1. يا صاحبي في الرخا وفي الضيقِ

    دم حافظاً لي على المواثيقِ

    O my friend in ease and in distress,

    remain faithful, for my sake, to the covenants.

  2. هذي يدي قد مددتها لك خذ

    عهدي سريعاً بغير تعويق

    Here is my hand; I have stretched it out to you—take

    my pledge swiftly, without delay.

  3. وجود مثلي وجود تقدير

    وليس هذا وجود تحقيق

    The existence of one like me is a posited existence,

    and this is not actual existence.

  4. وهكذا الحادثات أجمعها

    من حين تغريبها لتشريق

    And so are all created things,

    from the time of their setting to their rising.

  5. تصورت كلها لنا صوراً

    في الحس والعقل للتزاويق

    They have all taken shape for us as forms,

    in sense and intellect, for embellishment.

  6. وكل هذا له وليس لنا

    شيء من الأمر حكم تحليق

    And all this belongs to Him, and we have

    no share in the matter—a soaring judgment.

  7. أما وجود الإله خالقنا

    فهو الحقيقي لأهل توفيق

    As for the existence of God, our Creator,

    it is the true existence for those granted divine aid:

  8. وجود حق محقَّقٍ أبداً

    يعرف لكن بمحض تصديق

    the existence of the Real, forever established,

    known, yet through pure assent alone.

  9. عن دركه العقل عاجز وكذا

    عن وصفه في مقام تفريق

    The intellect is powerless to grasp Him, and likewise

    to describe Him in the station of differentiation.

  10. نراه لكن برؤيةٍ حدثت

    لنا غداً لا بوهم تحديق

    We shall see Him, but with a vision brought into being

    for us tomorrow, not through the illusion of a fixed gaze.

  11. تغيب عنا وعن سواه إذا

    نحن رأيناه حال تشويق

    It makes us oblivious to ourselves and all but Him when

    we behold Him in a state of awakened longing:

  12. محبة منه والمحب بها

    يكاد منها يغص بالريق

    love from Him—and through it the lover

    almost chokes on his own saliva.

  13. هذا اعتقاد الهداة سادتنا

    لا عقد غاوٍ غَوَى وزنديق

    This is the belief of the guides, our masters,

    not the creed of a wayward man gone astray, or of a heretic.

  14. كم أعرض السامريُّ عنه وكم

    أباه في الدين كل بطريق

    How often al-Samiri turned away from it, and how often

    every patriarch rejected it in matters of faith!

  15. تعلقوا كلهم بما عبدوا

    من خلقه فيه أي تعليق

    They all clung to what they worshipped

    of His creation—what an attachment to it!

  16. وأعرضوا عن سنا عبادته

    جل فنالوا ظلام تحريق

    And they turned from the radiance of worshipping Him—

    exalted is He—so they received the darkness of burning.

  17. وأصبحوا مالهم لديه سوى

    لعنتهم عنه ضمن تسحيق

    And they came to have nothing in His presence but

    a curse driving them from Him, amid crushing ruin.