1. Despite the best year of non-Arabs and Arabs
Their mosques have become for vanity and play

2. The one Allah blessed him did not order us
To beat drums, flutes or reeds

3. But he blocked the shepherd’s ears from the piper’s tune
To protect them and us from such play

4. Your Lord blamed a people whose deeds
Were less than your deeds, you polytheist Arabs

5. Their prayers in the house were merely
Pagan rites in times past

6. That is, whistling and clapping, so your acts
Are uglier, so do not tire

7. For clapping hands instead of drums is better
And whistling mouths not like reed whistles

8. He did not blame their hand clapping for their own sake
Since with their disbelief, this was not intended

9. But he blamed their act to warn us
Against sharing with them what brings wrath

10. And doing anything in His mosques
Other than worship, Quran and drawing near

11. And to establish evidence against you in the Book
That will suffice every pursuer

12. Knowing how His law encounters
Your turning away from it backwards

13. You disgraced us and made our protected mosques
Like taverns for play

14. You disturbed the religion, changed its beauties
And did to it what fire does to kindling

15. Whoever among you claimed, “I am God,” built a reputation
And station above all ranks

16. And if you asked why your friend said this
This saying of the apostate liar

17. You said he was devout, so he denied it himself
And stayed with His Lord, and He is He in every situation

18. And some of you said that God told him:
“Ask of My lowest slaves what you wish”

19. I saw him dictate it in Hindi characters
Written with you in the worst writings

20. I saw him and other men with me
So they all clapped hands in play

21. And they were amazed at his daring
And taking on tremendous disbelief and lies

22. Do you conceal his words
Without zeal for the Creator and wrath?

23. You hid them by counting letters so
The flaws you hide would be obscured from people

24. I seek refuge in God from mentioning your words
For the free man is burned by nearing flames

25. So no one has ever disgraced the Prophet
With saying anything like your lies

26. You made his religion mockery and joke
For every pagan of every prophet’s people

27. Never! By God what flaw is in his religion?
No criticism for one who pursues right

28. He never called us to what would be blamed
Or to deeds that dishonor the noble

29. Look at his commands, prohibitions
And beauties in beginning and end

30. I am amazed by those who prohibit gathering
To fulfill desires in Rajab or Sha’ban

31. And say it is prohibited innovation
So its doer has no reward but fatigue

32. Yet he permitted gathering in our mosques
For frivolity, drum beating and reed playing

33. You accepted this deed in your mosques
And said it is inheritance from father and forefather

34. So do not impose on us in our mosques
For they were made for companions and books

35. For prayer, glorification, not for vanity
Tempting a man with clapping though not a boy

36. Refrain from God’s houses and do
What you wish, dance and drag yourselves on knees

37. With no precedent of the Prophet or
His family, companions and nobles

38. They said we dance as the Ethiopians danced
In the mosque of the Chosen, we said: no lies!

39. The Ethiopians did not dance, but played
Tools of war with dangling breasts and wrappings

40. And that play is recommended to learn
In law for battle, training every fool

41. Do not use as evidence what the Ethiopians said
In the Prophet’s presence without objection or rebuke

42. And he turned his hearing away and withdrew quickly
Without changing course

43. And did what the Lord of the worlds criticized
Lesser deeds than this by every committer

44. And he said plenty in sanctifying his mosque
From stories that suffice the seekers

45. Like his words in a lost ode:
May God not return the infidel’s talk to this mosque

46. The ugliest belief you hold is
That worship contains any ecstasy

47. So God did not blame the polytheists for whistling
And clapping at God’s House in play

48. But blamed them because play became like
Prayer to them and counted it nearness

49. Admit, if you wish, their prayer was to learn
More how ugly the deed is for its reason

50. Your Lord never said: “Shout and dance!”
But said: “Pray, fast, and beware My wrath!”

51. As you said, the Ethiopians danced,
Are they imitated in religion by the well-mannered?

52. Since they are slaves and followers of communists,
Returning to no mind or manners

53. Dancing does not shame them, for our Prophet
Would not rebuke them for it, but the noble would be shamed

54. Did any companion dance with them
Of Al Hashim or other Arabs?

55. Never! Those are purer and more chaste
Than undertaking any such disgrace

56. The dancer lacks integrity, his witness rejected
For the dancer has no honor in lineage

57. Honor is religion’s root; if lacking,
Your religion lacks, so maintain it

58. You said women played drums on feast day
And were not prohibited from play

59. Rather, the best of creation said “Let them,”
It was our feast, so we said: What wonder in that?

60. For women went out on the day of arrival
Beating drums before the veil's command

61. Drum beating for women is not ugly
Especially if done for a reason

62. Women have special issues
Unlike men, like wearing anklets and gold

63. By God, these arguments’ paths
Among arguments are the weakest paths

64. You have pretentiously attributed what
To His honor exposes your side, O stranger!

65. You have erred, by God. The Prophet and none
Beneath him were described as you described in manners

66. For singing is banner of the misguided. You have
Tempted the doubters with doubt and confusion

67. How you rejoice in sayings that
Degrade mosques, or touch a prophet!

68. You repeat the Ethiopians entering his
Mosque, that singular day without precedent

69. Perhaps that was the day they removed
The roof and gathered wood for its beams

70. And you said Ibn Ajil used to attend
The most honored, and this is the peak of manners!

71. So I said its meaning prohibits, prevents
In the custom of eloquent, clear Arabic

72. It does not mean he entered, his piety prevented him
From shepherding every despised place

73. You substituted a “dha” for the “tha” in your words
Whoever listens badly, speaks badly in answer

74. Say, O Ibn Harun, to the tempting one of your mosque,
The people of knowledge, remind him his duty, do not neglect

75. Ask him by what he does not reject
And those who orbit God’s House of curtains

76. Did circles around Ahmad of Islam’s companions
Gather with a singer like you

77. To beat drums and flutes in his mosque center
Sitting until some stood up

78. In a herd’s revolution without calm
Some dancing disturbed, others falling unconscious still

79. With drums and singing voices in his mosque’s midst - answer if called!
If you say no, have you succeeded where they forbade

