1. Are they coming at dawn or bidding us farewell
At parting that touches us or daybreak that makes us whole?

2. Do teardrops fall for the caravan in the wilderness
Or for the water-laden clouds in the horizon?

3. I see not separation leaving behind any farewells
Until the souls of lovers recover and heal

4. Beyond the dunes, sand hills
Bend and bow in their arts

5. With hearts brimming with affection the day they departed
The pupils of the living wished they were springs

6. A house that stirred in me exuberance and youth
With a companion in it who was my pair

7. When residing in the abode brought certainty
Departure and travel awakened sorrow

8. Those ruins we bestowed
Saddened the empty spaces and added to their gloom

9. So leave me be, I cannot obey one who abandons me
And forsakes me, I do not desire a helper

10. Glory to you, Rabia son of Nazar
You favored a people and blessed all

11. People betrayed at first and last
While you remained loyal and trustworthy

12. You broke no covenant nor betrayed in secret
Far be it for your glory to be treasonous

13. We are in the essence of purity while you
Are as hands choosing left and right

14. The pact joined us, so our dwellings connected
And we clung together like tree branches

15. Our hearts wavered not the day war stirred
Nor were our hands those of the abandoned, left behind

16. Your father, by the blessings of Mohammed, stood tall
And we stood firmly by the gifts of God to us

17. And if the son of Joseph did good unto God
He sees you doing good with his blessings

18. You thanked His blessings yesterday until
You were counted among the thankful servants

19. When the gifts of honor fall short
To express gratitude, they remain obligations

20. The most rightful thankfulness is to direct all praise to Him
Who bestowed the bounty, not to those who simply relayed it

21. He sheathed the sword that burned with edged severity
A raging fire inside you, yet you pardoned

22. And if on the day of the son of Amr, he wished
He would have destroyed the Amirs and the Zaidis alike

23. He marched seeking their stars in the darkness of night
Defecting from the sides of night to their defectors

24. I recalled them, the mark of Ali
When he marched baldly against them

25. He chose to pardon, knowing that
God pardons all in existence

26. Increase them, O Abu Said, for the righteous
Are only increased by thanking again and again

27. Those were their hours with the son of Humaid
Prolonged were they, until years passed

28. They defied death on the edges of his stirrups
And thousands descended, row after row

29. The pact quivers in their breasts
And wombs yearn with fervor

30. Did not the battlefield of Sinjar awaken them
To one who came to take them, like unto Marduk

31. Tongues spreading praise and bodies bent over you
Gently inclining with subtle charm

32. But when will your banner's knot and your feathered tuft
Be bound together by the Pleiades again?

33. A blessing, if one day God finds us
Ungrateful for it, unable to thank

34. If you ask of us, you will be told of the best people
Whose justice you missed for a while

35. We have condemned what we dispraised of our time
And resented what pleased us of our living

36. We disdain the frail weak one when he comes
And you were the strong trusted one among us

37. May God affirm you, a solid mountain
Against the Associators planted firmly

38. Perhaps one day in a battle which deafened Rome
And they became humiliated, brought down

39. We trust you with our lives, come what may
Even if they make the stars their fortresses

40. Because of your name, the children panicked
And their crying turned into silence

41. Your horses converged from Tarsus and Qal'at Ja'bar
Scowling, carrying a scowling day for the heedless

42. You visited the Sons of Bekela in Dar'a
So they evaded the humiliation of defeat

43. Their woven abodes concealed them
As they donned armor until we stripped them bare

44. Like ostriches roaming the plateau, they fled
With nothing but the bluntness of spears

45. They settled in the dust of dirt and could not
Muster a single thrust until they sank in the mud

46. The day you mobilized to march unto Aqraqus
You came out victorious and fortunate

47. As you filled swords with them and with us
And submerged spears in them and in us

48. Then you made them recognize the brows of men
Silent amidst the fray, composed amidst chaos

49. Neither was your tender heart tender
Nor your guarded face guarded

50. They could not bear to bury what they revealed
So deep was their hatred to let it be buried

51. Some of your enemies are not insightful
Or willing to return religions to the sword

52. His ambition tomorrow is to tear open the sanctums
Of El Azaroun and El Mazerun

53. By my life, the water of Zamzam is not sweeter to him
Than the blood of my devout worshippers

54. He makes the innocent his prisoners when captured
And death his dungeons to imprison them

55. He will not settle until Islam is at peace
And placing trust in obeying God

56. Not wavering in submitting to Allah
Until it settles calmly within our hearts