1. You are the prophet's successor enjoying
Supreme authority over all creatures;

2. Obeying you is believing in Allah and guidance,
While disobeying you is blasphemy and unbelief.

3. Were it not for you, no believer's faith would be valid,
Neither his prayer nor vow would be accepted.

4. Command time as you wish, for it
Rules according to your order.

5. Your stalwarts ready to fight the foe
Are armor-clad swordsmen and select horsemen.

6. You are Allah's trustee over us and the prophet's heir;
To you belongs the right to rule.

7. You are the imam and guide whose justice
Has spread all over, killing poverty first of all.

8. Eulogists fall short of enumerating your attributes,
While poets are too humble to praise you enough.

9. Those whose glory the Qur'an has proclaimed,
Cannot be ever praised enough by prose or verse.

10. How can the sea be compared to your liberal hands
When what you hold in one palm is more than all the sea?

11. The full moon borrows its light from your face;
How can the full moon shine without your light?

12. It would be unfair if a drop of your blessings
Were equaled with rain pouring all over people.

13. How can time be belittled when only
Days, years and centuries are belittled by it?

14. The sky is jealous of your walk on earth,
And of the stars that illuminate your path.

15. Through your ancestors, revelation used to come down
To the angels, and the Book was revealed in their homes.

16. Through their glory, Quraysh and Hashim gained leadership;
Before them, neither Kananah nor Nidhar had it.

17. Seeking their support is salvation
Without which no sinner's burden would be removed.

18. It was through them that the precinct of Mecca gained nobility
As well as Safa, Zamzam, the Inviolable House and the Black Stone.

19. How could any group be proud among mankind
When through your father, Adam will take pride on the Day of Judgment?

20. O prince of the faithful, you are a treasure
To their offspring; may their mention ever be blessed!

21. When the foes persisted in aggression,
Allah granted you victory over them.

22. How many warnings did your speeches give them,
But neither warning nor threat did benefit the warned!

23. The calm nights deluded them, and they did not know
That nights are infamous for being treacherous.

24. You showed them in your anger open death
When your secrets and proclamations became all the same.

25. They pleasure in seeing war dressed
In black robes and reddish raiment.

26. Allah decreed humiliation and death for them
As they ran away, while death and fleeing chased them.

27. Had they been patient, they would have died honorably,
But patience betrayed them during misfortune.

28. Their death was better for them than
Their disgraceful escape and humiliating capture.

29. Their tongues were unable to speak out of thirst,
And the swords spared them not their piercing.

30. Had you wished, you could have let their tongues speak
And made the tongueless Indian swords speak eloquently,

31. You did not annihilate them out of pity,
Rather, you left them alone till distress destroyed them

32. You made them fearful wherever they went,
So much so that every path led them to a spy ambushing them;

33. Even the vast expanse of Malik's territory was narrow for them,
And its towns were frightening, valleys mere traps.

34. Their dreams scared them during the year of insurrection,
And upon waking, fear overwhelmed them at dawn.

35. As though the white dawn were your spears
And the dark night the harbinger of your advent.

36. Their sighs are so intense that
When they drink water, it boils like embers in fire.

37. They plotted wickedly before daybreak,
Thus the evils of plotting and scheming backfired on them.

38. Their homelands became fed up with them
So much so that homelands casting out their inhabitants was legitimized.

39. The songs sung for them by mourning women under the dust
Were accompanied by black-robed women on gray mounts

40. Thus did they become the talk of every country and
A lesson for others, while their treasures were all plundered

41. And their residences became vacant and deserted.
Many a morning does not carry an evening in its wings

42. And many an evening carries no morning in its womb!
The steeds of death raced with them exhilarated

43. And still expect more from their remaining number.
Thus, neither a fort nor a protective quarter

44. Could avail them, nor could wealth or plenty do so.
The choice detachments of Mansur's horsemen

45. Could be stopped by none and accept no excuse.
Can victory ever forsake an army raising the standard

46. Of `Nasr' and whose soldiers wear its insignia on their sleeves?
I swear by God had they come to you repentant,

47. You would have met them excitedly and pleasantly!
Let not those who antagonize

48. Your rule covet any hope to undermine it
Nor let them seek any excuse, since God

49. Accepts no excuse when one commits a sin.
Had it not been for the guiding imam and his views,

50. The foundations of Islam would have collapsed and gaping holes opened in its domain.
It is through him that God granted the caliphate stability

51. After much dissension, treachery and discord.
Who can inform the son of Hanif who lies buried

52. Under the ground or al-Mu`izz in his grave
That the rights have been restored through his reign

53. And Egypt conquered again after he had almost lost it?
The dark and depressing nights were followed

54. Through him by brightly lit days.
We cannot thank him enough for the rewards he gave us,

55. For our own thanksgiving falls short of being adequate;
Rather, we glorify and pray for him

56. Though he does not stand in need of our prayers.
In our nights and days, we implore God

57. To prolong for him his stay.
When hopes lodged us at his door,

58. We found out that one distress follow another:
Poetry today has to stand at his door

59. In need of the nobility his hands dispense,
And though my poetry may be independent in praising his glory,

60. Yet the cream of poetry is what praises him.
Narrated by the poets as they traverse the land,

61. Seeking anecdotes before other bards,
And drawing their swords before others unsheathe...

62. Though generous of praise, my share of its benefits
Remained too little to be praised.

63. Which, when it meets the minds and moods, is sheer magic!
It is delicate and solid,

64. Like water intermingled with wine's strainer.
Not everyone who eulogized you is a poet,

65. Nor is everything recited to you called poetry!