1. Is there amongst the people of this place a knowledgeable one that I may ask,
For verily, perplexed am I in understanding and bewildered,

2. I have heard such talk that would make the deaf envious,
And astonish the perceptive, rendering the opponent speechless,

3. Is there an answer that distressed wishes may cry out for,
And falsehood prevail over the truth of this affliction?

4. For I am troubled by the witnesses of this state, that I
See the hand outstretched yet no gift within its grasp.

5. Has it been absent from him and a substitute appointed?
Or has it chosen to sever ties, with no hope of reconciliation?

6. For I see gloom over faces,
Signifying that the faces have been forsaken,

7. So O hand that has been absent from embracing,
Whose calamities have raged and confusions roared,

8. I knew you as the towering mountain rooted in the earth,
Feared in every land for your tremors and quakes,

9. The one who shut the gates of dominion and authority,
Both within and without the borders of all regions,

10. The one who aided the holy warrior after preparing,
The regiments for invading the idolaters’ lands,

11. The one who forced the soft spear to twist,
Exhausting it until its maker was shattered,

12. The one who broke the supple bow wantonly
With its eyelids flung down and its coverings,

13. The one who robbed Islam of its beautiful adornment,
Until it complained of the barrenness of its vacant necklace,

14. The one who silenced outstanding merit whose excellence,
Was a speaker, whilst assemblies turned to face it,

15. What is this clamour after such awe,
When it has abandoned a body and deserted its joints?

16. It is as if the father of raids did not set out a raid,
That would show you the blackness of night in its darknesses,

17. Nor did his sharp blades shine amongst the dust,
Nor were his clothes embroidered with stitching,

18. Nor did a procession march with lifted carriages,
Where the knight vied with the steed to outdo his walker,

19. Nor did they prance above the saddle clothes while underneath saddles,
They frisked playfully like a colt with its mother,

20. Nor did his glances distribute themselves between loyal sincere ones,
Or a foe pretending courtesy through flattery,

21. Nor did he stand in the prayer niche and battlefield, acting,
With valour and beneficence as Allah has destined for him,

22. I am astonished by what time has done with itself,
Without doubt it must have lost its senses,

23. With whom do the days boast after the passing of its prime,
When amongst its sons none can equal him?

24. Do its turns descend upon the guiding patron,
While above the heavens his mansions have settled?

25. Do deaths strive to get him while he is alive,
While destinies expend efforts against what he aspires?

26. Snares that have not been set except for the most sublime,
Extending to catch the glistening stars,

27. He spends the night whilst the flowers of eloquent tongues,
Glow in the darkness like candles lighting villages,

28. Call to him however you wish, for such are,
His famed traits and harvested fruits,

29. Enumerate the features of white-faced Abu Bakr in purity,
Confirming the claims of those praising his virtues,

30. We have belied him in claiming fulfilment of his covenant,
Whenever my overflowing tears dry or my water carrier empties,

31. Should my tongue inherit his glory after praising him,
When did my tongue not fail me at the decisive moments?

32. Was there not in my heart such anxiety and passion,
And the burning anguish of grief that preoccupied me from poetry?

33. The garden of poetry will wither after his day,
For neither its possessor lived nor its declining one flourished,

34. Leave me be, for this is not the time for weeping over him,
The season of weeping and its rains will come to you,

35. And do not deny my sorrow over him, for I
Am bursting with clouds I had hoped for,

36. Why should we not weep and mourn his loss,
When his children are orphaned and his wives widowed?

37. Oh, I wish I knew, after his good deeds,
And the days have been devoid of one who acts similarly,

38. Will his lodging honour its guest and stranger?
Will he stay or will the stages fold away with him?

39. Will worldly comforts gratify me with one,
I may sit with after him and share meals?

40. I will incline to the Corner of the Kaaba and plead
To the King whose kingdom encompasses all lands,

41. To the Just Son of the Righteous, the King whose
Face greets people whenever I greet him,

42. Words and speaking truthfully are incumbent upon the youth,
When evidence affirms it one day,

43. Indeed the Sultan Son of Ruzzik has never ceased to be,
As Ruzzik is the lion of the jungle if absent is its brave,

44. He is the glory who enriched us beyond the lion cub,
And represented Salah amongst us with his justice,

45. He assumed authority after the burdens of its significance lightened,
But the bearer of that weight assumed it,

46. Thus he was like the gaze returning in desolation,
From glory, until it was said comfort comforted its bereft,

47. He is but the moon of glory and good fortune,
Having risen in the land though its people were absent,

48. A noble branch plugging the gap of one gone,
Blessed thus is the son and sanctified his successor,

49. I was, before this day, the delight of his eye,
And the fruit of his stock that he aspired for,

50. Were he alive your deed which
Exhibited to him your every merit would have pleased him,

51. You have excused the days after their justice,
And the offender may excuse his critic,

52. You have corrected this people with justice and compassion,
After it aborted due to intense fear what it carried,

53. And extinguished the fire of evil after it had blazed,
Calming it while evil was boiling in its pots,

54. You have improved the memory of time after its disservice,
In which its leaning and bias became evident,

55. The affairs of the people were chaotic so you systematised them,
With fully pooled resolution managing them,

56. Your family of Ruzzik are the arm supporting the state,
They are the shoulder of the kingly authority and its pillar,

57. May Allah not separate your unity,
Elevating its heights and fixing its lowlands.

58. A band of stalwarts support you like a brace,
Through them the polisher stood firm and the leaning found support,

59. They are the palm and the outstretched arm when they attack,
And at the clasp of the two hands they are the fingers.

60. So O you who envy them, beware lest
The catapults of evil and its disputants strike you,

61. And the abundant surge of his sea drowns you,
Exceeding the flooding streams of seas with its courses,

62. And O you cawing crows, I see you
Swooping down with claws outstretched towards you,

63. Restrain yourselves O defamers of others’ honour,
Why do you pollinate that which bears no fruit?

64. And O you approaching the waters of filial disobedience, learn decency
For this is a watering place you must cleanse before drinking from it,

65. I see that you feel secure from the grinding wheel of death turning against you
Or its calamities being unleashed upon you,

66. Know that a horde whose multitude deters the sword,
Will return obedient to wisdom despite ignorance,

67. Your fangs have indeed struck at their qualities,
Yet returned toothless to the rock after gnawing it,

68. You left no defamation but invented it,
Although the sea’s roses and death’s coast are unsullied!

69. They have pardoned your sandal’s slip,
While the barefoot time and the shoed bowed to them,

70. Does an inadequate failure in each era lengthen arrogantly,
Demeaning the mention of others through inertia?

71. Does foolishness ascend the earth towards constellations,
And the riffraff of time grow rampant?

72. Is this Commander of the Faithful any less than
To be measured with people, and Ibn Muljam his killer?

73. Hamza who perished at Uhud, and yet
Only by the blow of a wild beast was its battler harmed,

74. So gratitude for the pride which is yours promptly,
And praise for the compensation which is yours later,

75. And great glad tidings of a just rule,
Under which the obligation of religion and its supererogatory acts are established,

76. Some people desired its annulment but it became evident,
Can the rope of Allah be severed while Allah is its twister?