1. The Lord remains while all creatures pass away,
Whether their souls abhor or accept extinction.

2. God, Most High, does what He wills;
His decrees being already executed.

3. Glory be to Him! There is no injustice in His rulings;
Rather they flow with fairness upon us all.

4. What is destined will happen, so patience
Befits the successful one when misfortunes strike.

5. The turns of fate are manifold, yet the youth
Fears censure and reveals not his secrets.

6. I have experienced the days I have lived
And seen how their doings have treated me.

7. I have heard of nations and what
Their world did to them, people of bygone eras.

8. How it scattered them! How it affirmed them! How it tempted them!
How it dispersed them to the farthest corner!

9. How it made some nation disappear! How it turned
The hair of others gray with endless raids!

10. Their calamities descended upon me, so that they turned
My heart and my head white — my forehead was not enough for them.

11. They multiplied against me, so whenever they receded,
Their tribulations surged and grew.

12. This pallor of my complexion bears witness,
Like the redness of my weeping eyes.

13. By evening I ignore them, yet they are to me
A disloyal mother who has cast me out.

14. Not a single happy day misled me
Without the rest of the year making me weep.

15. It would not have harmed them to always treat me gently,
So I could have emerged from them unscathed.

16. Had I made my everlasting resolve the firmness of my ambition,
The worries of my loving heart would have been rejected.

17. But the course of our affairs belongs to our God;
Whether the days were gentle or harsh.

18. Without consenting to our Master’s grace,
Our pillars would not have stood, nor our feet walked.

19. Nor would we have hoped to close an eye at night,
Or enjoy a morsel in good health.

20. After the pillar of religion collapsed, the pillar
Of the Muslims was disgraced by the tyrant who overpowered it.

21. Ahmad was envied when he rose to leadership and suppressed
Corruption, driving away the willful heads.

22. The light of the flock, its wall, its bond,
Its joy, and the keeper of its growing troops.

23. Our ruler, the sword of the Imam, the son of the Imam,
The son of the Imam, successive Imams.

24. The honorable, valiant Saif bin Sultan al-Ya'rubi
From the lofty, sublime lineages.

25. The alert, bold one, keen in perceiving enemies,
The brave in lofty affairs.

26. With his hand opened conquests that cannot
Be fathomed, dumbfounding the calculators.

27. Ask the Christians about what they saw in their land
And at sea from those overwhelming armies.

28. How often they burned, drowned, and sacked
Warships or aggressors!

29. How often did they leave the corpses of dogs
Lying dried out or floating in the sea!

30. Ask the Persians when they fled after
Seeing their horsemen come to them in distress.

31. They panicked because of the heroes and horrors, so
Their plump faces became emaciated and withered.

32. Why did you not meet, O beard-trimmed ones,
O vile, despicable rejecters?

33. Where is your arrogant strutting like a bride,
And your gait like swaying palm trees in empty lands?

34. Had the Persians not fled, they would have been horse meat,
But when they saw the flaming fire they fled.

35. Oh what a loss! Those lines have been erased! Oh what
A pity for that power which left their strength faint!

36. Oh for the leadership, governance and clairvoyance,
And the blessed traits that have been ruined!

37. My sadness for it is painful and enduring,
Nay, it has made me sick, ruined and tearful.

38. It has deprived my eyes of sleep and wearied
My loving heart, inflaming my insides.

39. All the Muslims, great and small, share in this tragedy,
So may they and I mourn becomingly in his absence,

40. And his son and brother, then the members of the court.
May God reward them and magnify their patient reward,

41. With hearts content under the rulings of destiny,
Resigned in divine light and tranquility.

42. On the noble night, the third of our month
Of Ramadan, his shining sun disappeared.

43. And of the years, three and twenty years after
The passing of the millennium and the year one hundred.

44. The Imam folded the hand of the dove, so let them
Count from the Prophetic, Islamic migration.

45. But he did not die such that mouths would
Cease to praise him enthusiastically.

46. They recount his admirable life story
Of goodness, benefits and fulfillment.

47. And famous, well-known virtues,
And pulpits that praise him openly.

48. Were he to leave behind no other blessings
Except his daughter, the rising sun.

49. Sheikh Sultan the Imam, son of the Imam
Son of the Imam, successive Imams.

50. She suffices and fills his place, and has brought
Even more than what preceded.

51. So recite the words of God: "Whatever sign We abrogate..."
O reader, if you know the context and meanings.

52. God provides without account for whomever He wills,
While the envious boil in rage.

53. As for excellence and awe, they are manifest
In that forehead, not hidden away.

54. Good fortune and support are plain to see,
And generosity, if you ask, like abundant rains.

55. A king whose majesty and perfection
Exceeds all description, so my tongue falls short.

56. He inherited leadership maturely from the mature,
Rightfully, by birthright, not arbitrarily.