1. Why have I taken off my clothes and headed
To my sword, asking it for garments and wrappings?

2. I used to have wrappings I adorned with their splendor,
With honor, and he who donned and traveled adorned with them.

3. They enriched me, and spread warmth in my body,
Safety, and unleashed from me determination and hope.

4. The beauties surge in them from their influences,
Light, and their ornaments unleash flames.

5. Until the peoples of the earth came asking them
A garment, to cover with it ills and defects.

6. It stretched out the hand of generosity, a treasure of its jewels,
It adorned them, and before it they were bereft.

7. It was generous to them and fulfilled every request
With righteousness, continuous, and fulfilled all who asked.

8. This statement which a miracle crafted,
Proceeding with time, continuous glorious.

9. It clothes guidance, from its eloquence wrappings,
Or a jewel that adorned shoulders and bereft.

10. Its fabric is the language of the Quran, its essence
Verses from God, truly majestic and complete.

11. A spring that overflows upon the world and fills it
With water, and from its pools unleashes floods.

12. Or it is the garden that enriches the land with fragrance
Filling time, its willow fresh and green.

13. From its guidance the cooing of turtledoves billows
At dawn, spreading shade and shadows.

14. And all who are scorched by the heat of departure
Seek refuge in it, to find water and dampness.

15. I wonder! Why have my people turned back and fled,
Seeking fallen hopes and dreams?

16. They did not take from the lands of the West any honor,
Or knowledge that grew and ascended.

17. But they took the mispronunciation of my tongue when
God had granted them excellence in proper speech.

18. Oh woe to them! They substituted impropriety for their eloquence
And for clear rhetoric they substituted stumbling speech.

19. The tongue is the food of thought, it carries it
Knowledge and craft, right or wrong.

20. It continues to breed from it provision in instincts
That meet goodness or meet misguidance.

21. Foreign speech has wonder for its provision,
You see it mixing in its clouding confusion and arguments.

22. It did not carry guidance as a source,
Nor truth except it would be crooked and winding.

23. It suffices us from the tongue of proper Arabic that it has
An outpouring of light or a clear, pure spring.

24. That it is the eloquent language that grew and became brilliant,
Revealed, and with guidance it descended.

25. That it, and God’s messenger delivering it,
Embraced time, verses, and messengers.

26. That it is the treasure whose jewels do not perish,
Enriching the nights as it enriched the ancients.

27. It continues unleashing from its beauties pearls
Upon time, generous continuously.

28. So return to the language of the Quran pure,
It will make clear to you the path, easy or hard.

29. It makes clear a straight path you see no crookedness in,
No tribulation you meet, no defect.

30. It makes clear a way you see one, forever,
And for the misguided you meet at their hands misguidance.