1. Let me be wherever you are, my guide
I roam the wilds longing for worship

2. Upon my ribs, emaciated and withered
His footsteps shine like the light of planets

3. I walk as if inside an impregnable dome
Shrouded in scattered dust

4. I think myself stagnant while he runs
I think my vigor a bird, restless, harried

5. I know not if this is from my joy at seeing my beloved
Happy, or content with my journey and destination

6. Still I walk the confused gait of a gazelle
Still he hastens like a wild cat, guided

7. I turned away from the scrutinizer’s vain words
Perhaps a guide will meet you and guide you

8. Until I saw the vanguards of Ma’rib
And came close to the ruins of the toppled edifice

9. I found a river above which light was striking
Upon the domes of wishes and ease

10. The murmur of water, shade was ample upon it
As if relating, by God, tunes of sanctuaries

11. The wind had clad it in coat of mail
Matched by spring’s green mantle

12. Its conditions converse with me while informing me
The stars within it like scattered beads

13. Joshua son of Nun who had halted my running long ago
And the Son of God sanctified my watering place

14. Called out, finding the Son naked before him
Seeking coloring from the hand of the Pure One

15. You seek baptism, my God, deliberately
To perfect virtue or the grace of baptism?

16. You seek baptism, my God, deliberately
To complete justice or affirm probity?

17. For before the creation you were Lord
And after all distance, the greatest Lord

18. A god came to you, O John, submissively
At your side, disdaining not the baptizer

19. A god came to you, testing his mortal self
While divinity transcended all spectacle

20. Sanctifying the waters the day he arrived
Making them for people the best watering place

21. By them descended the revelation from the Truthful of Majesty
With the Gospel of the truthful Lord, confirmed

22. Whosoever is not baptized by water and spirit
Shall be banned from the gardens of eternity, banished

23. My yearning for a Jordan where its shores
Were graced by a God revealed over a fixed throne

24. My yearning for a Jordan which embraced in its depths
A Peerless One, whose worth transcends all matchless ones

25. Upon its bank the Messiah cast his cloak
And the raiment of light was most excellent

26. He who was decreed by the son of the barren woman obeyed
So woe to the disobedient slave, brazen

27. We knew Him as Lord while three bear witness
And the Law rules judiciously among them

28. For the Spirit testifies since appearing as a dove
So too the Father proclaims, witnessing for the baptized

29. “This is my beloved Son, listen to him”
So excellent is a voice whose baptism I profess

30. John the Baptist warns you while a witness
“This is the Son of God, my Lord and Master”

31. So excellent is a Lord, river and witness!
And excellent is a religion guiding me to truth

32. Happily for John, the confining room, who ascended
Above creation with his Master loftily

33. The Son of God testified about him with testimony
Whose essence rises above all good

34. Among all the born, no prophet truly
Matches the Baptist in merit

35. He merits reverence from every human
And angel, daily and perpetually

36. If this is the praise of Allah’s servant
What is the share of Allah’s mother from sought praise?

37. Below you is lightning that flashed from the excess of his merit
If you sense it, it makes you forget the fading glow

38. I called to her while my mind was distraught
A refuge, so help me, support me!

39. If his merit does not make me firm upon the truth
I will not be firmly rooted in moral integrity

40. How many archers, and it is Allah they ask
And whoever strays from her strays from all purpose

41. To you I come, throwing myself under the hem of your might
Happy is the servant protected through your support

42. Do protect me, O Virgin, for I have never, since created
Worshipped other than you, chosen you

43. Exert, act, teach me, then renew me
Bolster, aid, arbitrate, then guide me straight