1. My heart bears not the test of separation, though I steel it to patience
No solace amidst love but the most bitter fruit we reap

2. Parting has broken all ties that once bound us close
Kinship avails not when love and fate decree we part

3. Would that he who so torments me with his absence
Confuse the lover from the friend and bewilder them

4. Would that he who has wronged me so
Leave me some comfort in life, however meager

5. No night have I kept vigil, wakeful for his promised coming
But to the tryst he sends instead warning of our parting

6. A sapling, soft branch and tender leaf
Exquisite in beauty, in the bloom of youth

7. Curse the one who wakes at dawn’s crescent
Or watches the sands for what fate they portend

8. You who once owned my heart then denied me wrongfully
After having known me - how you disavowed our bond

9. For you, the sacrifice of my youth; though shielded
You fear the approach of death and keep warning

10. No desire have I in this life sought
But that the attainment prove difficult and elusive

11. No lucky star governed my destiny
But that fortune always my hopes evade

12. How many a fool’s steps have led him ahead
While the virtuous man is spurned and cast out

13. Yet merit, in the end, is its own reward
No man of worth does time itself abandon

14. Enough that this age is crooked in its course
Glory to the son of Ali, since his light we behold

15. Al-Qarawi, whose virtues approach so closely
The foremost of knowledge - how can minds comprehend?

16. Blessed his countenance, radiating joy
In every matter, through sorrow, an ease he renders

17. He turned unbelief back on its heels
When passion drew the sword of violence against him

18. The truth he made clear, though the world be darkened
Just leadership throughout the land his legacy

19. How often he prayed, seeking from his Lord
Succor in what his Lord alone determines

20. If a priest but glimpsed what his eloquence contains
Of reverence - it would humble his arrogance

21. Or if he hoped to grasp the import of his deeds
This age would weary and confound him

22. To you the fruits of merit come to bloom
In every line his pen etched upon the parchment

23. No tangled knot but he makes plain
No rising crisis but he resolves

24. No lion complaining of the tyranny of a wolf
Whose case before him does not meet with victory

25. Of a family who gained supremacy
And in merit surpassed all other men

26. They upheld the faith of the Lord of the Throne
As the Guide commanded, they carried out his decree

27. May they endure, and endure perpetual
In the blessing they attained in such abundance