لصومك شهر الصوم يكسى من الفجر

ملابس لم تخلع على ليلة القدر

Through your fast, the fasting month is clothed by dawn

in garments never bestowed upon the Night of Decree.

يفضل يوم واحد لك صمته

على الف عام للبرية لا شهر

A single day you have fasted is worth more

than a thousand years for creation—not merely a month.

تفرغ شهر الصوم يجهد نفسه

على حفظ ما تملى عليه من البر

The fasting month devoted itself, exerting itself,

to recording the goodness you dictate to it.

فما استوعبت حفظا أياديك صحفه

أياديك لا تحصى بعد ولا حصر

Yet its pages could not fully record your benefactions;

your benefactions defy both counting and reckoning.

توخيت فيه فعل كل مثوبة

فراح بما أودعته مثقل الظهر

You sought in it to perform every deed deserving reward,

so it departed, its back burdened with what you entrusted to it.

وكنت له شغلا عن الخق شاغلا

فما خط في أعمال غيرك من سطر

You were an absorbing occupation for it, distracting it from creation,

so it wrote not a line about anyone else's deeds.

ولا غرو أن يليه شأنك عنهم

فقد شغل الشيء الكثير عن النزر

Nor is it strange that your affairs distract it from them,

for what is plentiful has distracted it from what is scant.

لئن ضاع سعي الخلق في جنب سعيه

كما ضاع في بحر رذاذ من القطر

Even if creation's striving is lost beside his striving,

as a fine spray of rain is lost in a sea,

فقد قبل الله الجميع لأجله

وحط من الخلق العظيم من الوزر

God has indeed accepted them all for his sake

and lifted from creation a mighty burden of sin.

شغلت بتقوى الله نفسا زكية

تحن سجاياها إلى الحمد والأجر

You occupied a pure soul with reverence for God,

whose inborn traits yearn for praise and reward.

وقدمت خيراً لا تقدم مثله

وقابلت فضل الله بالحمد والشكر

And you offered goodness whose like had never come before,

and met God's bounty with praise and gratitude.

وما استولت الدنيا عليك وقد حوت

يمينك ما فيها من النفع والضر

The world has not mastered you, though gathered in

your right hand are all the benefits and harms it holds.

فلليك حي بالصلاة وبالدعا

وكثرة ما يتلى عليك من الذكر

So your night is alive with prayer and supplication,

and the abundance of remembrance recited to you.

وصبحك في صوم وعلم وطاعة

وذلك عند الله من أعظم الأجر

And your morning is spent in fasting, learning, and obedience;

and that, in God's sight, is among the greatest rewards.

وحلقة علم يسقط الطير فوقها

منزهة الأرجا عن اللغو والهجر

And a circle of learning, above which birds descend,

its precincts free from idle talk and foul speech.

بها ظل أهل العلم حولك عكفا

كما عكفت زهر النجوم على البدر

Within it, the learned remained gathered devotedly around you,

as bright stars cluster around the full moon.

وما بك من حاج اليهم وكم بهم

هنالك من حاج إليك ومن فقر

You have no need of them, yet how great is theirs—

there—their need for you, and their poverty!

أتوك بعلم أنت اعلمهم به

وأدرى بما فيه من الخير والشر

They came to you with learning you know better than any of them,

and are better versed in the good and evil within it.

فكانوا وهم حوليك مقدار نعمة

من الله جلت أن تقابل بالكفر

Thus, gathered around you, they were the measure of a blessing

from God, too great to be answered with ingratitude.

إذا نظر الإِنسان من هو دونه

درى ما لفضل الله فيه من القدر

When a person looks at someone beneath him,

he knows the worth of God's bounty toward him.

ولو توزن الدنيا جميعا وأهلها

بظفرك ما وافوا قلاماً من الظفر

And were the whole world and its people weighed

against your fingernail, they would not equal a clipping of that nail.

فأنت لرب العرش فينا خليفة

وجودك فينا كالحليفة للقطر

For you are among us the vicegerent of the Lord of the Throne,

and your bounty among us is like an ally to the rain.

جزيت جزاء المحسنين عن الورى

واأت بهم أحفى من الوالد البر

May you receive the reward of the beneficent on behalf of humankind,

and you are more caring toward them than a kindly father.

إذا أحسنوا احسنت فيهم ومن أسى

جررت عليه ذيلي العفو والستر

When they do good, you treat them well; and whoever does wrong,

you draw over him the two trailing hems of pardon and concealment.

ومن كان إسمعيل مالك أمره

فقد بات معه في أمان من الدهر

And whoever has Ismail as master of his affairs

has indeed passed the night with him, safe from Time.

فتى لا يبالي حين يبعث عزمه

أفي تلف الأعدا أغار أم الوفر

A young man who cares not, when he rouses his resolve,

whether he raids for the destruction of foes or of wealth.

سجية نفس ما مشت مشى ريبة

ولا خلطت في سعيها العرف بالنكر

The character of a soul that never took a dubious step,

nor mixed good with evil in its striving.

إذا ما اجتلينا من محياه طلعة

رأينا مياه الجود في وجهه تجرى

Whenever we behold a glimpse of his countenance,

we see the waters of generosity flowing in his face.

فقد أضحت الآمال تلقاء بابه

كراديس من شفع معد ومن وتر

So hopes have come to stand before his door,

in battalions from Ma'add, in pairs and singly.

فمن كان منهم آملاً قدر همه

فهمي عل مقدار جودك لا قدرى

If any of them hopes in proportion to his own ambition,

then my ambition matches the measure of your bounty, not my worth.