1. Angel of propriety, do not wander far,
For people in this world take different paths.

2. I see you have a conduct
Like a garden made fragrant with flowers.

3. Your father raised you, O eminent one,
So you lived a praiseworthy life.

4. And you took his path
Among girls from an early age.

5. He raised them in excellence, purity, and modesty,
And to follow the Law revealed in the suras.

6. So your home has virtue over all the living,
Female or male.

7. May God bless you if you scatter pearls,
And bless my lap if you scatter pearls.

8. You were a good wife
In the desert and city you lived.

9. You excelled over castle dwellers
And made tent dwellers blacken their eyes.

10. Western in your knowledge,
Distinguished among families.

11. Eastern in your nature,
Sheltered among the stones.

12. While you can see her reading the stars
And learning from the lessons of time,

13. And showing you the wisdom of experience
That handled events and tested.

14. And there she is in the kitchen
Cooking food in measure.

15. And there she sits sewing
And mending, piercing needles through.

16. She honored her father and mother
With her excellence and took pride.

17. With knowledge she adorned her heart,
Not with pearls and gems.

18. So consider the features of her mind
On the Day of Assembly before God.

19. And read the minutes of the journal
And the precious articles.

20. And refer back to what she deposited
With the great journals.

21. You will know that we have lost
The best of teachers of thought.

22. The sin of death's timing
In taking her youth cannot be forgiven.

23. I wish she had lived for Egypt
And the grave had not hidden her.

24. She would have been a good example,
Hoped for and treasure stored away.

25. I saw ignorant travelers
In danger.

26. And I saw among them chastity
And virtue endangered.

27. No guardian, and they had set out,
An angel to protect them from harm.

28. Not like your day, a day when
Sorrow takes different forms.

29. You taught the singer of the castle
To wail, and the trees to sob.

30. And you left your young friends
Grief that cuts their hair.

31. They weep for your days of youth,
Morning and evening and dawn.

32. And you left your husband not knowing
If Zayd was absent or present,

33. Overburdened with worries when
He persevered or faltered,

34. Like a branch shaken by winds
That twisted and then snapped,

35. Or a building about to collapse
From the impact of decay.

36. The hand of fate shook him
And the hand of destiny convulsed him.

37. I have not tasted the loss of sons
Or daughters in old age.

38. But when I saw his heart
Shattered and torn,

39. And saw him almost set aflame
His visitors when he sighed,

40. And witnessed him stumbling
However he stepped, carefully or not,

41. I understood the meaning of the sorrow, the grief
Of parents, and how bitter!

42. And I saw your husband bowed down,
Lonely amid the conversation,

43. Like the perplexed wanderer in the waste,
Misguided by the moon.

44. So I knew you were the bond of his bliss,
Now scattered.

45. Patience, Abu Malik, patience,
For the patient have what remains.

46. And by the measure of the afflicted’s patience
Is the length and shortness of calamity.

47. Be yourself when things go badly,
Be yourself when things go well.

48. O dutiful daughter to her parents,
Your father after you has no peace.

49. So ask your God for solace
For your father, for he needs it most.

50. And may the new loss make him calm,
For that is the lasting home.