1. God willed that victory be yours,
That faith destroy what disbelief built,

2. That medicines, after curing,
Return shame upon its tracks, disgrace and subjugation,

3. So that an opening whose sword slew them triumphs,
And the light of religion whose mention brings good news shines.

4. With Sa'd whom God endowed with awe,
And the radiance of whose light, flowers ignite,

5. Below the Romans’ ambitions however high they climbed,
Are necklaces of necks, snapped twigs,

6. And stallions that race them
Whose eyes are blue and bodies red.

7. When loosed to stab they race as though
Their stabbing each neck were in doubt for every winner.

8. I liken them to drops that shimmer
On branch ends that treachery besieges.

9. In animal interiors were lodged
Their downpours, Zanj arrows, not raindrops,

10. And steeds you see eclipse their steeds
As though the desert’s born were donkeys, not horses.

11. As though hawks wore shields on them
So their claws are iron and their visions embers

12. And red bloods like wines they drank
Till leaves once green in the meadow turned red.

13. The yellow sons of Byzantines yellowed in fear
So hands that sought anything gained only yellow.

14. They gathered like flocks of wild cats in their lands
And rallied each far reach into bands.

15. When their masses rode the throng
Whose horizons seethed with harm,

16. God’s armies turned them in the winds.
No creature can withstand its war.

17. How many ranks of them as they fled
Were drowned in the abundance of waves or captive!

18. The beasts of the sea drank them in
With no part in a shroud or a grave.

19. If a portion escaped, safe passage denied them
By savage, raging seas, that portion was ruined.

20. How many fleets they brought like locusts
Darkening, too narrow for their breadth the sea

21. And cavalry cramming ships though consigned
To battle without advantage or retreat.

22. Their horsemen rode their mares
But abjection and panic cast them off.

23. Loot they gifted you though no reward
Could repay or thank he who exalted and aided you.

24. Ask Dimashq about them. You’ll hear how
On an isle they were cut down in droves.

25. They won only illusory booty which lied to them
And failing to gain it, failed in their castle.

26. They sold themselves cheap in a losing deal.
Did they profit? Did they lose?

27. Greedy, they hoped to furnish wings for it
To soar as an eagle over them.

28. They plotted with it to hunt the lands and loot them
But rose, its ten feathers clipped,

29. They sampled with it straits too cramped
As spirits cramp at death in chests.

30. How they strove to ransom their lives
With their weights in dust but no dust was accepted.

31. There Islam healed its rage with them
With a piercing, rending blow.

32. They saw your gifts and in them
For the enemy’s glory, matters that perturbed them,

33. As if the celestial towers pelted them
With meteors of flame and no ember.

34. How far did their ignorance in delusion stretch
Had they no wise man, no reason?

35. How they divided in guesswork miles of our land
When they encountered no scent of a bird

36. To wet their thirst if mirages withered!
Did not our lands conquer theirs, theirs in name only,

37. Successive disbelief begetting disbelief?
Were not the keys to the lands our swords

38. When hardship unlocked them?
Did not the harm of Rīya’s conquest reach

39. And shake its power from Sicily’s end?
Did not their invading army capture their delicate women

40. So after each aged crone a virgin followed?
Coffers in which were the heads of their ancestors

41. Still filled with their molars today?
If you asked the passing wind about them all

42. It would tell of every hero slain among them.
Not by fierce combat were the people killed

43. But few they were, encircled by hordes.
Will a foreigner dilute the Arabs’ spring?

44. When she surges in rage, no dilution in her strike!
Every shout came over them

45. As a lion’s roar startles gazelles.
Then winds came, the winds their steeds,

46. The cords of the true religion braced.
First they relinquished injustice—every insolent

47. Brigand’s torment in his nature.
The bold among them rushed to confront

48. So many a report verifies reports.
The tribes of Duhman poured into war’s tumult

49. With every hero sweetening it with his courage.
Faces rose with glory against misguidance

50. Battlements when Bater opposed it.
The sons of Zayd attacked all who snarled

51. And the meadows’ secrets were loud in their palms.
Ibn Ziyad came with boulders but the fortress resisted

52. With fangs that foiled each breach.
A massive sea surging with war

53. His body refused it; his hand held back rivers.
Between the Romans and the sea he stood so they slipped

54. Back to their hold until the hold brought ruin.
Nomads persisted in waging holy war on foreigners

55. Pigs roused to war by lions enraged.
When told, “O people of strongholds,” they answered readily

56. With assistants among whom eyes were blue.
Squadrons of all the tribes came

57. To fulfill a duty neglecting which no excuse.
God Almighty ennobled through them the religion of Muhammad

58. And guaranteed its defense.
Every sword that rivaled them

59. Were tribes satisfying highland and lowland.
If a tumultuous sea surged among their milky pools

60. Aid came from us and the land seethed like the sea.
The son of ʿAlī protected the religion’s precinct

61. Like a predator with bloodied claws.
A sovereign whose sovereignty is greater nature

62. God refused a mingling of grandeur.
A father like the sword’s edge, no false sharpness,

63. When the ignited blade’s gleam wanes.
He both lunges with spear and sword. His palm

64. Wields members that gather eternal fame.
No more than a splendid, crowned sovereign

65. Whose open hands pour bounty so no poverty.
As though a loving cup pouring its excess

66. While the moon hides from its pouring.
Whenever his name graces a gathering

67. Glory clings like a train to its fringes.
So he remains as God’s oneness his haven

68. The world weighed by him as time serves him.