من كان يكتب ما الأيام تمليه

يجد مواعظ منها البعض يكفيه

Whoever writes down what the days dictate

will find admonitions, a few of which suffice him.

أيبلغ الجهل هذا الجد ويحكمه

ما كنت أحسب هذا كله فيه

Can ignorance reach such intensity and establish its hold?

I never thought all this lay within it.

يلقى الفتى بيديه للهلاك اما

عين فتبصر أو عقل فيهديه

A man casts himself into ruin with his own hands—is there no

eye to see, or mind to guide him?

هو القضاء وقد قالوا لقد صدقوا

ان القضا حين يغشى الطرف يعميه

It is fate; they have said—and spoken truly—

that fate, when it veils the eye, blinds it.

يا جاهلا فعله المحذور أوقعه

والجهل يوقع في المحذور أهليه

O ignorant man whose own deed has cast him into peril,

ignorance casts its followers into peril.

نظمت شعراً تعديت الحدود به

وما عرضت على راى معانيه

You composed verse in which you overstepped the bounds,

and did not submit its meanings to judgment.

ولو رجعت إلى عقل ومعرفة

جعلت ما قلته مما تواريه

Had you returned to reason and knowledge,

you would have made what you said something to conceal.

أما التصوف نهج أنت سالكه

كما ادعيت ودعوى المرء تخزيه

Is Sufism not a path you follow,

as you claimed? A person's claim may disgrace him.

ما ذا التناقض فيما تنطقون أما

تدرى الذي قال ما يبديه من فيه

What is this contradiction in your speech? Do you not

know what the speaker brings forth from his mouth?

أهل التصوف قلتم لا نفوس لهم

ولا بهم من له حظ يراعيه

The Sufis, you said, have no selves,

and none among them has a personal interest he guards.

وأنهم قلتم كالأرض كل اذى

يلقى عليها وكل الخير تبديه

And they, you said, are like the earth: every harm

is cast upon it, yet it brings forth every good.

فما لهاف هفا منكم فثقفه

خليفة الله تثقيفا يداويه

Then what of one among you who erred and was corrected by

God's caliph, with a correction meant to cure him,

مسكنا فتنة ثارت فثار لها

هذا المقال الذي ضلت مساعيه

quelling a strife that flared—then in its defense arose

this discourse whose efforts went astray?

فكيف لو طاوع السلطان غرته

حاشا له وقضى للملك قاضيه

What then if the sultan had yielded to his heedlessness—

far be it from him—and his judge had ruled for the king?

توبا إلى الله إن كانت بصائركم

سليمة واحذروا ما الحكم يجريه

Repent to God, both of you, if your inner perceptions

are sound, and beware what judgment brings to pass.

أين الرضا بالقضا أين الذي اتصفت

أهل الصلاح به لا الفخر والتيه

Where is acceptance of fate? Where is that which marks

the righteous—not boasting and arrogance?

انتم مليون بالدعوى ولا عجب

من عادم العلم ان تخطى مراميه

You abound in claims, and it is no wonder

that one bereft of knowledge should miss his targets.

دعوت جهلا لمن لا يستجيب ندى

لمن دعاه إلى ما ليس يعنيه

In ignorance you called to one who answers no call

from someone summoning him to what does not concern him,

وقت تضرب أمثالا تنكفه

كما ينكف رب الجهل مغريه

while you offered comparisons to goad him,

as an inciter goads a man of ignorance.

ما نال شيخك من ملك لنا ضرر

بل قيل قول فأغضى عن مساويه

No harm befell your sheikh from our king;

rather, a charge was voiced, but he overlooked his misdeeds,

من بعد ما ظنه حقا وأكده

دلائل صدقت أقوال راميه

after he had thought it true, and it had been confirmed by

evidence that bore out his accuser's words.

فرده حلمه عنه وألبسه

ثوبا من العفو لا ينضوه كاسيه

Yet his forbearance turned him from it and clothed him

in a robe of pardon its bestower will not remove.

إن كان شيخك يرضى ما نطقت به

فبئس ذلك مرضيا لراضيه

If your sheikh approves of what you have uttered,

then vile is that choice for the one approving it.

وان يكن ساخطا منه فلا حرج

لا يحمل الوزر إلا ظهر جانيه

But if he is displeased with it, no blame attaches to him:

only the perpetrator's back bears the burden of sin.

اتستغيث على من يستغاث به

أم تستغيث على كفو يعاديه

Do you seek help against the one from whom help is sought,

or seek help against an equal who opposes him?

الله اعلم أمر الغيب مستتر

واعرف الناس بالمنوي ناويه

God knows best: the affairs of the unseen are hidden,

and none knows an intention better than the one who intends it.

