1. The whip is more eloquent than words and sayings,
And the barking of an ignorant fool with nonsense.

2. Bitter in taste is cooler than fire's heat,
It brings wisdom to the partaker, what wisdom!

3. It saw in medicine what Hippocrates did not see,
In curing every foolish, weak-minded fool.

4. A small body whose might horses fear,
More vicious and tyrannical than a crocodile in the Nile.

5. It makes a man dance without joy,
Even if he were heavier or bulkier than an elephant.

6. To the foolish it is an experience and knowledge,
For he has cast under it what was counted as fava beans.

7. And it has made him taste intensely spicy dishes,
That ruptured him with the worst rupture of consumed evils.

8. And it has satirized him with painful, hurtful satire,
That does not resemble poetry in meter and composition.

9. So say to him if satire comes to his mind:
I recall your standing, your pants down.

10. And I recall your wandering in the markets disgraced,
Stripped, humble, in the lowliness of the isolated.

11. And recall the punishment of what you foolishly forged
Against the masters, leaders, the prominent shining stars.

12. A group whom the Merciful made inviolable,
And singled out for honor with veneration.

13. They are truly the essence of all people, and others
Are, in truth, worthless rabble.

14. Indeed, amongst them ibn Tawbah is a standard bearer
Of justice, distinguished with a wreath.

15. He punished those who did not respect their rights,
And fortified the ruling in this with documentation.

16. The back is his paper, and the whip seeks him -
What an awful script without loosened knot!