هم الناس شتى في المطالب لا ترى — Abu Hayyan Al Andalusi

هُمُ الناسُ شَتّى في المَطالبِ لا تَرى

أَخا همَّةٍ إِلا قَد اختارَ مَذهَبا

People differ in their pursuits; you see no

man of ambition who has not chosen a path.

فَمَن يَعتني بِالفِقهِ يَرأس إِذ يلي

قَضاءً وَتَدريساً وَفُتيا وَمَنصِبا

So whoever attends to jurisprudence gains authority when he assumes

judgeship, teaching, issuing fatwas, and office.

وَمَن كانَ ذا حَظٍّ مِن النَحو وَاللُغا

يَرى أَنَّهُ أَسنى الفَضائلِ مَطلَبا

And one with a share of grammar and language

deems it the loftiest virtue to pursue,

وَيزهى عَلى هَذا الأَنام لِأَنَّهُ

يَرى هَمَجا في الناس مَن لَيسَ مُعرِبا

and feels superior to these people, because he

counts as rabble anyone among them unversed in grammatical parsing.

وَمَن كانَ بِالمَعقول مُشتغلاً يَرى

جَميعَ الوَرى صُمّاً عَن الحَق غَيَّبا

And one occupied with rational inquiry considers

all mankind deaf to truth and absent from it.

فَإِن كانَ في النَحوين صاحبَ دِريَةٍ

فَذاكَ الَّذي يُدعى الإمام المهذَّبا

If he has expertise in both disciplines,

then he is the one called the accomplished imam.

وَحافظ أَلفاظِ القِراءاتِ جاهِلٌ

بِالإعرابِ وَالمَعنى للإقراءِ رُتِّبا

And a memorizer of the wording of Qur'anic readings, ignorant

of parsing and meaning, is appointed to teach recitation.

يرقِّقُ ما قَد فَخَّمُوا وَمفخِّمٌ

لما رَقَّقوا لَم يَلقَ شَيخاً مُهذَّبا

He lightens what they pronounced heavily, and makes heavy

what they pronounced lightly; he has met no accomplished shaykh.

يَرى أَنَّ نَظمَ الشاطِبي غايةُ المُنى

وَلَم أَرَ نَظماً مِنهُ أَعصى وَأًصعَبا

He deems al-Shatibi's verse the utmost of desires,

yet I have seen no verse more intractable or difficult than it.

يَظَلُّ الفَتى فيهِ سِنينَ عَديدَةً

يُحاولُها فَهما فَيَبقى مُعَذَّبا

A youth spends many years on it,

trying to understand it, and so remains tormented

بِلُغزٍ وَأُحجِيّاتِ شُلشل شَمَردَلٍ

وَدَغفَلِ أَسماءٍ عَن الفَهم حُجَّبا

by riddles and puzzles—Shulshal, Shamardal,

and Daghfal—names veiled from understanding.

وَقَد أولعَ الجُهّالُ فيهِ بِشَرحِهِ

فَمِن شارِحٍ قَصراً وَآخَر أَطنَبا

And the ignorant have become obsessed with explaining it:

one commentator keeping it brief, another speaking at length.

وَغايَتُهُ نُطقٌ بِأَلفاظِ أَحرُفٍ

كَمالك نَنسَخ ننسِها لا نكذِّبا

And its whole aim is uttering the words of variant readings,

such as 'Master,' 'We abrogate,' 'We cause it to be forgotten,' 'we do not deny.'

لَقَد كانَ هَذا الفَنُّ سَهلاً مُعَرَّبا

فَبَعَّدَهُ هَذا القَصيد وَصعَّبا

This discipline was indeed easy and clearly expressed,

but this poem made it remote and difficult.

وَناظمِ أَشعارٍ يَدورُ عَلى الوَرى

بِذمٍّ وَمَدحٍ مُرهِبا أَو مُرغّبا

And a composer of poems goes about among mankind

with blame and praise, frightening or enticing.

يرى أَنَّ نظمَ الشعرِ أَسنى فَضيلَةً

وَلَيسَ بِفَضلٍ ما بِطَبعٍ تركَّبا

He thinks composing poetry the loftiest virtue,

yet what takes shape through natural talent is no merit.

وَراوي حِكاياتٍ لِناس تَقَدَّمُوا

غَدا وَاعِظاً يَشرو وَيَنشر مُطرِبا

And a narrator of tales about people long past

becomes a preacher, selling and spreading them to delight.

وَطوراً يُبكّي الناسَ خَوفاً وَرَهبةً

وَطوراً يُرجِّي بِالتَسامح مُذنِبا

At times he makes people weep with fear and dread,

and at others gives a sinner hope through leniency.

وَتالٍ لِقُرآنٍ بِتُربة مَيِّتٍ

قَد اتَخَذَ التَنغيمَ بِالصَوتِ مَكسبا

And a reciter of the Qur'an at a dead person's grave

has made melodic chanting with his voice a livelihood.

وَجامعِ آدابٍ وَحفظِ رَسائِلٍ

وَجودَةِ خَطٍّ راجِياً أَن يُقرّبا

And one who gathers literary learning and memorizes epistles,

and excels in handwriting, hoping to be brought near

إِلى ملكٍ كيما يَكون موقِّعا

فَينظُف أَثواباً وَينبُل مَوكِبا

to a king, so he may become a signing secretary,

and so be clean in his robes and grand in his retinue.

