1. Sincerity and honest work have gone
Only pretense and laziness remain

2. You were fooled by the shortcomings in my clothes
Though clothes be short, hopes are long

3. If you contemplate my attire
It is nothing, though my heart is filled with longing

4. The true Sufi has a heart cleansed
Of all deceit, and acts as he speaks

5. He lifts all creation above the temporal
And one who rises in Dunya will fall in the end

6. He humbles himself before Allah, so his soul is exalted
All who are mighty, except through Allah, are abased

7. If he ascends, it is through Allah he rises high
If he descends, it is by truth he is brought low

8. He tamed his ego, so it fell silent in piety
Shunning worldly vanities, steeds and foals

9. He sacrificed his soul, else, without God's glory,
He'd not dare to sacrifice what he holds dear

10. Knowing the Nurtured through the Nurturer
He fears none but his Lord, Mighty and Sublime

11. Would that I were a hair on the body
Of this man, or a sandal under his noble feet

12. Or a moment, a word, from the saint
Before death comes to claim my wretched soul

13. These people, O people, have passed on
Naught remains of them but the few

14. So to Allah, Exalted, I complain
Of the apathy and confusion in my heart

15. If I were content, my provision would come
Despite itself, but we were created hasty

16. So much ostentation, contention, error,
Enemies and envy, endless woes,

17. No man is free of opposites, even if
He isolates himself atop a mountain

18. However sweet this world is to those
Who taste it, it is but poison in honey

19. Where are Chosroes and Heraclius now
And those who ruled the world, then passed away?

20. Where are those who built and lorded
And led? All perished, and mountains remain

21. If you ask the earth about them, it recites
"The playground is now empty, the hills deserted."