ما قولكم يا صفوة العلماء

أنتم شموس العلم عين هداء

What say you, O choicest of scholars?

You are the suns of knowledge, the very source of guidance.

أنتم هداة الخلق إذ عهم العما

أنتم بدور الحق ضد شقاء

You guide creation when blindness engulfs them.

You are the full moons of truth, foes of misery.

أنتم نجوم العدل وراث الهدي

بالحق عن طه لدي الإنباء

You are the stars of justice, inheritors of guidance,

in truth, from Ta-Ha, when conveying tidings.

أنتم شافء الداء إن عدم الدوا

أنتم دواء الجهل في الأحياء

You are the cure for disease when medicine is lacking.

You are the cure for ignorance among the living.

أنتم قذى في عين كل معاندٍ

لم يلق نوراً بل حظى بعماء

You are a mote in the eye of every stubborn opponent

who has found no light, but has been granted blindness.

هذا كلام الله غير لفظه

عمداً بكل تعنتٍ ومراء

This is God's word—its pronunciation has been changed

deliberately, with utter obstinacy and disputation.

فالثاء سينٌ أبدلت والذال زا

والوقف لا تسئل عن الخلطاء

Thāʾ is replaced with sīn, and dhāl with zāy;

and as for pausing, do not ask about those associates.

والضاد ظاءٌ أبدلت يا سادتي

وكظل ظل بنطق كل هجاء

And ḍād is replaced with ẓāʾ, my masters,

and 'ẓill' is like 'ẓill' in every speller's pronunciation [text unclear].

هل مخرجٌ للضاد يتلى أم له

ثانٍ أفيدوا جملة العلماء

Is there a point of articulation for ḍād in recitation, or has it

a second? Instruct us, all you scholars.

وهل التفشي من صحاح صفاته

في قول حبرٍ جاء للقرا

And is sound-diffusion one of its established qualities,

according to a learned authority's statement delivered to reciters?

هل م الطواحشن مخرج أم في التي

وليت لأضراسٍ لدي الإقراء

Is its articulation point at the molars, or in what

adjoins the molars when teaching recitation?

كم فيه معترك الفحول من الألى

سلفوا بتأليفٍ كسيف قضاء

How many contests among masters there are concerning it—those who

went before, with writings like the sword of judgment.

لكنه في الكتب مندرسٌ لقد

أسمعت أن كانوا من الأحياء

Yet it lies forgotten in books; indeed,

you would have made them hear, had they been among the living.

لا يفقهون نصوص علمٍ سطرت

والشمس قد تخفي على المداء

They do not understand the recorded texts of learning,

and even the sun may be hidden from [word unclear].

وسمعت ظالاً مخرجٌ فاءت له

من غير معتمدٍ أتت بهواء

And I heard 'ẓālan,' with an articulation to which it returned [text unclear],

coming on air, without a firm point of contact.

فالواهي الضاد التي قد أنزلت

في لظ قرآنٍ على الفصحاء

Is that feeble sound, then, the ḍād that was revealed

in the Qur'an's wording to the eloquent?

لم تعرف العرب الذي لسانهم

نزل الهدي حرفاً بغير ثواء

Did the Arabs not know it, they in whose tongue

guidance descended—a letter without a resting place?

أم هو اختراعٌ في زمانٍ قل فيـ

ـه العلم والإنكار من علماء

Or is it an invention from an age in which

knowledge and scholars' censure have grown scarce?

هل في الصلاة تجوزون قراءةً

من غير تجويدٍ وفرط عناء

Do you permit recitation in prayer

without tajwīd or excessive exertion?

ما الحكم إن تاليه غير مخرجاً

مع قدرةٍ للضاد أو للظاء

What is the ruling if its reciter changes an articulation point,

despite being able to articulate ḍād or ẓāʾ?

لا يستحي لما يخاطب ربه

باللحن في جهرٍ وفي إخفاء

He feels no shame when addressing his Lord

with faulty pronunciation, aloud and quietly.

ما حكمه في الشرع يا أهل النهي

حال التعمد في دعاً وثناء

What is the ruling on him in sacred law, O people of understanding,

when he does so deliberately in supplication and praise?

هو حافظٌ تنزيله بجلاله

وموفقٍ يحميه من أعداء

He preserves His revelation in His majesty,

and a divinely aided man guards it against enemies.

حارت عقول الكفر إعجازه

ما استكشفوا وجدوه في الإحصاء

Its inimitability has bewildered unbelievers' minds.

Whatever they investigated, they found accounted for.

قد صححوا ألفاظه في طبعه

والغمر يقرأه كلحن غناء

They have proofread its words in print,

yet the inexperienced man recites it like a song's melody.

هل جايزٌ وضع المثاني كالأغا

ني في المغاني مجلس السفاء

Is it lawful to set the Oft-Repeated Verses like songs

in places of song, the assembly of fools?

أو وضعه في آلةٍ قد أحدثت

للصوت حفظاً عند قصد حداء

Or to place it in a newly invented device

to preserve sound when a camel-driver's chant is intended?

كالذكر يمنع ما أتي للدين من

خطب الأذان لمنهج الحنفاء

As with the Remembrance, is what belongs to religion forbidden—

sermons and the call to prayer, in the upright believers' way?

أو فسروا طيراً أبابيلاً بمكـ

ـروبٍ وسجيلاً بطين حماءٍ

Or they interpret birds in flocks as microbes,

and sijjīl as black, muddy clay.

فمن اهتدي فبفهمه قد أخرج الـ

ـعلم الغزير إلى عيون الرائي

So whoever is guided has, through his understanding, brought the

abundant knowledge before the beholder's eyes.

مننرتجي للدين يكشف غمةً

عمت على الإسلام بالإماء

Whom do we hope will dispel, for religion, a gloom

that has spread over Islam through slave women [wording uncertain],

غير ابن عزوزٍ أمامٌ للهدي

بالحق يفتي لا بأخذ رشاء

but Ibn ʿAzzūz, an imam of guidance,

who gives rulings in truth, not by taking bribes?

من مغربٍ في مشرقٍ يبدي السنا

في المطلعين له ضياً كذكاء

From the West he sheds radiance in the East;

at both rising places his light is like Dhukāʾ, the sun.

من ذا الذي يرقى ويبلغ شأوه

هذا لعمري واحدث الفضلاء

Who can rise and attain his stature?

This, by my life, is one of the distinguished.

إن كان فينا قائمٌ فهو الذي

بالعلم يرقى ذروة الجوزاء

If anyone among us stands firm, he is the one

who rises through knowledge to al-Jawzāʾ's summit.

أفتوا الأنام بكشف ما وضحته

في ذا السؤال لمعشر القراء

Give mankind your ruling, clarifying what I have explained

in this question for the company of reciters.

فالقارئ المضطر يدعو دائماً

بخلاصنا من حالة الغرباء

For the distressed reciter prays continually

for our deliverance from the plight of strangers.

يا رب طه بالنبي وآله

نصراً لجند الحق عند لقاء

O Lord of Ta-Ha, through the Prophet and his family,

grant victory to the army of truth at the encounter.

وصلاة ربي ما دعا داع الفلا

ح على النبي وآله النبهاء

And my Lord's blessings, whenever a caller calls to salvation,

upon the Prophet and his illustrious family.