لو كان راسك مما ترتضيه ظبا

للضرب لم يخطه ضربا مواضيه

If your head were something sword-edges deemed worthy

of striking, his keen blades would not have missed their stroke.

فاخمد خساسة قدر قد نجوت بها

لوم الفتى من سيوف الحر تنجيه

So lie low: the lowliness of your rank has saved you;

a man's baseness saves him from a noble man's swords.

تقول يا من يرى في حال يقظته

نبيّه ويراه وسط ناديه

You say: 'O you who, while awake, behold

your Prophet and see him amid your gathering!'

كذبت لم يره في يقظة أحد

بعد الممات وسر القول ترويه

You lie: no one has seen him while awake

after his death; and you recount the saying's secret.

فما رآه أبو بكر ولا عمر

ولا علي وعثمان نواليه

Abu Bakr did not see him, nor did Umar,

nor Ali, nor Uthman, to whom we are loyal.

ولو وزنتم بظفر من أظافرهم

لما وصلتم إلى شيء يدانيه

If you were weighed against one of their fingernails,

you would not attain anything approaching it.

ولو رأوه كما قلتم وخاطبهم

لما شكوا فقدما الرحمن يوحيه

Had they seen him, as you claim, and had he addressed them,

they would not have lamented the loss of what the Merciful revealed,

ولم يقولوا أحاديث السما انقطعت

وما بقى غير ما القرآن يحكيه

nor said: 'The messages from heaven have ceased,

and nothing remains but what the Quran relates.'

لو كان في يقظة يبدو لما اختلفت

أئمة الدين في حكم تعانيه

Had he appeared in waking life, there would have been no dispute

among the imams of religion over a ruling they grappled with.

وكان مهما رأوه قام يسأله

منهم عن الحكم مستفت فيفتيه

Whenever they saw him, someone would have risen to ask him,

a seeker among them requesting a ruling, which he would give him.

فيبطل النص حكم الاجتهاد فلا

يبقى لمجتهد ظن يجاريه

The explicit text would override independent judgment, so

no jurist's conjecture would remain to rival it.

كم تكذبون على البارى ومرسله

لا كثر الله فيكم يا أعاديه

How often you lie about the Creator and His messenger!

May God not increase your number, O His enemies!

كذب البرية فيما بينهم ولكم

كذب على الدين لكن ليس يوهيه

People's lies pass among themselves, but yours

are lies against religion, though they do not weaken it.

فقد تكفل رب العالمين لنا

بحفظه فاصنعوا ما شئتم فيه

For the Lord of all worlds has pledged to us

to preserve it; so do to it whatever you wish.

وشر ما يبتني المرء القلوب به

كذب يخادع من تصفو أمانيه

The worst means by which a person wins hearts

is a lie that deceives those whose hopes are pure.

عليك بالسنة البيضاء تنج غداً

مما أخو البدعة السودا يقاسيه

Hold fast to the white Sunnah, and tomorrow you will escape

what the adherent of black innovation endures.

والحق فاعلمه ما قال النبي فلا

تخدع بزخرف أقوال وتمويه

Know this: the truth is what the Prophet said; so do not

be deceived by gilded sayings and deceptive embellishment.

فكل قول سوى قول النبي سدى

لا يستقيم ولا تسمو مبانيه

Every saying other than the Prophet's is vain:

it stands not firm, nor do its structures soar.

يارب أحمد أيد دين أحمد بالس

لطان أحمد وانصر من يواليه

O Lord of Ahmad, strengthen Ahmad's religion through

Sultan Ahmad, and aid those loyal to him.

واحرسه في ملكه واقمع بدولته

عن دينك الحق ذازيغ يناويه

Guard him in his kingdom, and through his rule repel

from Your true religion any deviant who opposes it.

يارب أوسعته حلما ومعرفة

ورحمة وهدى شادت معاليه

O Lord, You endowed him richly with forbearance and knowledge,

and mercy and guidance that raised his eminence.

إذا ادعى الذنب للمخطين صارمه

دعا لهم عفوه عنهم أياديه

When wrongdoing summons his keen sword against offenders,

his pardon for them calls forth his generous favors.

طود من الحلم بحر فاض من كرم

ينجو ويغنم خاشيه وراجيه

A mountain of forbearance, a sea overflowing with generosity:

those who fear him are spared, and those who hope in him gain.

ما أبصرت مقلة كلا ولا سمعت

أذن بأُخرى في فضل يضاهيه

No eye has seen—no indeed—nor has

an ear heard of another matching him in merit.

فاسخن الله عينا تشتهى بصرا

الى سواه وقلباً غيره فيه

May God bring grief to any eye that longs to look

toward anyone but him, and any heart that holds another.