1. Gentleness attains what harshness cannot reach,
And few in people have a gentle nature.

2. No man strays from the right path and leaves it,
Unless restlessness lures him to what he dislikes.

3. Falsehood wanders in darkness without illumination,
While the truth is luminous, radiating light.

4. When will an ever greedy and restless man awake?
For greed is an ailment that stirs anxiety beneath the ribs.

5. People exploit the useful qualities of others,
Yet those qualities are collars around their necks.

6. And people struggle in worldly competition,
Though people have no more than what they were given.

7. O you who built a palace in this world and erected it!
You established your palace where there is flooding and drowning.

8. Do not be neglectful, for the house is bound to vanish,
And its sherbet is sorrows while its joy is fleeting.

9. And death is an ugly basin you will inevitably reach,
So look after yourself before death makes you nauseous.

10. The name of the mighty becomes lowly at his demise,
While the name of the vile is far from noble behavior.

11. Youth passes away and old age destroys its freshness,
As leaves fall off their branches.

12. Why do I see you never ceasing in greed
With your eyes and neck extending toward it?

13. You dispraise your world with words you do not believe,
Yet you remain embracing it in that regard.

14. If I had sense, I would prepare provisions for what comes
After departure while I still have any breath left.

15. When you look at the world and see magnificent forms,
You imagine greatness above it though it is full of holes.

16. Remember Thamud and ‘Aad. Where, oh where are they?
If past people remained, those after would have remained.

17. We are but a group of riders gathered by a journey
One day in the shade of a shelter, then dispersed.

18. And their vanished predecessors do not stay
As if those after joined them.

19. Whatever stirs or moves will perish with no permanence,
And the land, sea, horizons and regions will vanish.

20. We inhabit the land as an abode of delusion in it,
Yet we are all departing from it and heading off.

21. I have seen with eyes that are not sleeping,
The arrows of events piercing among people.

22. How many mighty ones has death felled at their prime
When standards used to flutter over their heads?

23. Every person has a destined sustenance he will attain
While God provides – not any planning or stupidity.

24. When you look upon your approaching world,
Do not be fooled by veneration or smoothness.

25. O brother, we are the winners tomorrow,
If God saves us from an abode that clings.

26. So praise be to God – praise without end,
Which will not be great unless for one with leaves.

27. And praise be to God, praise that is eternal forever,
Those raced to what lies in His presence won.

28. And praise be to God, thanks without depletion,
While people are heedless of why they were created.

29. Nothing made people neglect the day they seek
And the day sweat will silence them at the halt.