1. The ruins whose flags time has erased
Forgotten as eras come to pass

2. With nothing left of joy but patience
And the calm comfort of a friend

3. A neighbor rules unjustly over dwellers
And decay consumes without respect

4. Waging open war against it
What army could defeat such grief

5. Long has my sorrow grown with waiting here
So I draw out my woeful laments

6. Chiding me for weeping, can you know
What loss I mourn, what worries plague me?

7. Do you see what breach has rent asunder
One third the pillars of Islam?

8. Do you see what star has disappeared
Today under perfection's veil?

9. Do you see what keen and polished sword
Death has sharpest for its sheath?

10. Do you see what towering glory
The bones atop the dust have borne?

11. Do you see what ruin time has hunted down
Among its lions, in its lair?

12. Taking the grave as refuge - but does
The lion have any refuge but destruction?

13. Do you see the scholars' greatest light
Whose mantle the doves of sanctity have cast?

14. What a grievous cleft it was that sundered
The bond of Islam's faith that day!

15. Oh my people, for a misfortune that makes
A child gray ere weaned off mother's milk

16. For a calamity that has rent asunder
The shoulder of belief when Islam slid

17. It was the loss of that pious sincere scholar
That fountainhead of wisdom and restraint

18. Upholder of the Prophet's wise command
Best of all mankind to walk the earth

19. Heir to the prophets, ruling justly - in him
Secrets of the greatest imams were entrusted

20. He who ascended to the highest peak of glory
Leaving eloquent pens forever wanting

21. Would that I knew where that most devout
And sincere of the pious has gone

22. Where the lantern whose light dispersed for us
The darkness of calamities, tribulations

23. Where is he who was our sweetest life
Whose nights were graced with smiles?

24. Where is patience' towering mountain which
Dwarfs the sights of dreamers' eyes?

25. Where is the sea of knowledge from which
The oceans of grace drew, billowing forth?

26. Where is the guide of faith, who bore upright
The pillars of religious law?

27. Where is the sign of the age, who was
Pride of scholars,enerated and honest?

28. Where is the revealer of Knowledge's
Secrets through inspiration's holy light?

29. Where is the drawer of the veil from mysteries
Of sciences that confound comprehension?

30. Where is the foremost reach of excellence, beyond
All strides of imagination?