بني سقاك اللّه يابا محمد — Ibrahim Al Hadrami

بنيّ سقاك اللّه يابا محمد

بنوَّ السماك الوابل المتهدد

My son, may God water you, O Abu Muhammad,

With al-Simak’s rain, a threatening downpour.

بني فإن القلب فيك لواله

ودمعي كمثل اللؤلؤ المتبدد

My son, my heart is distraught for you,

And my tears are like scattered pearls.

كما عشت في دنياك بالبر والتقى

رحلت من الدنيا بزاد إِلى غد

As you lived in your world with goodness and piety,

You departed this world with provisions for tomorrow.

ولكن ما أورثتنا من رزية

فنحن له في حجل قيد موصد

But the calamity you have left us

Has held us in the ring of a locked shackle,

وأغلال حزن لا يفك أسيرها

وكيف وقد غيبت في بطن ملحد

And fetters of sorrow whose captive cannot be freed.

How, when you lie hidden in the hollow of a grave,

يلذ لنا عيش وننظر زهرةً

بعين سرور أو نرى طيب مرقد

Can life be sweet to us, or can we look upon a blossom

With joyful eyes, or find a pleasant resting place?

لقد كنت أخشى أن يفجر خطبها

عليَّ فأضحى في حجال التوجد

I had feared that its calamity would burst

Upon me; now it dwells in the curtained chambers of grief.

فلم يخطني ما كنت أخشى لأنني

رأيت الفنا يعتام أهل التعبد

What I feared did not miss me, for

I saw death choose the devout.

فها أنا من بعد الجلادة والعزا

أقول لعيني بالبكاء له أسعدي

So here I am, after fortitude and consolation,

Saying to my eye: help me weep for him

بدمعك إن الدمع فيه وسيلة

إلى الحسن القاضي إلى ذي التوحد

With your tears: in tears there is a means

To Hasan the judge, who has gone to the One and Only.

إذا كان دين الحق يصبح بعدما

رمته المنايا اقطع الرجل واليد

When the true faith is left, after

Death has struck it, with foot and hand cut off,

فلا لوم امَّا لامني اليوم لائم

إذا ما جرى دمعي وعيل تجلدي

I am blameless, even if a critic blames me today,

When my tears flow and my fortitude is exhausted.

يقول أبو قيس الفقيه محمد

سلالة إبراهيم عند التهجد

Abu Qays, the jurist Muhammad, says—

A descendant of Ibrahim—during the night vigil,

وقد سال للعينين دمع كأنه

رشاش سحاب حين أسبل الرمد

As tears stream from both eyes like

Spray from a cloud when the ash-gray cloud pours down:

عزاؤك أولى من بكائك للأسى

أفق يا امام واصطبر وتشدد

Your patient consolation is better than weeping in sorrow.

Come to yourself, Imam; be patient and stand firm.

فإن أخانا لم يغب غير شخصه

وآثاره في كل غور وأنجد

Our brother is absent only in body,

And his traces remain in every lowland and upland.

فقلت له يا ابن الكريم مضى الذي

به يقتدي للرشد من كان يقتدي

I replied: son of the noble man, he is gone—

He whom all who sought a guide followed toward righteousness.

مضى العلم المفضال من يهتدى به

وكوكبها الوضَّاح بعد التوقد

Gone is the bountiful beacon by whom people were guided,

And its radiant star, once brightly aflame.

نعاه فإني رام لا درَّ درَّه

جهول بصوت مرعد أيّ مرعد

An archer announced his death [wording unclear]—may his bounty never flow—

An ignorant man, with a thunderous voice—how thunderous!

فيا لك من ناع بعثت على الورى

جنود أسى فلّت جنود التجلد

What a death-announcer you are! You sent against mankind

Armies of sorrow that broke the armies of fortitude.

نعيت فاصميت الامام بنباة

ألم تر ما جرت على كل مهتد

You announced his death and struck the Imam dead with a report.

Do you not see what it brought upon everyone rightly guided?