80. And hit the mark where the best messengers missed?
Have you surpassed in good by making

81. Yourselves rams out of wonder for people?
If it were good, the earliest would have been

82. First to it before you, so turn back
But they avoided vanities, prohibiting

83. Avoiding vanities, every avoider
You said singing is permitted frivolity for us

84. You increased our wonder, O Abu Al-Abbas
You made yourselves saints though you

85. Confessed frivolity and play
Retain this or that, and leave

86. This descent to despised ashes
O Ibn Harun, do not let critics sway you

87. Regarding God, break them with truth and expect reward
And say to whoever claims the holy Junayd

88. Has a Sufi order: Ignorant saying!
With Junayd and rulings like his I was content

89. To whitewash gazelles from Hallaj and Khadhab’s blood
Those are people firmly on the straight path

90. While between you and them a lineage
They vanished from people, self-sufficient with their Creator

91. From what you are tempted by of rank
Their asceticism was multiples of your greed

92. For pots, status, lineage love
Read the letter and see their asceticism

93. Beyond yours for the world, O dogs!
Do not mention them, you are not on their path

94. Never! Where is Pleiades to dirt?
Not every water is pure when spilled

95. No! Nor every lightning truthful rain
You said whenever they faced an obscure matter

96. The listener listened without answering
Do you mean sayings of Al-Fusus extolling

97. Idols, crosses - saying this is part of our Lord
And their worshipers have truth, not lying

98. Pharaoh's claim to godhood was truthful, no doubt
And that Aad gained the sweet union and nearness

99. From our Lord? If this obscurity you mean
And forbid people from, then expect

100. Wrath from God unless you judge fairly and repent
For God forgives the servant’s sin if he repents

101. You said he revived religion and ruled
Had he revived it, he would not have mixed or doubted

102. And cast for you in the path things
You never found, O firewood carriers!

103. What led him to say what borders on
Infidelity, every adherer pulled?

104. They said: Al-Nashiri’s family was amazed
At my avoiding their brother, extremely amazed

105. It was said: Why did I not debate him the morning after
Meeting in truth what ordeals met?

106. So I said: Wait - As for Ahmad, a zealous
Youth who rebuked in God and raged

107. My excuse is in his time I did not find
Al-Fusus, this disbelief and lies

108. Listening to them while unlawful in law
And its people make unlawful what defeats

109. So I had no cause, but now one rose to demand
Revenge from him, whatever the demand

110. One who said singing and drums do not befit
A mosque’s center by morning is prone to harm

111. Al-Harazi issued a ruling prohibiting singing, so he was exiled
Like a leper exiled from the land

112. Then the jurist Ibn Nur Al-Din expelled him
The pious one, and exposed his situation

113. And Ibn Harun has affairs in his mosque
My eyes rain tears for every lamenter

114. The livelihood of scholars has fallen in his hands
Like a trap snaring whoever turns to him

115. Whoever of them is pliant to frivolity
Is full, and whoever is prudent, dies of hunger

116. How many worn garments have agreed with him
On Al-Fusus, those books

117. For the most trivial food he pretends to give
Or perhaps grants nothing but fatigue

118. I wonder, if the Antichrist reaches them
And they see the valley of gold behind him

119. Who will block him with steadfastness on the path?
Who will escape the fleeing?

120. This is what moved my resolve with its motives
Am I blamed if I speak any rebuke?

121. They said: He aggravated you in things he intends
And this is the result of rage and tiredness

122. I said: Intentions are hidden, so judge my words -
Did I incline or stray in my anger’s injustice?

123. The just rage, but it does not take him
Outside the sanctuary of truth, wrath or enmity

124. Much rage aids the alive in
Carrying out an ordained duty beyond his strength

125. I denounce the man of knowledge whose deviation
Leads desire astray from truth or casts him into ruins

126. Or aids religion while the ignorant slight him
And he is too shy or regards companions’ sanctity

127. O people of knowledge, disbelief is read among you
And if asked, you say: No answer can be given

128. What is your fear? By my Lord, even if your
Ruler forced faith less than a mother or father

129. Why do some of you incline from greed
While others refuse and disdain confusion?

130. I stood alone calling between you
And none of you answered or got up

131. If what he said is true, O scholars
Clarify and relieve us of fatigue

132. But if his saying is disbelief, with followers
In disbelief walking its narrowest paths

133. Then carry your knowledge to a king
God-protected, assigned to God

134. Your silence emboldened him to it and suggested
There is leniency in the matter for committers

135. No opponents of the best of messengers but you
You disfigured it while you are its gold nuggets

136. What has happened to its might after glory?
The head has become where the tail was

137. Ugly, its beauties all gone
Its body bare of its rough garments

138. Captive among enemies whose leader said:
“Drums have more virtue than books”

139. Disgraced among people dancing with it
In villages, doors and open spaces

140. Tears rain when I remember that protection
Between knowledge and manners

141. O Lord if its cause is error from us
Grant it to us for its sake and turn

142. And send Your prophet, fulfill his promises
To protect his nation from this confusion

143. O Lord, do not disgrace it and carry out its orders
Like its customs among non-Arabs and Arabs

144. If this world has passed
And these are the first signs and news

145. With fitnas after it, fitnas upon fitnas
Ignorance in highlands, knowledge in ruins

146. The world’s interior is better than its surface
So the sheltered live better than the shelterless