1. To you, O Messenger of Allah, I complain of my shortcoming,
And my great failure to show humility at heart.

2. And the loss of reverence for the lessons to be gained,
More grievous to me than what I have lost is my lack of remorse.

3. Whenever a flash of guidance shone forth in my heart
An obscuring veil would close over it and it would vanish.

4. Why, when I have completed threescore years of strife,
Does the darkness of defect still envelop my heart?

5. I made a covenant that I would shun caprice and desire,
Assuring myself I would heed no call to vain passion.

6. I held back my ego from its bent toward wrongdoing,
Lest it trick me again with a promise it will not keep.

7. I proffer it delights, that it may make light of my price;
It returns me to the vile bargain of a pauper's pittance.

8. Help me! The ways of salvation have narrowed for me,
While my fear of ruin grows greater and fills me with anguish.

9. Save me, save me, O shelter of every seekers' refuge,
And asylum of the distressed, helper of all who cry for help!

10. To you, O best of Creation, I directed my course,
To you, most just of intercessors, most generous of forgivers.

11. To you I come for relief, hoping you will be
Compassionate to this sinner drowned in a sea of sin.

12. I beg you in Allah's name to show mercy to my frailty,
To my humbled heart and my submissiveness and my grief.

13. I amcertain that through you my means will be accepted,
For yours is a rank with Allah like that of an insistent suitor.

14. Take my hand, as I have reached the depths of despair,
Join me, and have compassion on me, O most merciful of comforters!

15. In this world be an intercessor for me, that I
May hope for your intercession for my soul on Judgment Day.

16. Are you not the scion of the honored and sublime Hashim,
The most generous and magnanimous of people when called upon?

17. Through you the ancestors gained, above their deserts,
Glory and excellence. Who can hope to aspire as you aspired?

18. You were a prophet when Adam was still between water and clay.
My patron, you are more gracious, more excellent than he who was chosen.

19. Through you this desolate world blossomed,
And all on earth have known enlightenment, else they would not know grace.

20. Were it not for you, the steeds of war would not have raced
So proudly, raising clouds of dust seen from afar.

21. Were it not for you, how many arms would not have unsheathed their blades,
Arms that unleashed on the infidels vengeance and doom!

22. The valiant heights would not have witnessed heroes
Who left the sweetness of life behind, undaunted by their foe.

23. They came to your light from every deep ravine,
A people resolved to obey the All-Merciful, every fainthearted weakling now stouthearted.

24. The Ansars knew, thanks to you, such help and victory
As the stone-hearted son of Mughira had never granted them.

25. You it was who guided them in the ways of righteousness,
Lightening beforehand burdens later made graceful.

26. On the night of the seventies, the stars of their good fortune
Rose in the fullness of the moon that was your perfection.

27. Their great ones gained, through your blessings,
Glory and strength. No honor they won shall ever fade or vanish.

28. You summoned them to the path of right; headlong they raced
To obey you, neither hesitating nor delaying.

29. United they became in devotion to the All-Merciful,
A people knit together by the excellence of their harmony.

30. My community it was that broke free of the gloom of unbelief,
Piercing the night like the morning star shedding its brilliant light.

31. My heart rejoices to sing your praises,
A duty made supple by the guidance that wove your rope of pearls.

32. Though this eulogy be no glorification akin to your merits,
Yet the halo of your blessings has cast its rays upon it.

33. Had it not been offered in your honor, no poem would have been worthy of esteem.
But in praising you I seek the favor you alone can grant me;

34. You hold the hand of the destitute, answering the call of Threadbare Shaykh Yahya ibn Yusuf.
I am clothed in the raiment of Islam and old age,

35. And possess nothing but what I owe to the Book undefiled and the rightly guided Sunna.
To behold you one day is the dearest wish I treasure,

36. The fairest reward eyesight can grant, and most longed for.
To make the pilgrimage leaving my family well provided for,

37. At peace, secure, my needs fulfilled, my children around me,
To renew my oath of allegiance to you there, my hand on your tomb,

38. And press my cheek to the soil where your pure body rests,
To seal my works with a beautiful ending, a closure of grace,

39. One that wards off poverty in the world to come -- ah, then my desire would be fulfilled!
On you the blessings and peace of Allah, continuously

40. Renewed, with each fresh rendering of greetings redoubled.
On your family and your Companions of high renown,

41. Those who led all humankind by the brilliance of their glory.
On your wives, possessed of utmost purity,

42. Cloaked in innocence by the All-Merciful from all malicious slander.