وقفت على بيتين من أثقل الشعر

رأى الكفر خيرا فيهما مسلم القهر

I came upon two verses among the most ponderous poetry.

In them, a Muslim by coercion deemed unbelief better.

وصرح فيما ضمنا برجوعه

إلى الكفر من غير احتشام ولا ستر

He openly declared, in what they contained, his return

to unbelief, without restraint or concealment.

رأيت سكوتي عنهما فيه للهدى

وللدين ما فيه من الضيم والكسر

I saw that my silence about them meant, for guidance

and religion, oppression and injury.

وما العز إلا للإِله وحزبه

واما أعاديه فللذل والصغر

Glory belongs only to God and His party;

as for His enemies, theirs are abasement and insignificance.

وقد ضمنا تكذيب من حذر الورى

عبادة غير الله كالشمس والبدر

The two contained a denial of whoever warned humankind against

worshipping anything other than God, such as the sun and full moon.

وقال يقين الكفر يغشاه من نهى

وحذر منها وهي موهومة الكفر

He said that certain unbelief envelops whoever forbids

and warns against it, while its unbelief is merely conjectured.

وقال الذي اختار المهيمن ربه

على غيره لا يعرف الهر من تر

He said: “Whoever chooses the All-Overseeing as his Lord

over another cannot distinguish a cat from ‘tarr.’”

أأنت وقد شبهت خلقا بخالق

تميز بين التر وحدك والهر

Is it you, having likened creation to a Creator,

who alone distinguishes ‘tarr’ from a cat?

لقد أصبح الأعمى يرى المبصر السها

ويشهد باستهلاله أول الشهر

The blind man now shows al-Suha to the sighted,

and testifies to its rising at the month's beginning.

أكرماني يشكو من الهاء جاءه

بمن مارس الضاد والظاء يستزري

Does a Kirmani, complaining of the hāʾ that came to him,

scorn one practiced in ḍād and ẓāʾ?

لقد قالت الظلما بنورى يهتدي

وقال الدجى للشمس أغويت من يسري

Darkness has indeed said: “By my light one is guided,”

and night-darkness told the sun: “You misled whoever travels by night.”

ألم تستتب بالأمس والسيف ينتضي

وقد دارتا عيناك من شدة الذعر

Were you not made to repent yesterday, while the sword was drawn,

and your two eyes rolled from sheer terror?

وكان ندا يوم عظيم ومشهد

به العلما قد أجمعوا وذوو الأمر

There was a summons on a momentous day, at a gathering

where the scholars and those in authority had agreed.

وأفتوا جميعا أن قتلك واجب

وتركك تغوى الناس من أعظم الوزر

They all ruled that killing you was obligatory,

and leaving you to mislead people among the gravest sins.

ونوديت من فوق المنابر كافرا

على أرؤس الأشهاد بالمنطق الجهر

From atop the pulpits you were proclaimed an unbeliever,

before the assembled witnesses, in words spoken aloud.

وأسملت خوف السيف كرها فما الذي

أمنت به حتى رجعت إلى الكفر

You embraced Islam unwillingly, fearing the sword; what, then,

gave you security enough to return to unbelief?

وأصبحت ترمينا برأيك جاهدا

وتنسل لكن استلالا على غدر

Now you strive to assail us with your opinion,

and slip away—but stealthily, in treachery.

ظننت بأن الدين لا ناصر له

فجئت لكي تشفى به علة الصدر

You thought religion had no defender,

so you came to cure the sickness in your breast thereby.

كذبت وإسمعيل ملء ثيابه

فإن كنت لا تدري فلا بد أن تدري

You lied, while Ismaʿil fills his robes;

if you do not know, you must come to know.

مليك البرايا والذي ليس همه

سوى الذب عن دين المهيمن والنصر

The sovereign of humankind, whose only concern

is defending the All-Overseeing's religion and supporting it.

فوالله ما عوديت بغيا ولا هوا

وفي في سوى البارى ومرسله الطهر

By God, you were not opposed out of aggression or desire,

and on my lips are only the Creator and His pure Messenger.

فتنت وأوجعت الورى في الههم

بما لا يطيق المرء فيه على الصبر

You stirred discord and hurt humankind concerning their God

with what no person can patiently endure.

وشبهته بالخلق جهلا وقلتم

عبادته مثل العبادة للصخر

In ignorance you likened Him to creation, and you said:

“Worshipping Him is like worshipping stone.”

