1. أقائمَ بيتِ الهُدى الطاهر

    كم الصبرُ فتَّ حَشا الصابرِ

    O Qa'im of the pure House of Guidance,

    how often patience has worn down the patient one's heart!

  2. وكم يتظلّم دينُ الإِله

    إليكَ من النّفر الجائرِ

    How often God's religion complains

    to you of the oppressive band!

  3. يمدُّ يداً تشتكي ضعفَها

    لطبِّكَ في نبضها الفاتر

    It extends a hand lamenting its weakness

    to your healing art, for its faltering pulse.

  4. نرى مِنكَ ناصره غائباً

    وشركُ العِدى حاضرُ الناصر

    We see you, its defender, absent,

    while the foes' idolatry has a defender at hand.

  5. فنوسع سمعك عتباً يكاد

    يُثيركَ قبل نِدى الآمرِ

    So we fill your hearing with reproach that almost

    rouses you before the Commander's call.

  6. نهزَّك لا مُؤثراً للقعود

    على وثبة الأسد الخادر

    We rouse you—not as one preferring to sit

    rather than leap like the lion in its lair.

  7. ونوقظ عزمك لا بائتاً

    بمقلة مَن ليسَ بالسَّاهر

    We awaken your resolve—not that it sleeps

    within the eye of one who keeps no vigil.

  8. ونعلم أنّك عمَّا تروم

    لم يَكُ باعُك بالقاصِر

    And we know that, for what you seek,

    your reach has never fallen short.

  9. ولم تخشَ من قاهرٍ حيثما

    سوى الله فوقكَ من قاهرِ

    Nor have you feared any conqueror, wherever he may be;

    apart from God, no conqueror stands above you.

  10. ولا بدَّ من أن نرى الظَّالمين

    بسيفكَ مَقطوعةَ الدَّابرِ

    We must surely see the oppressors

    eradicated to the last remnant by your sword,

  11. بيومٍ به ليسَ تبقى ضُباك

    على دارِعِ الشرك والحاسِر

    on a day when your blades will spare none

    of idolatry's armored men or its unarmored.

  12. ولو كنتَ تَملك أمر النهوض

    أخذتَ له أُهبة الثائرِ

    Had you controlled the command to rise,

    you would have made an avenger's preparations for it.

  13. وإنَّا وإن ضرَّستنا الخطوبُ

    لنعطيكَ جهدَ رِضى العاذر

    And we, though calamities have bitten us,

    offer you the fullest goodwill of those who excuse you.

  14. ولكن نرى ليسَ عِند الإِله

    أكبرُ من جاهكَ الوافرِ

    Yet we see that, in God's sight, nothing is

    greater than your abundant standing.

  15. فَلو تسألِ اللهَ تعجيلهُ

    ظهوركَ من الزَّمن الحاضر

    So if you asked God to hasten

    your manifestation in this present age,

  16. لوافتكَ دعوتهُ بالنُّهوض

    بأسرع من لمحة النَّاظرِ

    His call to rise would reach you

    more swiftly than an observer's glance.

  17. فثقّف عَدلُكَ مِن ديننا

    قناً عجمتها يَد الآطرِ

    Then your justice would straighten within our faith

    spears tested by the bender's hand.

  18. وسكّن أمنُك منَّا حشاً

    غَدت بين خافقتي طائرِ

    And your peace would still the heart within us,

    now lodged between a bird's fluttering wings.

  19. إلى مَ وحتى مَ تشكو العقامَ

    لسيفِكَ أمُّ الوغى العاقرِ

    How long, until when, must she lament barrenness

    to your sword—the barren mother of war?

  20. وكم تتلظَّى عُطاشُ السيوف

    إلى وِرد ماء الطِلى الهامرِ

    How often the thirsty swords blaze with longing

    for a draught of the throats' cascading water!

  21. أما لِقعودكَ من آخرٍ

    أثِرها فديتُك من ثائر

    Is there no end to your remaining seated?

    Rouse it—may I ransom you, O avenger!

  22. وقُدها تُميت ضحى المشرقين

    بظلمة قسطلِها المائرِ

    And lead it to extinguish the daylight of the two easts

    with the darkness of its swirling battle-dust.

  23. يرِدن بمن لا بغير الحِمام

    أو دركَ الوِترَ بالصادرِ

    They come bearing men who return with nothing but death

    or vengeance won.

