1. I have known mankind as never before,
So I shall not again think well of man.

2. I tested him when he was mighty and a lion,
Difficult to handle and a serpent when weak.

3. He grew accustomed to evil till, if he did
Good by chance, he repented having done so.

4. I feared him when able and despised him when helpless,
So wrong and treachery were his valor or shame.

5. Killing is a heinous sin beyond forgiveness,
Yet killing man forgives at times.

6. He made lawful the slaughter of blameless souls,
While killing birds or beasts is killing anywhere.

7. He made the wolf taste his guile and treachery
So that he remains sleepless all his days.

8. He frightened the birds that they never alight
Save as customary in dreams and sleep.

9. His joy is in the weeping of the majority,
And his grief that his eyes see no abjectness.

10. As if glory is a Lord appeased only
By offering souls and lives as sacrifice.

11. He who robbed the world of happiness
And filled it with anxiety and sorrow.

12. Do not choose him even if he loads you with favours,
He will trespass against you though you thank him.

13. They said man had progressed, I told them
The misfortune of the world was now complete.

14. When iron becomes pliant it yields,
So beware of it when it yields.

15. Man is a wild beast though his shapely form
Makes forget his afflictions those who name him man.

16. He fought religion fearing its restrictions
As if religion and world were in conflict.

17. He wanted to destroy what Ar-Rahman had erected
Though nothing Ar-Rahman erects can be destroyed.

18. I am filled with wonder at his way;
The more his knowledge, the more his unbelief grew.

19. The more the world submitted to him
And he held its reins, the more tyrannical he grew.

20. He hopes for perfection from the world, but how
Can he attain perfection from it, base as it is?

21. If a man puts on all the wool in the world,
Yet abandons religion's raiment, he is naked.

22. It is the life which, when it leaves a body,
Allows the living to plunder the dead.

23. It is the light wiping out darkness, so he who
Is not guided by its splendor remains in maze.

24. The fresh, sweet spring from which to drink,
So he who draws not from it lives thirsty forever.

25. Not he who spends his coins is a squanderer,
But he who gives no heed to Faith squanders.

26. Not he who lost his sight is the blind,
For I see among those with sight many blind.