The Death of His Father
Some stories tell that Imru' al-Qais was in his father's army fighting the tribe of Asad when his father was slain, but this is not agreed by all the biographers. The most popular story comes to us from ibn al-Kalbi (d. 826 AD). Ibn al-Kalbi holds that Imru' al-Qais was still in exile at the time of his father's death, and that the news reached him while he was in the midst of a party with his friends. Upon hearing the news, he said "May God be merciful to my father. He let me stray when I was small, and now that I am grown he has burdened me with his blood. There will be no alertness today, and no drunkenness tomorrow," followed by perhaps his most famous quote: "Today is for drink, and tomorrow for serious matters." (Arabic: اليوم خمر وغداً أمر)
It is told that of all his father's sons, Imru' al-Qais was the only one to take responsibility for avenging his father. One story tells that the tribe of Asad sent him an emissary and offered him three options-- either that he kill one of their nobles to equal the death of his father, or that he accept a payment of thousands of sheep and camels, or that he make war on them, in which case they asked for one month to make ready. Imru' al-Qais chose the third option. The tribes of Bakr and Taghlib agreed to support him and fought with him against Asad, killing many Asad tribesmen. Bakr and Taghlib withdrew their support once they judged that enough of Asad had been killed to satisfy the requirements of revenge.
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