1. Alas, O soul, what a procrastinator you are!
How long this delusion with the impossible?

2. How much forgetfulness, frivolity and jest!
How drawn to the abode of decline!

3. How preoccupied with fruitless deeds,
How covetous of renown and wealth!

4. How oft you shy from praiseworthy acts,
How oft commit ugliest deeds!

5. How oft you left me to worldliness,
How oft retreat from noble goals!

6. By my life, this act of yours
Shows forgetfulness of leaving's affair.

7. Nay, by God, the cause of holding back
From praiseworthy deeds and words,

8. And choosing stillness in matters
That lead their owner to ruin,

9. Is but two things: either doubt in what
The All-Dominant Lord of Majesty promised,

10. Or neglect mixed with stupidity
And the fantastical thoughts of layman and ignoramus.

11. Oh my regret, grief and sorrow
For what was from me in passed days!

12. My remorse for time wasted
In preferring an abode

13. Whose reality is like a mirage,
Like a vanishing shadow or a sleep's reverie,

14. Swiftly waning into dissolution.
Its bliss passes quickly by

15. And its seeker becomes afflicted.
The life of this world is not lasting,

16. Only we leave it by death and transition
To a tremendous grave wherein we meet

17. What befits us of requital.
Suffices you what we attain!

18. And we remain in our tombs till the resurrection,
At the blowing of the horn on Judgment Day,

19. And stand a difficult, momentous stand,
With each soul coming for its reckoning,

20. And scales set for weighing
The records in the right hand and the left:

21. Discussion and examination - either
For bliss or painful torment.

22. Lo, none feels secure beyond it,
Save those of perfected hearts.

23. Those of intellect well know the path:
Seeking perfection in good deeds,

24. Weaning the soul from accustomed fortune,
Rejecting ephemera without ceremony,

25. Thirsting to emigrate and seclude
From evildoers, keeping late vigils,

26. Devoting oneself in destitution
And turning to the Master of Masters -

27. One God, Almighty, All-Capable,
Great of repute, Granter of gifts,

28. Exalted above incarnating in forms,
Transcending likenesses and examples -

29. We profess His Oneness, thank Him and praise Him,
And beseech Him in supplication

30. To enable us for what pleases Him,
And steady us in the roll of men,

31. And reform us and grant us bliss
In life and in the final return,

32. And make the best of prayers from us
Be upon the best of messengers in every state,

33. With greetings enveloping him and his
Noble companions - the generous kin.