes of death, from which there is no returning—[When] I saw my people towards them going, young and old—The one who passed not coming back to me and not from those who remain, he who goes.
In the rains and vegetation, sustenance and provisions, mothers and fathers, living and dead, groups and individuals, are recurring signs.
Where is the oppressor who amassed wealth and stored it; and then said ‘I am your lord most high?’ Were they not wealthier than you, and aspired to more things than you and had longer lives than you?
There lie their decayed bones and their vacant homes in which only howling wolves live.
God is the only one worthy of worship; without father or son.Michael Sells has argued that this style[16]contains many of the features found in the short-verse, apocalyptic suras [of the Quran] ascribed to the first period of qurʾānic prophecy: intense use of rhyme along with striking shifts in rhyme; highly rhythmic but not strictly metric verses; and the feature notable in passages such as Sūra 82:1–6 of several very short, staccato verses of adjuration followed by a longer versed and assonance-rich proclamation.