1. By His might alone, not mine, is any might,
By His aid did I make manifest my cause through the sword,

2. And I am not as the ignorant say,
That I aspired to supremacy through power and prevention,

3. But rather he only stood up for pleasure,
Or else he would have faltered, or to show off his reputation,

4. And I did not stand up, by the Merciful, except for His word,
Exalted, Exalted, “You were the best nation,”

5. Until His saying, glory be to Him, “And let there be
Among you a nation calling to good,” O my creation!

6. So I stood up, humble, submissive, modest,
Responding to the Possessor of Bounty in fear and hope,

7. And I severed my own pleasures and bridled my desires,
And parted from loved ones and emptied my quarters,

8. And I held back on the day of battle the forearms of contention,
And I unsheathed my sword and collided with my resolve,

9. And I met the gates of battles opened
To their locks, that I may encounter my demise,

10. If selling the soul is the highest rank,
Then by selling the soul in truth I raised my station,

11. And know as well that if I were to be killed,
I would not have sold it for the price of Heaven,

12. So do not grieve that reliance is my forgiveness,
And certainty my armor, and truth my garden,

13. In my palm is lightning like a shooting star,
And my day of ascendance is the day I meet my death,

14. And the day I see the maidens wiping my dirt,
A martyr, or the buzzards rending my corpse,

15. And if all the people of Earth together turned
Against me, they would not unsettle my heart by their number,

16. And the most they decree is that my death has come
And the flash of hellfire is worse than a thousand deaths,

17. So how could it be when there is no escape for one inside
And every torment falls short of describing it?

18. After reciting the mention, O Salm, I seek
A warner, and in it is all preaching and admonition,

19. So if you, O Salma, do not deter me
From all sin and slip,

20. The bloom of the world, though great its worth,
And its pleasures, is but a fleeting moment,

21. And it only kills the deluded when he sees
Its radiance, or is in a state of happiness,

22. When every lowlife and fool competes in it,
And the sensible have divorced it with no returning,

23. And whoever prefers the world is in God’s view
No better than a monkey, dog, or louse,

24. And whoever fears other than God is as if
He were on the verge of a crumbling precipice,

25. I am humbled before the Giver of Bounty in worship,
And I do not concede to His enemies with humiliation,

26. When I consent to wearing the garb of humiliation,
Lofty and in my states of youth and childhood,

27. Ask me, did any see me compelled otherwise than defiant,
Flattering in my livelihood to sweeten my life?

28. I am the honest man whom you know,
And I was not different yesterday that you knew my nature,

29. Or did I say what I said in honesty while
I am harsh and you mean only to reprove my coldness?

30. Gently, I stand now, O Salma, only to convey my argument,
And when I fight a people, then I fight them with God as my faction and victory,

31. I will remove the plight of the oppressed through might
When I clothe the transgressor in the garb of misery,

32. I will show you, whether I live an age or die,
That none will be ignorant of what was my determined course,

33. That the religion of truth is my religion, and that
I elucidate some of its tenets in my ode,

34. I say that none should rule but the Exalted,
Nor obedience to one embarked on sacrilege,

35. I see people either as ungrateful unbelievers,
Idol worshipers, or people of the pledge,

36. And a tyrant ruler, and one who in his error
Doubts, and who aids him with inviolability,

37. And that jihad against the worlds is a duty
When they are able, with provision and equipment,

38. And when half the corrupters equal their number,
But if they refrain with that, they incur wrath,

39. With the pact of a just imam after consultation,
Who establishes God’s law among them judiciously,

40. And war on the people of pure monotheism is obligatory if they transgress
Or usurp the authority of the sinful commanders,

41. And if they violate a limit of God and oppose
The imam of guidance or renew a pledge of allegiance,

42. Thus we punish the sinners by cutting off
Their resources along with cutting all leniency,

43. And we sever the rope of the corrupt when they rebel
By swaying the brown and lofty spears,

44. And capturing their women and plundering their men
Is unlawful, and likewise killing them without a call,

45. Except what war spoils and supplies we obtained
When we wrested them from the source of all tribulation,

46. And if their children die during their state of war,
Then there is no harm in what the majority of our call say,

47. And their proof in that, if they want,
Is that they undermine and eradicate it with sacrifice,

48. And if in war we come upon pilgrim mounts,
We take the animals of those present for a fee,

49. And every period after that, judgment belongs to
Whoever is among the people of wisdom,

50. As for Christians and Jews, we curb harm
From them by collecting the jizya tax,

51. And if they fight, their blood becomes licit
And expelling them along with every boy and girl,

52. Until they acknowledge the Prophet Muhammad
And what he brought as true, decisively with proof,

53. And capturing polytheists’ women and wealth
And killing them is permitted covertly and openly

54. Until they obey the Muslims and leave
Polytheism for Islam with good intentions,

55. And whoever repents of all creatures is not harmed
In what is blessed for whoever comes with repentance,

56. If that repentance is before we overpower him,
Or else I have discretion over him,

57. And killing an owner who is feared to regress
Is permissible, and killing apostates by surprise,

58. And whoever flees the day of the raid unless diverting
To our party has indeed earned damnation,

59. Likewise, befriending the patron of the Exalted
Casts his enemies into rage and hatred,

60. My enemy is God’s enemy whoever he is in existence
Even if he is of my paternal uncles and lineage,

61. And the closest to me is the patron of Him even if
He is distant from my eye, abode, and ancestry,

62. And I do not intimidate the safe after that, nor
Do I ask them about their wealth the measure of a seed,

63. Except the right of the Giver of Bounties in the wealth of His creation,
Which I will administer in the best distribution,

64. And if I do not obey the Owner of the Throne, Majesty, I praise Him,
Then I have no right to obedience among my subjects,

65. And I profess prohibition of all immoralities,
And accusing chaste women of shame,

66. And prohibition of all injustice along with all intoxicants,
And all gambling, deceit, and malice,

67. And prohibiting the wailing of mourning women and their beating
Of cheeks, or rending garments at calamity,

68. Likewise, cutting hair is also forbidden,
As is calling out woe with all keening,

69. And the heavy lidded woman covers her headscarf
Over her chest so that her necklace is not visible to the onlooker,

70. And she draws up her gown above her breastplate
And conceals all adornment and nakedness,

71. Except a ring on her palm or kohl on her eye,
And she sits home modestly with chastity,

72. And she does not speak submissively to an ignorant man,
Sick, and so she and he are thrown into suspicion,

73. Take it and take it, then take it, for it is
The way of my righteous early predecessors and my path,

74. Named after the course of whichever course,
So take it for it has demonstrated the excellence of my course,

75. And if one day an asker asks how many they number,
Say a hundred, so you do not exaggerate in theft,

76. In the date of Shawwal and the year fifty four,
Track the four from Henid,

77. And were it not for my constraint to speech, for it
Alerts heedless folk whom my help has passed by,

78. Likewise I would not have been said that Muhammad
Is confounded by Hassan and so spurred my mount

79. Upon him, may God’s peace be upon him, my greetings
Of affection, the confirmed affection of my love,

80. I hope through the Owner of the Ladders and the Exalted
A reward of forgiveness, pardon, and mercy.