1. O you, the guest who has maligned my masters
Listen to my answer, I am not heedless of you

2. Listen to this boast that leaves the heart inflamed
And kindles a fire in the innermost chests

3. So I will recount the virtues of masters with evidence
Whom their Merciful chose for signs

4. He chose them barren and childless for the earth
Then made them chiefs of the tribes

5. With the fire, offering, and trials they faced
To which they surrendered, loving perfection

6. So this is the friend who made people around him
Gardens’ breezes with swaying branches

7. And this is the sacrifice who ransomed with his ram
Showed his readiness, not the yield of studs

8. And this is the chosen leader, his elite
Named Israel the first of the early ones

9. And from his noble lineage, the generous Joseph
Who sated the tribes with the wheat of spikes

10. And whose command in Egypt succeeded Pharaoh’s
By interpreting dreams, solving problems

11. Yet after eras they forgot the abundant good
And great victory that came to them

12. Are we not the sons of battered Egypt
To whom ten plagues were brought down

13. Are we not the sons of the drowning sea
In which Pharaoh on the day of confrontation drowned

14. And the Maker brought him out to the people, to see
His wonders, with His ceaseless bounty

15. So they might win the plunder, its people’s
Of the gleaming gold atop the camels

16. Are we not the sons of Jerusalem, for whom
A cloud was set up, protecting in all stages

17. From the sun and rain, it was safekeeping
Sheltering their valleys from descending calamities

18. Are we not the sons of Sela, and the manna
For them the cliff burst forth with fresh springs

19. Flowing according to the tribes’ number
As abundant, clear streams of wholesome taste

20. And they lived in the wilderness a renewed life
The Sublime feeding them the best foods

21. So no garment of clothes wore out upon them
And they lacked no sandals throughout the journeys

22. And He sent light before them like a pillar
Illuminating the gloom like dawn, never shifting

23. Are we not the sons of the sacred Mount
Which quaked for the Giant on the day of tremors

24. And from awe of the Merciful it cowered, humbled
So the Maker ennobled it over every lofty thing

25. And conversed upon it with His servant and spokesman
And sanctified us for the Lord on the day of deliverance

26. And in latter days came our Messiah
Bestowing completion’s peace upon the earth’s children