1. How many nobles it contained, white of face
Lofty of faith, pillars of belief

2. Helping one another in religion and piety
Privately and openly, for God

3. Well-mannered, embodying all virtues, sacrificing
His desires and honour to protect

4. And leaders who compiled all knowledge and refined
The canon of hadeeth and the unclear Quran

5. Scholars, if asked, dispelled blindness
With jurisprudence, eloquence and clarity

6. And if matters became confused and entangled
With closed doors and disputing litigants

7. They solved every difficult, ambiguous issue
With clear proof and lucid demonstration

8. They forsook beds devoutly obedient to their Lord
Seeking the best secluded and open

9. You would see them humble themselves praying
Like monks pray humbly

10. In the Garden of Paradise, most honoured dwelling
Between beautiful youths and houris

11. Trading it through their profits
What fine trade - obeying the Merciful

12. Godfearing, fearing God truly
Knowing the devils' tricks fully

13. You see the tyrants of kings before them
Bowing heads, necks bent

14. Unable to speak in awe
Except signalling with eyes and eyebrows

15. They feared God so He made all creation fear them
Even the young lions in the thickets

16. Their awe makes you forget the pride
Of every sovereign and feared sultan

17. Their dreams weigh mountains and their superiority
Is like the unconcealed sun

18. The Kairouan was counted with them whenever
Pulpits were the jewel of cities

19. It excelled over Egypt and rightly so, as it boasts
And prevails over Baghdad

20. It became beautiful and when its beauty was complete
And every glance was raised to it

21. And all its combined virtues
As the abode of security and faith

22. Days viewed it intensely
Peering intensely, spying

23. Till when destinies stoked its fall
And decree drew near after some time

24. They gifted it a pitch-black evil youth
Who wanted it like a persistent suitor

25. With terrible calamities at the hands of abusive Fadis
Who gathered from the Banu Dahman tribe

26. How could they feel safe from God's punishment attacking
Mohammed's community in Ramadan?

27. They violated protected covenants and disgraced
God's charter without fulfilling guarantees

28. They relished betraying neighbours and preferred
Enslaving inviolable womanhood and unveiling ladies

29. They humiliated them with evil torment openly
Oppressing spitefully like poisonous snakes

30. And Muslims were divided, captured by the rebels'
Hands, degraded and disgraced

31. Whether compelled, tormented or unjustly killed, or
Naked and destitute

32. Screaming for help but voices remain unanswered
Until they despaired, tired out

33. They fled in misery, having exhausted and emptied
All they collected of silent or vocal goods

34. Having taken all essence and trappings
Rarities, treasures and utensils

35. They left barefoot seeking refuge in God
From fear and calamities of every kind

36. Fleeing with each infant, child and widow
And mare and stallion

37. And with each virgin like frightened gazelle
Captivating intellects with a glance

38. Cheeks showing through sheer veils as if
A shining moon appears over Ban rods

39. And the populous mosque, Uqbah's revered old
A place now deserted, dark and ruined

40. Desolate - no more congregations there
For five daily prayers or the call to prayer

41. A house God was worshipped now empty
After idol worship of idols returned

42. A house built by God's revelation
What fine builder and structure!

43. With that disaster too great to dispel
Never ending heartache and suffering

44. If Thahlan was hit with one-tenth
Thahlan would have been utterly devastated

45. The Iraqi towns are sad as are
Levant, Egypt the Khurasan towns

46. Even faraway lands like India and Sind shook
And lamented in grief and mourning

47. Emptied from its end to end, what was between
Andalucia till Khorasan suffered

48. I see the stars appearing not as before
Dark in the horizon and moons eclipsed

49. And mountains shaken, yellowed in grief
Quivering, unstable

50. The earth after that calamity
Became imbalanced and tilted

51. Will nights unite us after what they did?
Will days return the old condition?

52. Returning Kairouan to its former position
To eras of old long gone-by

53. After days took away its beauty and magnificence
And conflicted groups differed over it

54. Becoming as if never independent and never
A revered land unconquered by anyone

55. Now that fate had played with its inhabitants
And generations alternated in torturing it

56. Scattering them far after being together
On lands, divided on homelands