وقلتم بأن الله جل جلاله

على حال محتاج إلى الخلق مضطر

You said that God—exalted is His majesty—

is in a state of need, compelled to depend on creation.

وحقرتم من عظم الله قدره

وعظمتم ما حقر الله من قدر

You belittled those whose worth God exalted,

and exalted what God had made of little worth,

كقولكم موسى عجول ووصفكم

لفرعون بالرأى المرجح والحجر

as when you called Moses hasty, and described

Pharaoh as possessing weightier judgment and reason.

ورؤيا الخليل الذبح قلتم ببغيكم

لرؤياه تأويل ولكن لم ندري

Of the Friend's vision of sacrifice, you said in your transgression:

“His vision has an interpretation, but we did not know it.”

وقلتم منام في منام لكل ما

أتى من رسول الله والنهى والأمر

You called everything “a dream within a dream”—

what came from God's Messenger, prohibitions and commands.

فما لامرئ ان يكثر اللعن بعدها

عليكم لذي رب السموات من عذر

No man has an excuse for heaping curses after this

upon you, before the Lord of the heavens.

لقد حصل الإجماع من كل مسلم

على كفركم فليعلمن كل مغتر

Every Muslim has reached consensus

on your unbelief; let every deluded person know for certain.

ومن شك ممن ليس يعرف حجة

بها العلماء يقرى العلوم ويسنقرى

Whoever doubts, among those unacquainted with a proof

by which scholars impart learning and seek it,

فشومك منه مقنع ودلاله

فقد بان مثل الشمس ما فيه من نكر

your ill omen is convincing evidence of it;

for the abomination in it has become clear as the sun.

لقد كان سلطان البرية أحمد

إذا صال لم يدفع ببحر ولا بحر

Ahmad was indeed sovereign of humankind;

when he charged, neither a sea nor another sea could repel him.

إذا هم بالأمر البعيد مناله

تأتي له بالاقتدار وبالقهر

When he resolved upon something far beyond reach,

it became attainable to him through power and force.

تجلى له أهل الحصون حصونهم

إذا أمهم في موكب الفتح والنصر

The fortress-dwellers yielded their fortresses to him

when he approached them amid a procession of conquest and victory.

فسل عنه نعمانا وسائل كوابنا

ودمتا وأطراف البلاد إلى الشحر

Ask Nuʿman about him, and inquire of Kawabin,

and Damt, and the country's reaches as far as al-Shihr.

وسل حلى والمخلاف عنه ومكة

وما سام أهليها من البدو والحضر

Ask Hali, al-Mikhlaf, and Mecca about him,

and what he inflicted on their inhabitants, nomads and settled folk.

وزالزال صنعا الخوف منه وصعدة

وطارت قلوب ساكنيها من الذعر

Fear of him shook Sanaʿa and Saʿda,

and the hearts of their inhabitants flew with terror.

ودانت له الدنيا ودوخ أهلها

والحق من في البحر بالساكن البر

The world submitted to him, and he subdued its people,

bringing those at sea into line with those dwelling on land.

لقد أمّ حصنا في أصاب مقدرا

حصارهم فيه إلى آخر الشهر

He advanced on a fortress in Asab, expecting

to besiege them there until the month's end.

فلما رأوه فرّ عنه حماته

وعما حموه في ذراه من الذخر

But when they saw him, its defenders fled from it,

and from the stores they had guarded on its heights.

وفرت رجال عن قلاع كثيرة

كما أخبروا عنها قريبا من العشر

Men fled from many fortresses—

close to ten, as the reports told of them.

حوى الكل واستولى عليها جميعها

وذلك من نصف النهار إلى العصر

He took all of them and gained possession of every one,

all between midday and the afternoon.

إلى أن غشى شيطان كرمان بابه

وعارض أرباب الشريعة بالمكر

Until the devil of Kirman came to his gate,

and opposed the masters of the Sacred Law with deceit.

وسب إله العرش فيهم وسبهم

وأعلن بالقول القبيح وبالنكر

He reviled the God of the Throne among them, and reviled them,

openly uttering vile words and abominations.

وخلى وإياهم سواء فقهقرت

رجال وظنوا أن ذلك عن أمر

He and they were left on equal terms, so

men withdrew, thinking this had been ordered.

وقد خادع السلطان عنه بنسبة

تزيا والخدع يعمل في الحر

He had deceived the sultan about himself through an affiliation

he wore as a guise—and deceit works upon a freeborn man.