  24. وكلّ فتى حَنيت ضلعهُ

    على قلب ليث شرًى هاصرِ

    And every youth whose rib you bent

    around the heart of a crushing lion of Shara

  25. يحدّثه أسمر حاذقٌ

    بزجر عُقاب الوغَى الكاسرِ

    is told by a dusky spear, skilled

    at repelling war's swooping eagle,

  26. بان له إن سرى مستمي

    تاً لطعن العدى أوبة الظافرِ

    that, if he marches by night courting death

    to spear the foe, a victor's return is his.

  27. فيغدو أخفَّ لضمّ الرِّماح

    منه لضمِّ المها العاطرِ

    So he hastens more eagerly to embrace spears

    than to embrace fragrant, oryx-eyed beauties.

  28. أُولئكَ آل الوغى المُلبسون

    عدوَّهم ذلَّةَ الصاغرِ

    Those are the kindred of war, who clothe

    their enemy in the abject man's humiliation.

  29. هم صفوةُ المجدِ من هاشمٍ

    وخالصة الحسب الفاخرِ

    They are the choicest glory of Hashim,

    and the purest essence of illustrious lineage.

  30. كواكب منك بليل الكفاح

    تحفُّ بنيّرها الباهرِ

    Stars sprung from you in the night of combat,

    they surround their dazzling luminary.

  31. لهم أنتَ قطبُ وغى ثابتٌ

    وهُم لكَ كالفلك الدَّائرِ

    For them you are war's fixed axis,

    and they are to you like the revolving heavens.

  32. ضِماء الجيادِ ولكنّهم

    رواء المثقَّف والباترِ

    Their steeds are thirsty, yet they

    slake the straightened spear and cleaving sword.

  33. كماةٌ تُلقَّبُ أرماحُهم

    برضَّاعة الكبد الواغرِ

    Champions whose spears are nicknamed

    the sucklers of wrathful livers.

  34. وتُسمى سيوفهم الماضيات

    لدى الروع بالأَجل الحاضرِ

    Their keen-edged swords are called,

    in terror's hour, death at hand.

  35. فإن سدَّدوا السمر حكّوا السما

    وسدُّوا الفضاءَ على الطائرِ

    And if they level their dusky spears, they scrape the sky

    and bar the air to the flying bird.

  36. وإن جرَّدوا البيض فالصافنات

    تعوم ببحر دمٍ زاخرِ

    And if they unsheathe their bright swords, the poised steeds

    swim in a surging sea of blood.

  37. فثمَّةُ طعنُ قناً لا تُقيل

    أسنَّتها عثرةَ الغادرِ

    There is spear-thrusting: no pardon is granted

    by their points for the traitor's stumble.

  38. وضربٌ يؤلّف بين النفوس

    وبين الردى إلفةَ القاهرِ

    And blows that bring souls together

    with death, in a conqueror's forced intimacy.

  39. ألا أينكَ اليوم يا طالباً

    بماضي الذحول وبالغابرِ

    Ah, where are you today, O seeker

    of vengeance for bygone blood-feuds and those that remain?

  40. وأين المعدُّ لمحو الضلال

    بتجديد رسم الهُدى الداثرِ

    Where is the one prepared to efface error

    by renewing guidance's obliterated traces?

  41. وناشرَ رايةِ دين الإِله

    وناعش جدَّ التقى العاثرِ

    And unfurler of the banner of God's religion,

    and restorer of piety's stumbling fortune,

  42. ويا بن الأُلى ورثوا كابراً

    خميدَ المآثر عن كابرِ

    O son of those who inherited, great forebear

    from great forebear, [praiseworthy] deeds,

  43. ومن مدحُهم مفخر المادحين

    وذكرُهم شرفُ الذَّاكرِ

    and of those whose praise is the pride of the praisers,

    and whose remembrance honors the one remembering,

  44. ومن عاقَدوا الحربَ أن لا تنام

    عَن السيف منهُم يد الساهرِ

    and of those who bound themselves to war, that no sleep

    should take their watchful hands away from the sword,

  45. تَداركْ بسيفك وترَ الهدى

    فقد أمكنتكَ طلى الواترِ

    redress guidance's blood-debt with your sword:

    the wrongdoers' throats are now within your reach.

  46. كفى أسفاً أن يمرَّ الزَّمان

    ولستَ بناهٍ ولا آمرِ

    It is sorrow enough that time should pass

    while you neither forbid nor command,

  47. وأن ليسَ أعيننا تستضيء

    بمصباح طلعتكَ الزَّاهرِ

    and that our eyes are not illumined

    by the lamp of your radiant countenance,

  48. على أنَّ فينا اشتياقاً إليك

    كشوق الربى للحيا الماطرِ

    though within us there is longing for you

    like the hills' longing for the pouring rain.

