1. Praise be to Allah, praise with which I prepare
To defend the truth so I may attain its desire

2. With You I seek help, my God, though helpless, so aid me
I want Your approval, so favor me with the finest

3. If You help a fox overwhelming a lion
Or let down the lion, unable against the fox

4. I know my weakness and no deed benefits me
No knowledge I possess to originate with

5. My capital is glory of al-Mustafa so through it
I call You my Lord - aid me for him and through him

6. And have mercy through him on scholars altogether
From people of his way, wakeful and sleeping

7. Without them we'd not know what You sent with
The best of creations, and we'd fail seeking it

8. Among them Abu al-Hasan al-Subki his helper
Quenched by showers of satisfaction gathered for him

9. He gifted a cure for every sickness in his visit
Healed the chests of all believers through him

10. Many an ignorant brash fool blamed him out of envy
With lies and shameless audacity against him

11. Evil are his morals, astray are his ways
Lost in misguidance in the wilderness of his babble

12. He said what he said about al-Subki in ignorance
Ugly for him the ignorant say and most lying

13. He exhausted argument without truth, fabricating
As he wished of lies, and he's suited to them

14. And said arrogantly with falsehood: our way
Is to leave argument and reproach its seeker

15. So behold his lies and wonder at his state
Of contradiction - this is some of its marvels

16. O denier of clear truth, awake!
Long has been your sleep - O sleeper, so be alert!

17. You've destroyed yourself, so have mercy on it, and leave innovation
Through it you're tested, so leave words that led you astray

18. You don't consider the Chosen One worthy for his visitor
Whether tying his camel or seeking help through him

19. How often you journeyed for worldly affairs
More concern for life and world preoccupied you

20. In mosques not all matters occur
That is the hadith you once heard

21. Seeking help through him means we seek intercession
Through him from Allah in what we hope of him

22. No harm nor sin in that at all
Save to one stung by delusions

23. He is the intercessor for his Master and liege
In every state, aiding those seeking aid through him

24. He is the beloved, so who, O people, can prevent
Grace Allah granted him, from the worlds' Lord?

25. By Allah, by Allah, were it not for Allah leading astray
Whom He wills of His creation as He desires with him

26. No person of intellect would be found preventing
People of his nation or doubting through him

27. As for you, O man, why don't you ascertain the matter
That you may be guided to the soundest way?

28. You claim Allah is in a direction
Not bothered by attributing change to Him

29. Whence came this? Never did Ahmad say it
Nor that he would say such an enormity

30. Ask Abu al-Faraj al-Jawzi his successor
He will advise you with truth, so know and act by it

31. And you claim Allah literally settled upon
A throne, so you ascribe attributes of events to Him

32. And you reject seeking intercession and forbid it
Saying that is what polytheists do

33. You declared your Lord beyond polytheism in your claim
Yet did not declare Him beyond anthropomorphism and its semblance

34. Indeed you have fallen into a polytheism
Whence you wanted deliverance from it, ruined by it

35. As for divorce being thrice, the dissenter in
Its occurrence is wrong in his own doctrine

36. You wish to defend him in an issue
Where he erred, opposing all Muslims in it

37. That is greatest proof that you have no shame
For falsehood, no matter how evil you are in it

38. As for speaking of God's attributes, transcending
Events - it's absurd for change to befall Him

39. So this is its place, the science of theology, so let
Who wants it refer to it - he'll find it in it

40. Enough, O soul, with this address - sufficient
Return to its owner, for he is deserving of it

41. All I have said befits him, and thus is he
In what does not pertain to him particularly

42. They differed, al-Subki singular,
Both overstepping in partisanship

43. Both filled their poems with foolishness
Against each other, displaying wares of their doctrines

44. Both strayed after their shaykh
Both aggressors in their affiliations

45. But between them is a difference with which they
Differed, despite their agreement in flaws

46. The Hanbali has excuse defending
His shaykh with falsehoods befitting him

47. As for the Yemeni, the blameworthy critic
For he is wrong in confusing his pursuits

48. A Yemeni one day when meeting a Yemeni
Or finding Levantine stuff, adopting it

49. A Shafi'i? Then it's this stuff you came with
Whence did you get it? Let's see it, and we'll affirm it

50. Did al-Shafi'i say it in al-Umm absent
Or in al-Risala or whence did you come with it?

51. Did the Shaykh of Shiraz present and verify it
In a text of his reminder or refined works?

52. Or did Imam al-Ghazali state that, or
Our Imam al-Ash'ari the sage say it?

53. Or did Fakhr al-Din ever state it in his
Objectives, or Juwayni in his Guidance intend it?

54. In their jurisprudence did they mention it, or creed
All of them censured it and who says it

55. Then say I am a stuffed Hanbali without life
And absolve al-Shafi'i - you are the claimant of it

56. Had it been true you'd have preserved al-Shafi'i and not
Spared him - shame on you, among the celebrities of his school