يمض حكم الله فيه مقلدا

لمن غره والحق ذو مطعم مر

He carries out God's judgment upon him, following

the one who deceived him; truth has a bitter taste.

كريما والكريم محبب

يعاني بما يثنيه عن موجب الوزر

Noble—and a noble man is beloved—

he is dealt with through what turns him from the cause of sin.

أتى له بالآيات يظهرها له

ليعلم ما عند الخبيث من الكفر

He brought him signs, displaying them to him,

so he might know the unbelief within the wicked man.

وأول شؤم للخبيث بدا له

حديث الشوافي وهي أحدوثة الدهر

The first ill omen of the wicked man that appeared to him

was the affair of al-Shawafi, the talk of the age.

وفتك فتى لم يبلغ الحلم سنه

بمجمعة تغنى جموع ذوى القطر

And a youth who had not yet reached puberty struck

an assembled force sufficient for the region's hosts.

وحارب حصنا في كوانب حمير

وما حاك هذا لامرئ قط في صدر

He attacked a fortress in the Kawanib of Himyar,

though no one had ever conceived such a thing in his breast.

وكان يريه آية بعد آية

يذكره بالأمر يقفوه بالأمر

He kept showing him sign after sign,

reminding him through one event, following it with another.

ففاتت حصون لا يبالى بفوتها

ورد له ما فوته قاصم الظهر

Fortresses were lost whose loss did not concern him,

and the breaker of backs restored what he had made him lose.

كفوت زبيد ثم عادت ومثلها

رأى الآية الكبرى بيافع والثغر

As with the loss of Zabid, which then returned; likewise,

he saw the greatest sign in Yafiʿ and the frontier,

وحصّين تعز بعد ذاك وبعده

حديث الحبيشي والوثوب على البر

and Huṣṣayn of Taʿizz after that; and thereafter,

the affair of al-Hubayshi, and the assault upon the land.

وما صدق المرحوم حتى جرت له

قضايا أصاب وهي من أصدق النذر

The deceased did not believe until there befell him

the events of Asab—among the truest warnings.

تعدوا عليه والحصون بكفه

وحاصرها من ليس يحرى ولا يمرى

They attacked him while the fortresses were in his grasp,

and someone who neither [unclear] nor [unclear] besieged them.

وأنفق أموالا كثيراً عديدها

والهمه البارى فنا في ذوى السر

He spent riches great in number,

and the Creator inspired him with self-effacement among those possessing the secret.

ونادي بأهل الله واختص بعضهم

وعمهم بالفضل في آخر العمر

He summoned God's people, singling out some of them,

and bestowed favor upon them all at the end of his life.

ونادى بشيخ المسلمين محمد

أبى طلحة الغزالي المسلم البر

He summoned the Muslims' shaykh, Muhammad,

Abu Talha al-Ghazali, the righteous Muslim.

فذكره من بعض شومك ما جرى

فقال نعم هذا وأكثر في ذكرى

He reminded him of what had happened through some of your ill fortune,

and he said: “Yes, this—and more—is in my memory.”

وما مات حتى قد تبرأ منكم

وأقصاك عنه من جر الكلب عن حير

He did not die before renouncing you all,

and banishing you from him like a dog dragged from an enclosure.

ومات بحمد الله أحسن ميتة

يموت عليها من ينعم في القبر

He died—praise be to God—the finest death,

the death of one who enjoys bliss in the grave,

على الكلمة العظمى التي أوجبت له

على ربه الأجر بجنانه الخضر

upon the supreme declaration that secured for him

a reward from his Lord in His verdant gardens.

تبرّا مما قلتموه جميعه

بحمد إله العالمين وبالشكر

He renounced everything you had said,

with praise and thanks to the God of all worlds.

خدعت ابن إسمعيل أحمد مدة

وجرعته شؤما أمر من الصبر

You deceived Ahmad, son of Ismaʿil, for a time,

and made him swallow ill fortune more bitter than aloes.

وجئت لإسمعيل تبغي خداعه

أيلسع سلطانان ويلك من حجر

Then you came to Ismaʿil, seeking to deceive him;

can two sultans be stung—woe to you—from a stone?

فخف شومه يا نجل أحمد إنه

مشوم عظيم فامس منه على حذر

So fear his ill omen, O son of Ahmad; he is

greatly ill-omened, so remain on guard against him.

فما أمره هين على الله إنه

عدو له يمسى على دينه يغري

His affair is no light matter to God; he is

His enemy, who at evening incites hostility against His religion.