تقضت ليال ضاعفت لكم الأجرا

بأيامها واجتلت الأثم والوزرا

Nights have passed that multiplied your reward,

together with their days, and swept away sin and guilt.

وخفف نفل الصوم فيها عن الورى

ذنوباً عظاما حملها أثقل الظهرا

And voluntary fasting in them lightened for humankind

grave sins whose burden had weighed down their backs.

تركتم بها لله ما تشتهونه

لترضوه عنكم بأمتثالكم الأمرا

In them, for God's sake, you forsook what you desired,

to win His favor by obeying His command.

وظلتم عطاشا تمنعون نفوسكم

مواردها والماء قد طاب فاستمرا

You remained thirsty, denying yourselves

their watering places, though the water was sweet and palatable.

فأبدلكم بالطيبات محاسنا

وعوضكم عن كل إثم جرى أجرا

So He gave you merits in exchange for those pleasures,

and replaced every sin committed with a reward.

إِلى أن تمنيتم بأن ذنوبكم

تضاعفن واعتاضت بقلتها كثرا

Until you wished that your sins

had multiplied, exchanging their fewness for abundance.

أقول بهذا مظهراً فضل ربنا

على الخلق لا أمراً بإثم ولا أغرا

I say this to reveal our Lord's bounty

toward His creatures, not to command sin or encourage it.

إذا كان هذا فعله في ذنوبكم

إذا ما رضى عنكم وأوسعكم غفرا

If this is how He treats your sins

when He is pleased with you and grants you abundant forgiveness,

فما الظن في تضعيفه حسناتكم

فليس كما قالوا بواحدة عشرا

what, then, may we expect when He multiplies your good deeds?

It is not, as they say, merely ten for one,

ولكن بها سبع مئين وضوعفت

وخذها من السبع السنابل إن تقرا

but seven hundred for each, and multiplied further.

Take this from the seven ears of grain, if you read.

عطايا اله لا يكيف وصفها

وفضل عميم لا يحيط به حصرا

Gifts from God beyond description,

and all-embracing bounty beyond reckoning.

إلهي وزد يحيى بقدر سخائه

وذلك قدر لا نقيس به قدراً

My God, grant Yahya still more, in measure with his generosity,

a measure with which no other measure can compare.

فأنت كريم والكرام تحبهم

ويحيى بن إسماعيل أكرمهم طرا

For You are generous, and You love the generous,

and Yahya ibn Isma'il is the most generous of them all.

فتهنا ابن إسماعيل جوداً أقله

لدى الله أسنى ما أعد امرؤ ذخرا

So rejoice, son of Isma'il, in generosity whose least portion

is, in God's sight, the finest treasure anyone has laid away.

وهذي ليال القدر ما أعلم امرءا

بهابات يخلى من دعاكم لكم ذكرا

These are the Nights of Decree; I know of no one

who has spent them without remembering you in prayer.

جمعت على التقوى ذوي الفضل والنهي

فمن ساجد يهوى ومن قاريء يقرأ

You gathered the virtuous and discerning together in piety:

some falling in prostration, others reciting.

وأيديهم مبسوطة لك بالدعا

وخيراتكم تثنى وجبرانكم تترى

Their hands are outstretched in prayer for you,

your good works are praised, and your acts of relief come in succession.

ودهرك معمور نهاراً تصومه

وليلا بتطويل القيام وبالذكرى

Your time is filled: by day you fast,

and by night, with long standing in prayer and remembrance.

وربك راض عنك والخلق قد رضوا

وإن رضاهم من رضى الله مستمرا

Your Lord is pleased with you, and His creatures too are pleased,

and their pleasure is sustained by God's pleasure.

هنيئا مريئا غير دآء مخامر

لك الملك في الدنيا على الملك في الأخرى

Pleasant and wholesome, free of clinging sickness:

yours is dominion in this world, added to dominion in the next.

إلهي كم أغنى بيوتا فقيرة

وكم جدد الحسنى وكم جبر الكسرا

My God, how many poor households he has enriched,

how often he has renewed kindness and mended what was broken!

هب لسخاه كل ذنب أتى به

وضاعف له الإِحسان أن يقترف وزرا

For his generosity, forgive every sin he has committed,

and multiply Your kindness to him, should he incur a sin.

فجانبه في جنب عفوك أن هفا

وأخطا إلا قطرة خالطت بحرا

For his fault, beside Your pardon, should he slip

and err, is but a drop mingled with a sea.

إلهي كم في العدل عاص مونبا

لترضى وقد ألجى إلى الجور واضطرا

My God, how often, for justice, he defied a rebuker,

to please You, though driven and forced toward injustice!

ولم يخب الداعي إليه ولا أنثنى

عن الخلق المرضى والشيمة الغرا

No one who appealed to him was disappointed, nor did he turn away

from pleasing character and radiant disposition.

إذا جاد يحيى أطرقت سحب الحيا

حياء وفي الأمواج ما يخجل القطرا

When Yahya gives, the rain clouds bow their heads

in shame, and the waves hold what makes the raindrops blush.

يجود بما لو قيل خذه لحاتم

عطاء لهابت نفسه أخذه جمرا

He gives so much that, were Hatim told, 'Take it'

as a gift, his soul would dread taking it as though it were embers.

وأضحى يجيل الفكر هذى عطية

فابشر أم رؤيا منام فلا بشرا

And he would ponder: 'Is this a gift,

that I may rejoice, or a dream in sleep, with no glad tidings?'

إذا أعطى يلوذ مهابة

من الأخد إعظاماً لا عطاء ما استزرا

When he gives, one draws back in awe

from taking, out of reverence, not because the gift is deemed paltry.

يقول خذوا قلنا أخذنا ولو درى

بأنا تركنا الأخذ جبنا لماسرا

He says, 'Take'; we say, 'We have taken'; and if he knew

that we refrained from taking out of fear, he would not be pleased.

فما سمعت إذن بمعط وفوده

تجافا عن الاعطا فما يقبل العذرا

Never, then, have you heard of a giver whose visitors

shrink from his gifts, yet he accepts no excuse.

فما أنت إلا آية في ملوكنا

ترينا عطاها مد أبحرهم جزرا

You are nothing but a marvel among our kings,

whose bounty makes their seas' flood tides seem an ebb.

وربك راض عنك فيما ابتدعته

بجودك هذا فأكثر الحمد والشكرا

And your Lord is pleased with you for what you have brought forth

through this generosity of yours; so abound in praise and thanks.