1. Who will convey my message to the Helpers
With clear verses like messengers

2. Informing you of the loyalty you have shown me
That adversity reveals a man’s true nature

3. You have done a deed that will be spoken of
That uncovered scandal and enmity

4. While you sit idle in your homes as your leader
Burns, his house filled with raging fires

5. He hoped you would defend his home
As it was engulfed in blazing flames and smoke

6. Until they reached his very gates
And entered upon him, fasting and parched

7. Brandishing swords over his battered form while you
Blissfully lingered instead of coming to his aid

8. God knows I was not pleased with you
That day or with your actions then

9. Oh how I yearn to see a band of Helpers
Come support me as loyal partisans

10. By God, if the steadfast Ibn Qais had witnessed it
Or the cohorts who were his brethren

11. Abu Dujana and the unshaken Ibn Arqam
The brother of Mashhad from the tribe of Ajlan

12. Rafiah al-Umari, Ibn Mu’adh and his ilk
Muawiya’s brother who feared no betrayal

13. Men who see their leader’s victory as truth
And obedience to him as belief

14. The Caliph is the pillar of the Muslim community
Subduing the foolish and quelling turmoil

15. I wish you had kept your oath to him
So he could have remained as he was

16. And you had protected him, for the wise
Seek to aid men like themselves

17. Either preventing his death or dying around him
Wrapped in white, falling one by one

18. And I blamed the cohorts among you
Who surrendered Usman on the day of Waqi’ah

19. If chaos ensued in their faith
That would constrict the very horizons

20. May God elevate the fortunes of His Guardian
And humiliate his enemy evermore

21. I saw Muhammad select him
As a kinsman, counting him among the loyal

22. Singling him out from the best houses of Kindah
For his competence and stature

23. The highest houses of Ma’ad acknowledged him
As ruler after the Prophet

24. From a people who betray no neighbor
In the days they spent in Mecca

25. Giving to those who ask of them and securing
Every neighbor, forcefully repelling attacks

26. If only you had supported your Prophet’s successor
By aiding Usman that fateful day

27. Have you forgotten the pledge to you
From the Prophet, binding though it was

28. At Minna, when he recited the covenant to you
And you roared, embracing the faith

29. Not to abandon the riders no matter how far they range
Bringing shame to the protector of brethren