57. When you impugned al-Subki, you impugned
The Imam and all adherents to him

58. Rather you maligned the Chosen One and all
Believers with a slander - I take refuge in Him!

59. You have lied - the worst of sayings are most lying
When you said to the Shaykh in wonder known of him

60. Come forth, you'll see the rejoinders by Allah
Like lightning bolts striking whom they pass through

61. In intellect and transmission, detailed verses
From every wondrous pang of heart made alert

62. With a bygone vigor like the sword's edge, his thought
Shows you prose and poetry in his courtesy

63. And an inspired mind, when his talent flows
Nearly feared for him from its conflagration

64. And other than that you have said vainly
Allah suffice you for what you have claimed in it

65. Had your intellect been like the sword in its sharpness
You'd have struggled against the devil misleading through it

66. Or had your mind, O arrogant one, been aflame
As you claimed, fearing its blaze

67. It would burn delusions in hearts thereby
Ruining their decay, protecting from its corrupter

68. As for your censure of al-Subki, it is
A testimony of his completion when you raved about it

69. Had you known him, you'd not have said that of him
You felt, but did not feel him

70. Are you not ashamed before the Chosen One for him, and his
Fathers - they are defenders of his procession?

71. His fathers supported him in their battalions
As he supports with works endearing through them

72. Had he nothing but his healing intercession
That would suffice - honor him and it

73. Ibn Taymiyya did services for al-Mustafa
But was not granted success in courtesy toward him

74. He says like the polytheists "the one seeking help through him"
And forbids a visitor journeying to Median abode

75. I say fie to that sin, but don't excommunicate
Him for it, though said: nay, it's shame for his sin

76. But he has abundant virtues, so thereby
Are means of pardon and grace from his Granter

77. Among them is a rebuttal of tritheism, refuting it
With a correct saying, its marvel pleasing

78. He did not follow the way of the Rejectionists
And had he seen it would show the ugliness of their doctrine

79. And Ibn Taymiyya's refutation of him was
Satisfying in its purpose and covering its aspects

80. But he mixed the evident truth with what
Clouded it - a muddiness in the limpidity of his draught

81. He tries Hanbalism wherever it may be, so he
Is assiduous, east or west, in its pursuit

82. He sees occurrences with no beginning assumed
In Allah - transcendent above what he suspects of Him

83. Were he alive to see my words and hear them
I would have repudiated what he said with unambiguous responses

84. Just as I repudiated him regarding divorce and
Abandonment of visitation, tracing its footsteps

85. After him I see no benefit in refutation
This being its essence from what I care for

86. Refutation benefits in two cases: one -
Stopping a strong opponent in his domination

87. And a situation of people's benefit where through it
Is guidance and profit among them in its acquisition

88. No guidance for people is in theology
Rather innovation and misguidance in seeking it

89. I've a hand therein but for weakness of its hearer
I would make my easily understood compilation its elegant exemplar

90. Yes, al-Subki spoke truthfully of it - verily
He presented the reality, not frivolously occupying his position

91. Among the most truthful of people are the most pious
So may Allah never pardon his denier

92. The books of Ibn Taymiyya evidence against him
In what he stuffed with doctrine

93. Whatever opposes the Sunni doctrines is said:
"Hashwiyya," and Mu'tazilite sayings we don't affirm

94. So hashwiyya is his ascription, and the Mu'tazila - ascription
Of a Sunni without doubt

95. These are their ascriptions become identifying
So their terms now are not impugning

96. The hashwiyya with them: a Sunni sticking to
Tradition, frozen regarding anything doubtful

97. He deemed belief innovation so he stuffed
That which Allah truthfully transcends from attributes befitting Him

98. Thus are factions of hashwiyya, a people possibly
Accompanied by evil beliefs we seek refuge in Him

99. Among them mushabbiha, and mujassima
May Allah sanctify a people saying them

100. As for Ibn Taymiyya among them, he is directional
Thereby warn him, and thank the warner

101. That suffices for condemnation of his innovation
Since he didn't reject its phrasing, so discard and throw it

102. Transcend Allah beyond semblance and direction
Through unseen, believe and safeguard His absentness

103. Since it is impossible for our Creator a direction
And the impossible is impossible to profess

104. Yes, conceiving of existence without direction
Is hard for non-prophetic intellects, so take heed

105. That which in revealed speech resembles
Wisdom's ruling the Prophet came with

106. If an expression's literal meaning yields
A meaning of event, we seek its avoidance

107. Within it is a secret none but Allah - Its curtains
Unveiled nor a drawn-near intimate granted it

108. And for that expression possible meanings some
Of the Imams explained, interpreting it

109. Their intent being one - transcendence of our Creator
Entrusting what came or interpreting the ambiguous

110. Submitting the matter with submission avoiding
Meanings of event as the Godhead accepts of it

111. This is the transmitted way from early pious ancestors
The Sufis all professing it

112. It is best with the Ash'arites, none among us
Refuses it, all adherents to him

113. Al-Maturidi is entrustment, his doctrine
Though he interprets, without certainty in it

114. He who seeks to comprehend the Creator is then
Beyond his hope - halted from attaining his most distant

115. Since neither jinn nor angel nor prophet
Draws nigh, the drawn-near of his drawn-near

116. The conclusion is we're believers in Him
With perfection and transcendence befitting Him

117. This is our creed concerning Allah our Creator
We stuff not, nor secede in what we profess

118. We don't excommunicate but condemn them
In religion where they erred in some aspects

119. Our brothers submitted to Allah and strove
The truth they wanted, but strayed in its branching paths

120. Despite being of prominent scholars they slipped
In some subtle matters the minds were dubious of

121. While many a weak-minded person was led aright
To the correctness, never wavering in professing it

122. The matter is Allah's - whom He guides attains guidance
And whom He leads astray, misguidance befalls him

123. We didn't fault them in every issue
For how much of their speech they succeeded upon

124. In peripheral matters and the rest of religion their doctrine
Like others, agreeing with the Noble Law through it

125. Their books, apart from the matter of their beliefs
Are oceans of knowledge - cast off for its choicest

126. But if you don't grasp their intrigues
Leave what makes you doubtful, prospering in avoiding it

127. Allah have mercy on us - His mercy
Is the pillar for every believer in Him