هددت خوارزماً ومن حل نحوها

ومن بنفوس والعراق وبدبد

You struck terror into Khwarazm and those dwelling around it,

And those in Nafus, Iraq, and Bidbid,

وأرض عمان واليمان وشامها

ويثربها والزنج أصوات عوَّد

The land of Oman, Yemen, and its Syria,

And its Yathrib and the Zanj, with the cries of condoling visitors.

لأن كنت بالاسلام أصبحت شامتاً

وقلت تقضي ركنه فتأيد

Because you have come to gloat over Islam,

And said, 'Its pillar has fallen,' then brace yourself:

فما مات إلا بعد ما كشف الدجى

وروى غرار السيف من كل معتد

He died only after he had dispelled the darkness

And slaked his sword’s edge on every aggressor.

ألما ترى الاسلام أعتق عصره

وعزت به الأخيار في كل مشهد

Do you not see Islam freed in his time,

And the virtuous honored through him in every gathering?

وكان صليب العود مراً إذا أبى

عطوفاً كمثل الشهد عند التودد

He was stout of timber, bitter in refusal,

Yet tender as honey when showing affection;

ملاذاً إذا الفرسان جالت بركنه

يرد إليه الحكم في كل محفد

A refuge when horsemen wheeled at his side,

To whom judgment was referred in every fortress.

على بابه كالجيش ما بين سائل

وشاك وخصم صدّراً بعد ورَّد

At his door, like an army, stood petitioners,

Complainants and litigants, departing after arriving.

وما منهم إلا ينال سؤاله

بيسروان لم يسأل الرفد يرفد

Every one of them received what he asked for

With ease; even one who asked for no aid was aided.

لديه بهاليل كرام تبهللوا

لما نظروا من جوده والتعود

With him were noble, generous men who beamed with joy

At what they saw of his generosity and habitual giving.

ترى نجله فيهم سعيداً لأنه

غرسية مجدٍ طائلاً بالتمجد

You see his son among them, Sa'id, for he is

A planting of glory, rising high in nobility.

كذا كل أصل طاب طابت فروعه

فللَّه فرع طاب من طيب محتد

So, whenever the root is good, its branches are good.

Praise be to God for a good branch sprung from good stock!

وكان خدوماً للضيوف مخدّماً

أبا مشفقاً لما تشأ في التجوّد

He devotedly served his guests, though himself well served,

A tender father, giving generously whatever you wished.

فيا حسن من للامام امامنا

إذا ما دهى الداهي بأمر كمحشد

O Hasan, who will be there for the Imam—our Imam—

When disaster strikes with a crisis like a massed host?

يقود إلى جيش البغاة جيوشه

ويحمل في غماتها فوق أجرد

Who will lead his armies against the rebels’ army

And charge through its turmoil astride a sleek horse?

ومن ذا يقيم الحد بعدك نحوه

وينفذه من للأسير المقيد

Who will uphold the prescribed penalty after you, in that manner,

And enforce it? Who will care for the bound captive?

ومن ذا يعم المرملين بفضله

ويمنعهم ممن طغى بالمهند

Who will extend his bounty to all the destitute

And shield them with an Indian blade from those who oppress?

ومن ذا يلاقي معبداً أو محمداً

وخدنهما عبد الاله بن أحمد

Who will meet Ma'bad or Muhammad,

And their companion, Abd al-Ilah ibn Ahmad?

ومن ذا لدهيا إن دهت لعظيمة

فيدفعها أو للهيف المطرد

Who will face calamity, should a mighty one strike,

And repel it, or face the relentless scorching wind,

كما كنت تلقانا بوجهك مسفراً

مع العلم العدل الامام المسدد

As you used to meet us with your face shining,

Beside the just beacon, the rightly guided Imam?

ألا ليت شعري اليوم أية بقعة

حوتك لقد راحت بمجد وسودد

Would that I knew today what patch of earth

Has received you: it has gained glory and honor.

