1. O most faithful of people and most true to his promise
You are not one who gives favors and then takes them back

2. Keep my longing alive by mentioning it
The noble one is shamed when the gathering comes together

3. And a despicable plot that no one would undertake
Except one whose character is marred with blemishes

4. And an insult that blemishes the glory of the noble youth
A blemish of deficiency from one who says it can be mended

5. None would approve it but the mean of spirit
Or one whom blame has accumulated upon his morals

6. Not one whose glory when exalted stands singularly
Rather it is, by God’s grace, ascended above the stars

7. O you who united by refusal scattered bounty
Do not scatter the group of noble deeds by abandoning it

8. Your father established glory through generosity
Far be it from you to demolish what he built

9. That one whose hallmarks of pride
Burned in the forehead of time

10. Extending a palm that grew from compassion
Giving for God’s sake and replenished by Him

11. If there had been sand at Aljalajil
He would have spent it till no speck remained

12. Till its edges frayed from being wrapped
Leaving perpetually renewed folds

13. Then you assumed his position after him
And it was said “This cub is from that lion.”

14. Not like one who lost his father’s glory after him
And it was said “Evil is what he begot!”

15. By my life, you were a pool, but then
Its known water evaporated and froze

16. An inlet yesterday, a wadi today
Its streams hoped for but gave no flowers

17. How often you said “I am no deceiving ally
That this is the extent of what I possess and find”

18. Then you reneged on your promise to fulfill it
Repeating “Do you not rely on me?”

19. I did not doubt the mirage told the truth
Till your promise drew from it the next day

20. Yes, you were miserly when you withheld
So withhold, Abu al-Hadi, and name miserliness loyalty

21. For your ransom, one whose face was of rock
And honor of lead

22. Remember how the rhymes gloried in you
Till people prostrated to you in prostration

23. How can you disappoint their eyes with aloofness
For their sake the glance of glory is tearful

24. If the envious man makes you doubt it
He made you doubt your own glory in his excessive envy

25. After praise extended its necks to you
Saying “By acclaim he is unmatched”

26. May he be removed from you as the envious man desires
To awaken weaponless in your hands

27. So say to one who shuns gaining glory
What do you think he will attain if he lacks praise?

28. Is the buried obscure mention of him lighter
When lost he is not even missed?

29. I have pelted you with hints
Of reproach not of coolness but of heat

30. As you slept ignoring their fulfillment
In anger at you the poem arose and sat

31. You slumber heedless of it while the poem swears
By your towering glory from it will not rest

32. Breaking a promise brings no honor
And withholding water is no eternal pride

33. That white hand after extending it
How can its palm close in refusal?

34. And that generous face of his
Flowing with the water of life

35. Appearing among people unashamed
By reneging on promises or withholding bounty

36. Return as you were, else there will rise against you
The breath of oaths in the knotted rope

37. Of women whose arrows if they hit
A despicable character would be prolonged in burning

38. Yet on the honorable man’s character they are a necklace
Not a scattered spray over the chaff

39. They show themselves either as the noble youth’s collar
Or as his tethering rope

40. So live as the sublime desire, praised
No good in one dead to the sublime yet alive in body