1. Stand by me in this ruined abode and ask it
Though its strongest stones have wasted away

2. Asking after this house does not quell the yearning
Of a heart brimful with memories that stir its sorrows

3. A longing lover’s pretexts, a rememberer’s grief
For days of joy that fleeing time has borne away

4. Though I ask not out of desire but despair
For early days whose latter course betrayal marred

5. O my two friends, had you but seen me one day
My stance, my palms pressed to my heart, thoughts streaming

6. At evening, with no patience to console me
No solace near, no tears flowing in streams

7. Then you’d have known that grief defeats all cheer
That none can rival my passion, however extreme

8. My heart, Allah, how staunchly it has borne all this!
And my patience, alas, how its strongholds have been overturned!

9. I looked upon the ruins as they carried their load
Tears flowed till my sleeve dripped from their welling stream

10. Bearing off what remained, they strode through the zodiac
Swaying gently, kind of heart though ignorant their mien

11. In their flowing robes, when the wearer walks
Hearts melt captivated by their beauty’s gleam

12. Cloaks trailing in the sand as though a hillside
Crowned by the full moon nearing its perfect team

13. When grey flecked my temples, I bade them adieu
As one parts from another unlikely to be seen again

14. I returned to wisdom and handed myself the reins
My counsel, whatever I say, echoes what I mean

15. Whoever courts fate will find his life constricted
And clothed in a coat of misery, of fabric mean

16. By a night whose darkness was lit by scintillating stars
That glittered in clusters, their melody serene

17. It cast across the horizon a canopy of dread
Fearsome in expanse, desolate the intervening scene

18. With our mounts we penetrated its folds
To a king majestic yet kind, of generous mien

19. A king who, if Hatim’s time were now
Would say “Let those with wealth be openhanded and keen!”

20. The Pillar of Guidance, Abd al-Aziz ibn Faysal
With him the edifice of unbelief fell, falsehood’s regime

21. He reached the heights while yet in the bloom of youth
Before he wavered or his foot slipped, still keen

22. His rise adorned existence, and the lands shone
With beacons of guidance, paths kept smooth and clean

23. Were unveiled the days of Kisra, Tab’a, and the era
Of Harun al-Rashid, days that set the balance between

24. They’d exclaim “Would that our first days could return
That yearning souls might re-attain what once had been!”

25. No wonder days gone by long for his return
When his qualities surpass all kings have preened

26. Religion and world he tended with beneficence
Bearing alone the burdens of the mandate unseen

27. His rule in word and deed gratified all Muslims
To the oppressed a refuge, to the weak care and screen

28. The ways of guidance, once obscured, he made clear
And reverenced the Law, upholding its demesne

29. Let his life be prolonged for people’s good
May God elevate him, and his abode keep serene!

30. So many treasures troves were opened, such glory unveiled
That his feats and virtues cannot be counted or gleaned

31. Rarely coveting, eschewing all vain wishing
His resolves, when formed, meet no obstacles convened

32. Subtle plotter, wakeful when others sleep
Feigning inattention, while nothing escapes his keen sight

33. None who petition him seeks aught but what will benefit them
Either his wisdom, his sword, or his means between

34. Say to those lulled by his mildness: when has a wolf
Ever requited a shepherd, though gently he careen?

35. Have you not seen how the sea may be coursed when calm
Yet if winds arouse it, great tempests careen?

36. Do not disturb his innate mildness
Lest your plots against him thereby multiply and teem

37. Do not think to mount the steed of rebellion
All who dare it, God will foil and their hopes demean

38. I guarantee the rebel that instead of advantage
He will pluck bitter fruit and dire final scene

39. He assumed the throne only after his enemies fell
Sundered, their ties severed, their ranks left cracked and unclean

40. His destriers trampled them under, his weapons unfurled
Till the distant lands quaked from his cannonballs’ careen

41. Power did not increase his harshness, but rather
As his dominion grew, so his pardons did stream

42. Amidst a time of discord and drought universal
Some with smiling face, yet the season is wretchedly lean

43. Incumbent upon us is obedience, ordained by the Merciful
In revealed texts and proofs unambiguous, keen

44. “Obey God and the Prophet,” He saith
And those in authority, as any rational deem

45. The Prophet said, Hear and obey
Your leaders, even should their rule angular lean

46. Whose neck bears no fealty when he dies
Meets a hellbound end—so relate those who have gleaned

47. I wonder what has deluded some of them
To deem valid an opinion whose holder is waywardly keen?

48. He will fail in religion and world, his striving is ruined
While near at hand he will suffer catastrophes unseen

49. O assembly of Koran-readers! The cry of one imploring:
Is there among you one mild-mannered I might keen?

50. Did not my Lord exact a pact from you
To counsel wisely the best course for our deen?

51. Rise to bear the Trust—on your necks
A pact whose weighty pearls bring pain to the bearer, gleam and sheen

52. When the imam makes peace with unbelievers
Deeming he cannot subdue them, however keen

53. A peace that benefits our faith and world
That spares us their evil, foils whatever they scheme

54. This is valid in law, beyond all doubt
So what rebuttal can possibly its decoder convene?

55. The accord with the Tatars should suffice
To convince those whose minds from turbid passions are clean

56. A pact concluded with the Sultan, binding
That each may go freely where’er their reins careen

57. Yet some came with wares, seeking profit
From those they traded with, heedless of what intervened

58. Desire for gain enticed them to break their vows
And they unleashed upon us woes unforeseen

59. How much wealth they seized! How much blood they shed!
How many a household weeps for its widows, its orphaned keen!

60. O Men of Islam, east and west I counsel:
Advice guided to you, though distant its origin and scene

61. Come follow the Summoner to Righteousness, cooperate
Upon piety and reverence, for such are its confederates keen

62. Go your ways, ponder, reflect, consider
You will see my warnings are clear, no crookedness convened

63. Ibn Faysal, the Muslims’ Imam, is rightly guided
By wisdom in each matter, discretely convened

64. In Nejd, before his appearance, what tumult there was!
May the separation caused by its events never be seen!

65. Men in every town locked in mutual destruction
While lions roamed outside each wall’s confines, hungry and keen

66. Between spoils stripped and spoils robbed
And the last corpse and the last killed, the killer and slain between

67. God replaced your poverty through him with a kingdom
And your degradation with honor that casts down the debased and mean

68. Under a leader whose shade covers you all
His wisdom and armament guard you, splendidly keen

69. Through him God granted us new life
Freeing us from the straits of misery and want obscene

70. To you, Commander of the Faithful, I have called out
My messages crossing the horizon’s breadth and space between

71. Whenever the echoing camel song extols you
It trips along, rousing the slumbering mount to careen

72. I pray God keeps you in safety, while my home
Far from you remains, though the roads to you yearn intervene

73. I quote verses that another of times past spoke
Poetry dies not, though death takes its sayer unseen:

74. If eyes gain a glance of you but fleeting
For that I will thank my riding beast, however it lean

75. I swear as long as I live, I will thank your blessings
That the warbling songbirds incessantly hymn and keen

76. Circling the world, glorifying you in verse
That melts even the coldest heart, however it wean

77. At it the mount speeds up, the rider urged on
While your noblemen vie in its rhythms careening scene

78. And I conclude with a prayer of surrender
Upon the best prophet sent to those who glean

79. His excellent Companions, Family, and House
As the stars parade then set, but never the cycle careen