Omar bin Abdul-Aziz put an end to panegyric poetry thus changing the course of Literature into that of commitment to Islam and its cause.
Consequently, a spirit of renouncing worldly pleasure prevailed and people became wholly devoted to the hereafter. He turned poetry and oratory into ameans for preaching Islam, and, so, poetry was composed and criticized from an Arabic Islamic viewpoint.
He called for faithfulness in artistic imagery of poetry and its criticism assigning to it the task of criticizing the state and the caliphate. He also counterbalanced poets analysing their expressions and showing preference to the image of the ascetic spirit of a hero aspiring to the hereafter.