1. Grant the full moon's light may some day fade,
Or the bare pole star plummet and fail;

2. Or seas may lack for want of their fluid store,
Or favors curdle, or bloom burst and pale;

3. Would it then seem a laughing matter, like the jeering
Of mankind when the saintly scholar died,

4. A jeering that makes even the staid soul boil
With rage at what the mindless fool implied?

5. "Preach patience," you say. But what patience avails
After Ibn Ibrahim, that spotless pearl?

6. The full moon of knowledge has set; you're orphaned,
As dust on the grave rises up in a swirl.

7. He brought to life Ahmad's beauteous Law,
Made plain from it problems that confuse and whirl.

8. When knots of knowledge harassed us, we took refuge with him;
All difficult questions he would disenturl.

9. The noble Tradition--through him did it shine;
Its lines of transmission through him were unfurled.

10. He roamed far out in the sea of Qur'anic commentaries,
While by his side each scholar would falter and curl.

11. He circled with skill through the sources legal and rational--
None to compare among those fettered and hurled!

12. Of rhetoric he built up the crumbling wall,
And by it did climb high and haul up his word.

13. He drew to himself all branches of knowledge entire,
Each one hastened to him, the first and last unfurled.

14. Wherever he paused in his wanderings east and west
The sciences too paused, bound by an unseen cord.

15. His steps matched those of the first generation;
He kept to the clear proof, swerving not right or left.

16. No affectation mingled with his profound learning,
No pedantry, posing, or arrogant claim to know.

17. But the goal of his steady purpose in speech and deed
Was to achieve what is best--nothing less would do.

18. In all his long life he never let slip from his mind
The pursuit of high excellence--none could make it so.

19. And if ever worldly enticements glistened,
He would spurn them and onward march with unfaltering tread.

20. O you who trod the path of detachment to the end,
And fulfilled your mission, with nothing to slow your pace,

21. How unsullied the garment of abstinence you wore,
Uncontaminated by food or dwelling place!

22. You never engaged in talk unconcerned with your goal,
Never slipped into company you would disgrace.

23. As you passed your days, they decked themselves in your virtues
By which ages gone by were adorned and made mellow.