بنزوى فيا نزوى سعدت بقبره

أأم بمناقى أم بأجبال يحمد

In Nizwa? O Nizwa, blessed are you with his grave!

Or in Manaqi, or in the mountains of Yahmad?

فإن قلت تسقي قرك الغر لم أكن

بمسد لبحر البر والجود من يد

If I said, 'May your radiant grave be watered,' I would not

Be bestowing any favor upon the sea of kindness and generosity.

ولكنني ما عشت أسأل ذا العلا

لقاءك في الفردوس دار الترغد

But for as long as I live, I ask the Most High

To meet you in Paradise, the abode of ease.

فرح سالماً واسلم سلمت من الردى

كما سلمت آباؤك الغر وأرشد

Go safely, and remain safe, delivered from ruin,

As your radiant forefathers were spared—and walk rightly.

فمذ لم تزل حسناك حياً وميتاً

علي ومن يجحد أخا الجود يلحد

Since then, your kindness, in life and death, has never ceased

Toward me; whoever denies a generous man goes astray.

بذلت ولم تبخل حياتك لي يداً

ورودك يوم الحشر جل ئزود

In your life you granted me kindness, never withholding it.

Your arrival on the Day of Gathering—great [ending unclear].

فهذا ثناء الصدق إن كنت كاذباً

لحيت وإن أصدق فغير مفند

This, then, is truthful praise; if I am lying,

May I be reviled; if I speak truly, I am not to be faulted.

ألا إنني لا بد أن أجرع الفنا

وإن لم أرح في أول الليل اغتدي

Indeed, I must swallow death,

And if I do not depart at nightfall, I will go in the morning.

فيا شامتاً للمسلمين بشربهم

كؤس الأسى اقصر لك الويل فاقصد

O you who gloat over Muslims for their drinking

Cups of sorrow, desist—woe to you—and be measured!

لئن غالهم حزن بواحد عصرهم

فقد كذب الغاوون عنه بأكمد

Though sorrow has seized them over the unique man of their age,

The misguided have been proved wrong about him, to their deeper grief.

أظنهم أن الامام إذا مضت

دعامة دين لم يقمه بأعمد

Did they suppose that the Imam, when

A pillar of faith was gone, would not uphold it with other pillars?

فلما رأوه زاد وازداد شدة

وزاد هياجاً مات أهل التفند

But when they saw him grow and grow in strength,

And grow in ardor, the faultfinders died.

ألا أنما دانت وطابت ولم تدن

له الأرض إلاّ بعد صرم ومحصد

Indeed, it submitted and flourished; it did not submit

To him—the land—until after cutting down and reaping.

فذاك الذي لا فخر إلا له كما

حمى حرمة الاسلام من كل مفسد

He alone deserves glory, as

He guarded Islam’s sanctity against every corrupter.

جزيرته في الأرض صارت كأنها

به البدر في جنح من الليل أسود

His island on earth became as though it were,

Through him, the full moon in a black stretch of night.

امام الهدى إنَّا كما قال قائل

تقدم في بيتي عزاء بسيد

Imam of guidance, we are as a poet said

Before, in two verses of solace for a lord:

فلو كان يفدى سيَّد من منية

فديناه عن مال طريف ومتْلد

If a lord could be ransomed from death,

We would ransom him with wealth, newly gained and inherited.

ولكنه صبر جميل مقدر

من الأمس يستولي على ثابت الغد

But it is gracious patience, ordained

From yesterday, prevailing over tomorrow’s certainty.

وأيضاً فلوحيٌّ من الناس لم يمت

لكان ولكن هل بها من مخلد

And if any living person were never to die,

It would have been he—but is anyone here immortal?

أما ذاق كأس الموت فيها محمد

وما حملت أنثى بمثل محمد

Did Muhammad not taste the cup of death here?

No woman ever bore the like of Muhammad.

فصلى عليه اللّه ما صاح صائحاً

بِحَيْعَلَةٍ في اثره والتشهد

May God bless him as long as a caller calls

With 'Come to prayer, come to success' in his wake, and the testimony of faith.