الحمد لله الذي أنعما

بما ترى ولم يزل منعما

Praise be to God, who has bestowed favors

in what you see, and has never ceased bestowing.

فما ترى شيئاً من أفعاله

ألا تراه متقناً محكما

You see nothing among his acts

but that you see it perfected, firmly wrought.

يضرب أخماساً بأسداسها

لما يرى من فعله مبهما

In perplexity, one multiplies fives by their sixes,

at what one sees as obscure in his action.

إن يفردِ الوتر له فعله

يقول عينُ الشفع بل منهما

If the Odd reserves his action for himself,

the essence of the Even says, “Rather, from both.”

لنا قبول ولنا قدرةٌ

لذاك قال الشفعُ بل منهما

We have receptivity, and we have power;

thus the Even said, “Rather, from both.”

من نعمة الله على عبدِه

أن جعل العلمَ له مغنما

Among God's favors to his servant

is making knowledge a gain for him,

وفجر النور بأرجائه

وليله من جسمه أعتما

and causing light to burst forth throughout his reaches,

while his night grew dark from his body.

ما النورُ والظلمةُ في حقه

سترٌ له يحجبه كُلما

What are light and darkness in his case?

A veil for him, concealing him whenever

أراده بالجهل حساده

يصمه الستر فما أعصما

his enviers target him with ignorance.

The veil deafens him—how well it protects!

ما استكبر المحروم في خلقه

لما أبى واستعظم الأعظما

The deprived one was not arrogant in his nature

when he refused and revered the Greatest.

في الجرم والمعنى لهم واحد

بينهما الرحمن قد قسما

In body and meaning, theirs is one whole,

which the All-Merciful has apportioned between the two.

أرواحه العالون تعنو له

لصورةٍ أعطاه من أنعما

His exalted spirits bow to him

for a form given him by the One who bestowed

بها عليه دون أملاكه

حاز بها الأسماء لما سما

this favor on him, to the exclusion of his angels.

Through it he gained the Names when he rose high.

فهو مع الله بأسمائه

كما هو الله به أينما

Thus he is with God through his names,

just as God himself is through him, wherever

أنزله الحقُّ إلى عرشه

وكان محكوماً له بالعما

the Real brought him down to his Throne.

And it had been decreed for him to be in the Cloud.

أنزله الإلطاف من عرشه

إلى الذي يقربنا من سما

Gracious kindness brought him down from his Throne

to that heaven which is near us,

في ثلثِ الليل لنا رحمة

بنا لكي يتلو أو يعلما

in a third of the night, as mercy for us,

toward us, so that one might recite or know.

اشهدني منه بأسمائه

وجوده والمحضر المعلما

He made me witness, through his names, something of him:

his existence and the presence made known.