  49. عليكَ إمامَ الهدى عزماً

    غدا البر يَلقى مِن الفاجرِ

    Take up resolve, O Imam of guidance!

    The righteous now suffer at the hands of the wicked.

  50. لكَ الله حِلمكَ غَرَّ البغاة

    فأنساهم بطشةَ القادرِ

    God be with you! Your forbearance has deceived the rebels

    and made them forget the stroke of the All-Powerful.

  51. وطولُ انتظاركَ فتَّ القلوب

    وأغضى الجفونَ على عائرِ

    The long wait for you has worn down hearts

    and closed eyelids upon an irritating mote.

  52. فكم يَنحت الهمُّ أحشاءَنا

    وكم تستطيل يدُ الجائرِ

    How often grief carves into our innards!

    How often the tyrant's hand overreaches!

  53. وكم نُصبَ عينيكَ يا بن النبي

    نساط بِقدر البَلا الفائرِ

    How often, before your very eyes, O son of the Prophet,

    we are stirred in the boiling cauldron of affliction!

  54. وكم نحن في لَهوات الخطوب

    نناديك من فمِها الفاغرِ

    How often, in the throats of calamities,

    we call you from their gaping mouth!

  55. ولم تكُ منَّا عيونُ الرجاء

    بغيركَ معقودةَ الناظرِ

    Never have our eyes of hope

    fixed their gaze on anyone but you.

  56. أصبراً على مثل حزّ المُدى

    ولفحةِ جمرِ الغضا السَّاعرِ

    Patience under something like the cutting of knives,

    and the scorching breath of blazing ghada embers?

  57. أصبراً وهذي تيوس الضلال

    قد أمنت شفرةَ الجازرِ

    Patience, when these he-goats of error

    have grown secure from the slaughterer's blade?

  58. أصبراً وسرب العِدى راتِعٌ

    يروح ويغدو بلا ذاعرِ

    Patience, when the herd of foes grazes freely,

    going at dusk and coming at dawn, with no one to frighten it?

  59. نرى سيفَ أوَّلهم مُنتضى

    على هامنا بيد الآخرِ

    We see the sword of their first drawn

    above our heads in the last one's hand.

  60. به تُعرق اللحمَ منَّا وفيه

    تشظّي العظامَ يدُ الكاسرِ

    With it our flesh is stripped away, and with it

    the bone-breaker's hand splinters our bones.

  61. وفيه يسوموننا خطّة

    بها ليس يرضى سوى الكافرِ

    And with it they subject us to a condition

    that none but an unbeliever would approve.

  62. فنشكو إليهم ولا يَعطفون

    كشكوى العقيرةِ للعاقرِ

    We complain to them, but they show no compassion,

    like a hamstrung beast complaining to its hamstringer.

  63. وحين التقت حَلقان البِطان

    ولَم نرَ للبغي من زاجرِ

    And when the two girth-rings met,

    and we saw no one to restrain oppression,

  64. عججنا إليك من الظالمين

    عجيجَ الجِمالِ من الناحرِ

    we cried out to you against the oppressors

    as camels cry out against the slaughterer.

  65. وبتنا نَودُّ الردى كلّنا

    لنُنقلَ عَنهم إلى قابرِ

    And we spent the night, all of us longing for death,

    to be taken away from them to a grave-digger.

  66. أجل يَومنا ليس بالأجنبي

    مِن يَوم والدك الطَّاهرِ

    Yes, our day is not alien

    to the day of your pure father.

  67. فباطنُ ذاكَ الضلال القديم

    مُضمره عينُ ذا الظاهرِ

    For the inward nature of that ancient error,

    its hidden intent, is identical to this manifest one.

  68. إلى الآنَ تعمِقُ تلك الجراح

    وأوجعَ منها نَوى السابرِ

    Those wounds still deepen to this day,

    and the wound-prober's absence hurts still more.

  69. فعنك انطوى أيُّ تلك الخطو

    ب فَتحتاج فيه إلى الناشرِ

    Which of those calamities has been concealed from you,

    that you should need someone to unfold it?

  70. أيَومُ النبيّ ومن هاهُنا

    أُتينا بهذا البَلا الغامرِ

    Was it the Prophet's day? From there

    this overwhelming affliction assailed us—

  71. غَداة قضى فغَدا العالمون

    وكلّ له دهشةُ الحائرِ

    the morning he died and all the world's people were left

    each with the dismay of one bewildered.

