1. The setting stars sought refuge in your abode,
And the piercing stars trembled at the sight of you.

2. The wild beasts and the beasts of prey were enamored with the memory of your glory,
And the living creatures and the creeping creatures rejoiced at meeting you.

3. The world submitted to you, so he who makes peace was honored,
And he who wages war was humiliated and subdued.

4. So that you may know that God fulfilled His promise,
For the promise was not diminished, nor was the word a lie.

5. You came with the coming of a lion, and the lion is mighty,
You approached with the approach of a flood, and the flood is overwhelming.

6. You are gentleness to one who seeks peace, and firmness against one who wages war.
So you do not raise what you have lowered,

7. Nor affirm what you have denied.
You do not take away what you have given,

8. Nor prevent what you have sought.
Who can confront the lion while it is imposing?

9. And who can oppose the truth while it is dominant?
And who can argue with words and proof

10. While God's discourse supports you and responds on your behalf?
You are as you have always been - neither heedless of heart,

11. Nor bleary-eyed, nor mistaken in judgment.
The most worthy of God's servants to hold authority

12. Are those who assume those high positions.
The firmest of them in resolve when the fighter attacks,

13. The most generous of them in giving when the gracious one bestows,
The most faithful of them in covenant when the betrayer is treacherous,

14. The soundest of them in judgment when the straying one is lost.
The most piercing of them in thrust when the assailant misses,

15. The surest of them in blow when the striker falters.
So say to the descendants of Al-Farooq: Unsheathe your swords!

16. For with them good fortune is made accessible and within reach.
Not everyone who meets the thick of battle is an opponent,

17. Nor is everyone who wields swords a combatant.
His position is high above the suspicions of critics,

18. Just as eyebrows are raised above eyes.
With him is the support of loved ones when an arrogant boaster challenges,

19. Or when someone with a loose tongue retorts.
He marched on, and behind him and before him marched

20. Companies with lowered banners carried beneath them.
From Tunisia the passion of his steeds reached Constantinople

21. In nineteen nights, his horses and carriages.
Each a piercing calamity, not maimed in hoof

22. Nor crooked in back, and white as lightning in attack.
Dragging the walls of impregnable citadels

23. Like ostriches of evenly matched feet or gazelles bounding forward.
They ask not whether the task be difficult or easy,

24. Whether the back be broken or the omen unfavorable.
When the citadels and encampments became visible to them,

25. With no fortress save the outstripping gray mares.
You performed the prayer of war in the mosque of turmoil,

26. Your pulpit being the clouds and your sword the preacher.
You turned the soft earth with spears into a meadow

27. Studded for the white steeds with places to roam.
You protected every pass from the confuse rabble -

28. And who can escape while you pursue?
You made it for them, in the abode of war, a decorated house

29. With its sides adorned for their arrival with brown steeds.
They have no food but their swords, no drink but blood.

30. So every land, however vast, was straitened for them,
And no fugitive escaped what God had decreed.

31. Is there in God's lands, apart from you, any refuge
For an offender when asked: where are the places of refuge?

32. And when they saw that nothing could protect them
Save the cave of clemency erected by divine gifts.

33. They came to you submissively, hoping for pardon and favor,
Their tears flowing upon their cheeks.

34. So you pardoned their grave sins,
And one like you does not strike one who repents.

35. You granted them clemency and saturated their land
With clouds of gifts and kindnesses.

36. You entrusted the Lord of Authority, the expected High One,
With aiding them, and He is the prevailing Imam.

37. So magnify through him a glory as great as his glory,
Around which hopes revolve or to which lofty aspirations descend.

38. Among a people who are the knights of eloquence and valor,
Truly men of prowess and imposing power.

39. When they shine their light we say: ascending suns,
And when they hide we say: piercing stars.

40. When they favor we say: abundant rains,
And when they punish we say: fierce lions.

41. Theirs are the plains of life and the quintessence of humanity,
The aspirations of nobility, the high and the low.

42. O you who possess what is beautiful and preserve what is sublime,
To whose perfection the lofty enterprises aspire.

43. I congratulate you on the blessed Eid, and indeed
I congratulate it because it has received your kindness.

44. So you have congratulated it a thousandfold and more,
Until you are called to rest or the reckoning is forgotten.

45. The servant has brought to your door eulogy like
A sky adorned in its lofty heights with stars.

46. For if the poets are counted, I am counted among the poets,
And if the writers are counted, I am counted among the writers.

47. It is you who have helped me, enabling me to do it,
For without guidance the difficult paths would not be clear.

48. Grant me then a boon whose clouds have gathered,
So that mounted and on foot may envy me.

49. You remain forever, however much the doves may sing,
The breezes blow, and the clouds pour down.

50. That the world may thrive through you and the heights prosper through you,
That you may be guided to what is beautiful and what is demanded turned away.