What is poetry’s relationship to the Qur’an? Like many other litterateurs in Islam’s Middle Period, the well-known Indian poet Amir Khusraw (d. 1325) wrestled with this question. In the autobiographical preface to his divan Ghurrat al-Kamal (written in 1293/4), the poet acknowledges the Qur’an’s criticism of poets, but claims that this censure applies only to slanderous verse makers, not to the accomplished authors. In fact, citing verses that contain a great deal of alliteration and rhyme, Khusraw asserts that the Qur’an itself contains poetry. Khusraw likewise declares that poetry equates and even surpasses ‘ilm as a vehicle for conveying religious truths, for it can be more easily understood, remembered, and repeated than prose. He even goes so far as to compare his own works of poetry to the Qur’an, observing that he, too, has been given a “book.” Later in the same preface, however, Khusraw expresses remorse for having composed poetry, calling the fruits of his labors a mere “handful of wind” that cannot wash away his sins. And in a much later preface, written in 1316/7, he castigates himself for having devoted his life to the worthless art of poetry rather than to religious sciences. Though it is possible to regard Khusraw’s effusions of regret as the traditional repentance of Islamicate autobiographies, both his fierce defense of poetry and his denunciation of it indicate an uneasiness that likely derived from poetry’s not-quite-legitimate status in the Qur’an, and thus in many Islamic societies. Drawing from the autobiographical prefaces to Khusraw’s five books of poetry, my paper explores how the Qur’an’s statements about poetry – both explicit and implicit -- resonate in Khusraw’s works. In particular, it shows how these statements produced an ambivalent attitude that, in turn, compels the reader to confront both sides of the question.