1. Destiny has ordained all that will be
And God, O you, guarantees your provision

2. You busy yourself with what suffices you and leave what
You are enjoined as if you are safe from misfortunes

3. Or do you not see that the source of the people of this world
Is distress and its waters are foul and muddy

4. By God, the mighty did not benefit from his might herein
Nor did the healthy and safe remain so

5. And man perceives it and knows that he
Is heading away from it to an abode other than it

6. O dweller of the world! Do you build an abode
In which, with death, no dweller remains?

7. Death is something you know is true
Yet you are heedless in remembering it

8. Death does not conspire against whom it comes
To one day nor does it ask permission

9. Know that you have no power over what
You amass except to keep it for others

10. You saw many groups and were familiar with them
Then they passed and you witnessed what they witnessed

11. And I saw the dwellers of palaces, yet they have
After palaces only graves as dwellings

12. They gathered but did not benefit from that and woke up
As hostages there for what they had earned

13. If tomorrow you were buried and the shrouding dirt
Were emptied over you by the gravedigger

14. The heir would be busy after you with what
They inherited and the guardian surrendered you

15. Compare your companion and prepare to part from him
The companion parts from the companion, being different

16. And clothe your brother for each brother you see
Has equality once and virtues