1. إن للكفر ظلمة في الوجود

    تستر الروح تحت طي الجلود

    Indeed, unbelief has a darkness in existence,

    That veils the spirit beneath the folds of skin.

  2. وهو عين السوى وللنور نار

    هي في النشأتين ذات الوقود

    And it is otherness itself, and the light has a fire

    That has fuel in both states of existence.

  3. فلهذا ترى الكثائف فيه

    آذنت يوم بعدها بالخلود

    Thus you see that the dense bodies within it

    Have proclaimed eternity on the day of their remoteness.

  4. كل علو له من الكفر سفل

    ضم موجوده إلى المفقود

    Every elevation it has through unbelief is lowliness

    That has joined its existent being to the nonexistent.

  5. ويح قوم باعوا نهارات قرب

    بليال من شدة البعد سود

    Woe to a people who sold days of nearness

    For nights black from the intensity of remoteness.

  6. ثم أعمالهم بدت كسراب

    حسبوه المياه في الأخدود

    Then their deeds appeared like a mirage:

    They took it for water in the trench.

  7. ثم لما أتوه لم يجدوه

    ودهتهم جهالة المطرود

    Then, when they came to it, they did not find it,

    And the outcast's ignorance overwhelmed them.

  8. ورمتهم سماؤهم بشهاب

    فرأوا النار تحت ظل العمود

    And their sky hurled a meteor at them,

    So they saw the fire beneath the pillar's shadow.