The poet Rabi' Bin Yaqout passed away today, Wednesday, at the age of 96. He is regarded as one of the most prominent poets of folk poetry in the United Arab Emirates. The Crown Prince of Ajman and Chairman of the Executive Council, Sheikh Ammar bin Hamid Al Nuaimi, mourned Bin Yaqout and stated on his Instagram account: "The great poet of Ajman has departed... Indeed, to Allah we belong and to Him we shall return. The esteemed poet Rabi' Bin Yaqout has passed away. We ask Allah to have mercy on him and grant him paradise. Our condolences to his family and tribe; there is no power and no strength except with Allah, the Most High, the Most Great."
Rabi' Bin Yaqout was born in Ajman in 1928. He joined the traditional schools early but did not stay long. He sought work to make a living and traveled to Kuwait in the late 1940s with a group of poet friends, such as Hamad Khalifa Bushahab and Rashid Bin Safwan. He was in his early twenties, the age when his poetry talent began to emerge. In Kuwait, he worked for the Ahmadi Oil Company, engaged in petroleum products and their industries, and stayed there for twelve years before moving to the government garage, where he remained an employee for eighteen years. He returned to the UAE a few years before the establishment of the United Arab Emirates.
After returning home, he met a group of enthusiastic theater youth, including Sultan bin Hamad Al Shamsi, known as Sultan the Poet, who became one of the most famous actors in the UAE. Rabi' joined this group, becoming a theater actor and participated in three comedic plays. Hamad Khalifa Bushahab, who wrote those plays, was also part of the group. However, Rabi' eventually left acting and turned to pursue poetry professionally after a brief association with theater.
Bin Yaqout engaged in volunteer work through the Popular Arts Association in Ajman, where he found himself in a new role necessitated by the need to transfer the heritage from one generation to the next. Since traditional arts were beginning to bid farewell to their pioneers due to age, it became essential for the youth to learn the arts of their forefathers.
He joined the family of the "Poets' Majlis" program, established by Hamad Khalifa Bushahab on Dubai Television in the late 1960s, along with a group of poets from that golden generation, such as Rashid Al Khidr, Salem Al Jamri, Mohammed Bin Souqat, Ahmad Bin Khalifa Al Hamli, and Ali Bin Rahma Al Shamsi. Rabi' remained a member of the program despite the emergence of new faces and the passing of most of the golden generation poets. He maintained his brilliance despite advancing age, participating in numerous radio programs and poetry evenings.
Rabi' shared a strong bond of friendship with Hamad Bushahab, lasting more than fifty-five years, during which Bushahab published a poetry collection of Bin Yaqout in the late 1980s. This collection remains sought after by enthusiasts of his humorous and social poetry.
Rabi's poetry possesses a special flavor, characterized by delicate wording, humor, and beautiful sentiments. Many of his poems are still memorized by people and requested during poetry evenings and radio programs. He is one of the few poets who addressed many negative societal phenomena, such as marrying foreign women, the rising cost of living, nepotism, foreign customs, and the intellectual invasion of youth. He also tackled numerous Arab issues in his poems, and additionally, he composed many verses in love for the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan and the homeland, with many artists singing his poetry.