  72. وهبَّ وما نامَ حِقدُ القلوب

    ولكن رَأى فُرصة الثائرِ

    And the rancor of hearts rose up—it had never slept—

    but had seen the avenger's opportunity.

  73. فأَضرَمها فتنة لم تَدع

    رشاداً لبادٍ ولا حاضرِ

    So it set them aflame with a sedition that left

    no right guidance to desert-dweller or townsman.

  74. غدا الدين أهونَ لما ذكت

    لدى القوم من سحمة الصاهرِ

    When it blazed, religion became more worthless

    in the people's eyes than a smelter's soot.

  75. أذلك أم يوم أضحى الوصيّ

    يرى فيئه طعمةَ الفاجرِ

    Was it that, or the day when the appointed successor came

    to see his spoils made the wicked man's morsel?

  76. وعَنه تقاعد صَحب النبيّ

    ومالوا إلى بيعة الماكرِ

    The Prophet's companions held back from him

    and turned toward allegiance to the schemer.

  77. فما في مُهاجرة المسلمين

    لهُ بَعد طه سوى الهاجرِ

    Among the Muslim Emigrants there was none

    for him, after Taha, but those who forsook him,

  78. ولا في قَبيلة أنصارهم

    لهُ حَيث أفردَ من ناصرِ

    nor within the tribe of their Helpers,

    when he was left alone, any supporter for him.

  79. بني قيلةٍ بَعُدت قيلةٌ

    وما ولدت عن رضا الغافرِ

    O sons of Qayla, far removed is Qayla,

    and all she bore, from the Forgiver's good pleasure.

  80. أيُصبح فيكم بلا عاضد

    وصيُّ الرسول ولا وازرِ

    Can he be left among you without a supporter—

    the Messenger's successor—or a helper?

  81. وقهراً إلى شيخ تيم يُقاد

    بكفّ ابن حنتمة العاهرِ

    And be driven by force to the elder of Taym

    by the hand of Hantama's son, the fornicator?

  82. وتُبتزُّ فاطمة بينكم

    بحيلَتها من أبي الطاهرِ

    And Fatima is despoiled among you

    of her means from my pure father [wording uncertain]?

  83. وأنتم حضور ولَم تَغضبوا

    فيا بؤس للملأ الحاضرِ

    And you are present, yet do not grow angry—

    woe, then, to the assembled witnesses!

  84. وحين قضت بيعة الغاضبين

    بإذواء فرع الهدى الناضرِ

    And when the allegiance of the enraged decreed

    the withering of guidance's verdant branch,

  85. غَدت عَثرةُ الوحي لم تخل من

    هم ولا حَلبة الشاة من ضائرِ

    the [family] of revelation was never free of

    sorrow, nor safe from harm for a sheep's milking-time.

  86. ترى غيلةَ الشرك أنَّى تحلّ

    بنجدٍ من الأرض أو غائرِ

    You see idolatry's treachery wherever it settles,

    on high ground or in a low-lying part of the earth.

  87. وحَتَّى غَدوا بين مقبورة

    بملحدها في الدجى السَّاترِ

    Until they came to this: one woman buried

    in her grave-niche beneath the concealing darkness,

  88. وبَين قَتيل بمحرابه

    خضيب الشوى بالدّم القاطرِ

    and one slain in his prayer-niche,

    his limbs dyed with dripping blood,

  89. وميت برى منه سمّ العدوّ

    حشاً ملؤها خِشية الفاطرِ

    and one dead, the enemy's poison having worn away

    innards filled with fear of the Creator,

  90. وبَين صَريع بصيخودةٍ

    تريبِ المُحيَّا بها عافرِ

    and one fallen on a hard rock,

    dusty-faced, his countenance rubbed there into the earth.

  91. قضى والهدايةُ في مصرع

    ووُسِّد والرُّشد في قابرِ

    He died, and guidance lay on the killing-ground;

    he was laid to rest, and righteousness lay in the tomb.

  92. ومن ساهر الهمّ يبغي النهوض

    منتظرٍ دعوةَ الآمرِ

    And one, kept awake by sorrow, longs to rise,

    awaiting the Commander's call.

  93. مصائبُ يفطرنَ قلب الجليد

    وينضخن دمعاً حشى الصابرِ

    Calamities that rend the stalwart man's heart

    and make the patient one's innards gush tears.

  94. فهل يُنشد الصبر في مثلها

    وما مثلُها دارَ في خاطرِ

    Can patience be sought amid such things,

    when nothing like them has ever crossed a mind?