The Rajaz meter relies on the activation of "Mustainilun", which is repeated three times in the first hemistich and three times in the second hemistich of the poetic pattern. It consists of: short movement + pause (minor reason) + double movement + pause (major reason), structured as follows:

Mustainilun Mustainilun Mustainilun ** Mustainilun Mustainilun Mustainilun

Several modifications apply to it, including the elimination of the second silent letter, making it "Mutafa'ilun", or the removal of the fourth silent letter, making it "Mustainilun". The final metric foot (taf’eelah) in the first hemistich comes in four forms, as does the beat (taf’eelah) in the second hemistich or the verse, which also has four forms.

The "Rajaz" can be used fully, retaining its six original meters as mentioned before, or it can be split to remain with four:

Mustainilun Mustainilun ** Mustainilun Mustainilun

It can be used bisected, retaining three:

Mustainilun Mustainilun Mustainilun

Or it can be used truncated, retaining only two:

Mustainilun Mustainilun

Its meters and beats harmonize in correctness, adding another metric foot to the full metric patterns, which is different from the correct one, termed "Mqatou’", where Mustainilun becomes Mustaf'il and transforms into Mufa'ulun, among other metric variations.

For some reason, Arab poets and critics have been harsh on this poetic meter, considering it "the donkey of poets" because riding it is extremely easy (as is the mistake derived from the now corrective), so they belittled and scorned it. Some excluded it entirely from the realm of poetry, assuming that a "Rajiz" (one who composes in Rajaz) is not a poet. Some poets criticized it, including figures like Abu al-Alaa al-Ma'arri (973 – 1075), who stated in "The Epistle of Forgiveness": "Indeed, Rajaz is from the riffraff of poems".

In his Lazumiyat, he stated:

"You fell short to reach the heights in honor, Indeed, the poems have not been overtaken by Rajaz.

I have not climbed the ranks of the generous, And how can a "Rajiz" reach the poet?

And whoever does not attain the rank of a poet among the people, Settles in composition with the rank of a "Rajiz".

Al-Ma'arri divided speech into prose, poetry, and Rajaz (meaning that, to him, Rajaz is not poetry), and launched a fierce campaign against Rajaz and its proponents. He assigned the verses of Rajaz in paradise as insignificant, lacking the dignity of the verses of paradise, issuing his harsh judgment saying: "You people have fallen short, so you have been shortened". Ibn Rashiq al-Qayrawani (999 – 1064) believes in his book "Al-Umda" that a poet can compose in Rajaz, but a "Rajiz" cannot compose a poem.

In Amali al-Murtada, it is noted that Rajaz accommodates a deluge of variations and licenses, which narrows the poems for most of it. From here came the old poets and critics' disregard for Rajaz. To its adversaries, the Rajaz verses are disgrace and dirt, one of them said:

"Do you threaten me with Rajaz, O son of disgrace, And in Rajaz - without - disgrace and dirt.

Undoubtedly, the prince of poets, Ahmed Shawki (1868 – 1932), possesses a great mastery over the music of poetry and the essence of its meters. He elevated his poetry to a monumental level of musicality, but he did not neglect this "Rajaz". During his exile in Spain (1915 – 1920), he composed his grand historical Rajaz, "The Nations of the Arabs and the Greats of Islam", most of which is coupled in rhyme, resembling instructional poems. This led the critic Saleh Al-Ashtar in his book "Andalusian notes of Shawki" - citing Hassan Kamel Al-Sirafi - to comment: "Shawki erred in this coupling, losing that high artistic poetic spirit that characterizes his poetic output, and in some aspects, it descended to the level of Ibn Malik's thousand verses and the likes". Al-Ashtar believes that the Andalusian and artistic capital in this Rajaz is utterly poor. However, this massive Rajaz, which did not enrich Shawki's Andalusian concept, managed to enrich his Arab concept as a whole, serving as a blatant indication of Shawki's long periods of diversion during his days in Barcelona towards Arab history. This deviation would have a significant influence on directing his poetry and personality, from the time he left Barcelona until the end of his life."

Generally, we are not in the position to technically judge that "poem", of which Shawki said: "In Barcelona, God allowed me to arrange from the biographies of men what is great, to be a guiding torch lighting the way to glory and grand accomplishments for the young, so I wrote the poem "The Arab States and the Greatness of Islam".

But the focus of our discussion in this article is Shawki's choice of the Rajaz meter, which was criticized by ancient poets and critics. Shawki responded to them by saying: "I chose "Rajaz" because I do not see in this vast meter a vessel for those incapable of navigating other meters, and because the value of poetry is in the idea and formulation, not in the poetic meters. He expressed this in his poem saying: "I chose a vast sea of Rajaz ** They claimed it to be a vessel for those who are incapable They hold an opinion, and I see the opposite ** The glass does not rectify the one who is crude And the value of pearls is in their luminescence ** in themselves and not in the seas"

Indeed, Shawki defied all the older poets and critics, championed the Rajaz, and adopted it as a framework for his historical poem, adhering to it more than necessary: "I adhered to what is not necessary in poetry ** and leaving it is more suitable for me and more prudent"

And he concludes his statement on this prosodic issue: "I accepted the challenge, and I responded to it".

It seems that the stance towards the Rajaz meter has completely changed in modern times compared to what it was among ancient poets and critics. Here is the critic Dr. Mustafa Ghanem, in his book "The Contemporary Child's Poem - 2022", believes that the "Rajaz" meter allows for the appearance of melodic fluctuations that the poet relies on to form angles of semantic acoustic leverage, adding richness in melodies and wealth in tunes, and fertility in breaks and rhymes, and rich illuminations in producing the rhetoric of the text, in addition to being the most used meter in children's poetry.

It seems that Shawki had realized all of this – and perhaps more – in the Rajaz meter before our contemporary critics. He wrote his poem from it during his exile in Spain, which was a victory for the "Rajaz".