وَحاملِ أَجزاءٍ لِطافٍ سَقيمَةٍ

تَأبّطها كيما تَروّى وَتكتبا

And a bearer of slender, unsound booklets

tucks them under his arm so they may be transmitted and copied.

يَدورُ عَلى شَيخٍ جَهولٍ وَشَيخةٍ

عَجوزٍ تَرى جمع الرُؤوسِ تقربا

He goes about to an ignorant shaykh and a woman shaykh,

an old woman who deems gathering heads an act of devotion,

وَجمّاعِ أَنواعٍ مِن الفِسقِ لَم يبَل

بِمعصيَة إِن كانَ كَهلاً أَو أَشيبا

and a collector of every kind of wickedness, who cares nothing

for sin, whether middle-aged or gray-haired.

أَتَأخُذُ دينَ اللَهِ عَن مثلِ هَؤلا

لَأَنتَ إِذَن في الغَي أَصبَحتَ مُسهبا

Do you take God's religion from the likes of these?

Then you have indeed become far gone in error.

وَغايةُ ما يدريهِ أَنَّ فلانةً

رَوَت جُزءَ بيبي وَهيَ ماتَت بِيَثرِبا

And the utmost of what he knows is that a certain woman

transmitted Bibi's booklet, and she died in Yathrib;

وَذا لَقَّبوه جَزرةً وَملقبٌ

بِصاعِقَةٍ إِن كانَ في الحِفظِ أَغلبا

and this one they nicknamed Jazara ('Carrot'), while another is nicknamed

Sa‘iqa ('Thunderbolt'), if he excels in memorization.

وَمشتغلٍ بِالطبِّ قَد رامَ صَنعَةً

قَليلاً جَداها ما أَشقَّ وَأَخيَبا

And one occupied with medicine has sought a craft

with little profit—how arduous and disappointing!

يَدور عَلى المَرضى وَيُحرز علَّة

وَيَسأل ماذا كانَ عَنهُ تَسبَّبا

He goes about among the sick and identifies an ailment,

and asks what brought it about.

وَيَنهَبُ مِنهُ مالَهُ لا يهمُّه

سواء لَدَيهِ أَن يَصِحَّ وَيَعطَبا

And he plunders the patient's money, caring nothing:

it is all the same to him whether he recovers or perishes.

وَغايَتُهُ استقبالُ بَولٍ بِوجهِهِ

وَشَمُّ قَذوراتٍ كَأَن شمّ زرنَبا

And his utmost is to face urine head-on,

and smell filth as though he smelled fragrant zarnab.

وَكَسلانَ يَختارُ المَشيخةَ صَنعةً

فَيَجمَع أَوشاباً إِلى الزَّرد رُغَّبا

And a sluggard chooses shaykhhood as his profession,

so he gathers riffraff eager for feasts.

تيوسٌ رُعاعٌ وَهوَ جَهلا أَبوهُمُ

فَاقبِح بِهِم وُلداً وَاقبِح بِهِ أَبا

Billy goats, rabble—and in ignorance he is their father:

how vile they are as offspring, and how vile he is as a father!

وَيَبهَتُ نَحوَ الأَرض طَوراً وَتارَة

إِلى العالَمِ العُلوِيِّ يَستَمِعُ النَبا

At times he stares blankly toward the earth, and at others

toward the world above, listening for news.

وَيَركبُ عيراً وَهوَ عيرٌ حَقيقةً

فَجهلٌ بَسيطٌ قادَ جَهلاً مركَّبا

And he rides an ass, while he is truly an ass himself;

thus simple ignorance has led compound ignorance.

فَيُخبِرُ عَن أَشياءَ في ملكوتِهِ

رَآها عَياناً لَيسَ عَنها محجّبا

Then he reports things within his dominion

that he saw with his own eyes, not veiled from them.

تَلاميذُهُ يَمشونَ حَولَ حمارِهِ

وَأَوساطُهم مَشدودة لابِسو القَبا

His disciples walk around his donkey,

their waists girded, wearing qaba robes.

عريُّون عَن علمٍ وَمَن كانَ فاضِلا

تَقرمَطَ كَي يُدعى الامامَ المقرَّبا

Bare of knowledge; and whoever was accomplished

turned Qarmatian to be called the favored imam.

فَيُبدي لَهُم أَسرارَ عِلمٍ غَوامِضاً

تلقَّفها عَن سر سرٍّ ترتّبا

Then he reveals to them obscure secrets of knowledge,

which he snatched from a secret of a secret, arranged in sequence.

فَمِنهُ إِلَيهِ عَنهُ فيهِ لَديهِ قَد

بَدَت غامِضاتٌ عَنهُ تنبَثُ كَالهبا

So from him, to him, about him, in him, with him, there have

appeared obscurities, scattering from him like dust.

عَجِبتُ لِمثلي عِشتُ سَبعينَ حِجَّةً

وَتِسعاً أُلاقي الناسَ شَرقا وَمَغرِبا

I marvel at one like me: I have lived seventy years

and nine, meeting people east and west,

فَما ظَفِرت عَيني بِمَن هُوَ صالِحٌ

سِوى مَن بِهِ بَينَ الأَنامِ تَلقَّبا

yet my eye has found no one who is righteous,

except one who bore that nickname among mankind.