هب لي بيانك في ممدوحك الهادي

من لي بحسان ذاك البلبل الشادي

Bestow on me Your eloquence in praising Your praised one, the Guide.

Where shall I find a Ḥassān—that singing nightingale?

هذا التماسي وحسن الظن رائده

اللّه ناشدتكم في الرائح الغادي

This is my plea, and good expectation is its guide.

By God, I adjure all who come and go.

هذا لساني وقد أحللت عقدته

يا أفصح الناس نطقا في بني الضاد

Here is my tongue: I have untied its knot.

O most eloquent of humankind in speech, among the sons of Ḍād!

أقدمت من بعد إحجامي تحلق بي

في الشعر خاطرة توحي بإنشاد

I have ventured forth after long restraint, while within me circles

a poetic inspiration that impels recitation.

فانهل ودق القوافي من بوارقها

يزجي المعاني ويشفي غلة الصادي

Then the rain of rhymes streamed from its lightning flashes,

driving meanings onward and quenching the thirsty one's burning thirst,

في ليلة أشرقت من نور صاحبها

مذ قيل هذي احتفالات بميلاد

on a night aglow with the light of its master,

when it was said: “These are celebrations of a birth”—

ميلاد طه وحسبي قول محكمه

أعظم به حجة قامت لإشهاد

the birth of Ṭā Hā; the word of His sure decree suffices me.

How great a proof it is, standing firm to bear witness!

لولا انحراف ذويه عن طرائقه

ما أصبح الشرق نهبا بين أضداد

Had his followers not strayed from his paths,

the East would never have become plunder among enemies.

كانوا الكواسر ولتشهد أكاسرة

باتت معالمها آجام آساد

They were Khosrows—let the Khosrows bear witness—

whose landmarks became thickets, lairs for lions.

أجروا من العدل ما استرعى ضمائرهم

للّه ما قد جرى من ذلك الوادي

They administered such justice that it won their consciences;

by God, how wondrous what flowed from that valley!

أحكامه في البرايا كلها حكم

والحاكمون بما فيها كأطواد

His rulings among all created beings, every one, are wisdom,

and those who govern by what they contain stand like mountains.

سل المؤرخ والتاريخ عن عمر

مؤيد الدين مذ عدوا بآحاد

Ask the historian—and history itself—about ʿUmar,

the champion of the faith, ever counted among the rarest of men.

للّه قوله مذ كنا على ثقة

فلنعلن الحق وليصدع به الحادي

By God, how splendid was his saying when we stood confident:

“Let us proclaim the truth, and let the camel-driver sing it aloud!”

في هيبة الحق لاقاهم بمفرده

مدججا يتخطى خطوة الفادي

In awe of the truth, he met them all alone,

fully armed, striding like one ready to sacrifice himself.

صلى وطاف ونادي في مجاثمهم

من شاء فليلتحق إني بمرصاد

He prayed, circumambulated, and called out in their very gatherings:

“Whoever wishes, let him test me; here I lie in wait.”

قل هكذا العزم عزم المخلصين له

وهكذا الحق معتز بأمجاد

Say: such is resolve—the resolve of those sincerely devoted to Him;

and thus does truth stand mighty in glory.

هذا وأضرابه أنصار ملة من

لولاه أخنى بنا الخاني على عاد

This man and his peers are champions of the creed of one

without whom the traitor would have laid us waste, as he laid waste ʿĀd:

المصطفى من بدت في مثل ليلتنا

أنوار طلعته تنبي بإسعاد

the Chosen One, from whom there appeared, on a night like ours,

the lights of whose countenance herald felicity.

الشمس والبدر ولأفلاك قاطبة

مثلي لمدهوشة من نوره البادي

The sun, the full moon, and all the celestial spheres together

are, like me, dumbfounded by his manifest light.

عجزي جسيم أمام القاصرين بما

قالوه فيه وإن حفوا بإمداد

My incapacity looms immense beside those who fell short in what

they said of him, though they were encompassed by divine aid.

ماذا أقوله فيمن قال خالقه

لولاك ما كان للأكوان إيجادي

What can I say of one whose Creator said:

“Were it not for you, the worlds would never have come into being”?

قد خصه اللّه في الدنيا برؤيته

هذا حديث ابن عباس بإسناد

God indeed singled him out in this world with seeing Him—

this is a hadith of Ibn ʿAbbās, transmitted with a chain.

في الخلق والخلق سواه وأكمله

دينا تنزه عن حصر بآماد

In form and character He fashioned and perfected him,

and in religion he transcended confinement by spans of time.

لو لم نحد عنه ما زلت بنا قدم

ولا تغلب عنا عصر إلحاد

Had we not found in him that which kept our feet from slipping

and kept an age of unbelief from overcoming us,

ما ضره الزيغ لكن ضر ملتصقا

به التصاقا بلا هدي وإرشاد

deviation would not have harmed him; rather, it harmed one who clung

to him in attachment without guidance or right direction.

عادت شريعته فينا كما بدأت

فهل لأبنائها أعمال أجداد

His sacred law has returned among us as it first began;

but do its children possess the deeds of their forefathers?

ما في تعاليمها خدش ولا خلل

للسائرين على منهاجها الهادي

There is neither blemish nor flaw in its teachings

for those who walk upon its guiding path.

فلنحيها نخوة الاسلام في عرب

أولي الصراحة في وعد وإيعاد

So let us revive it—the pride of Islam among Arabs,

a people of candor in promise and warning,

شم لأنوف أباة الضيم ما ورثت

منها البنون تورثها لأحفاد

proud and high-nosed, refusing humiliation—what of that have

their sons inherited, to pass it on to descendants?

هل يرتضي الحر عيش المستكين وفي

أنفاسه قبسٌ باق لإيقاد

Will the free man accept the life of the submissive while

within his breaths a spark remains to be kindled?

إن القلوب براكين مؤججة

العدل لا الجور يلجيها لإخماد

Indeed, hearts are volcanoes fiercely ablaze;

justice, not tyranny, compels them to die down.

ما حط قيمتنا الإرهاق إن نهضت

فينا النفوس فنحميها بأجساد

Exhaustion has not diminished our worth, if spirits rise

among us and we guard it with our bodies.

لا يستحق حياة العز ذو وجل

يلقي به العجز في مهواة أنكاد

A man possessed by fear deserves no life of honor

when helplessness casts him into an abyss of misery.

من شاء عيشة حر فليعد لها

أسبابها بين مقدام وجواد

Whoever desires the life of a free man must prepare for it

its means: courage and generosity.

الحق حق بأن يعطى لطالبه

وإن تعلى به الباغي كمنطاد

The right deserves to be granted to whoever seeks it,

even if the aggressor, buoyed by it, rises like a balloon.

يا قوم مدوا لي الأيدي أصافحكم

إني على العهد موفيكم بميعاد

O my people, extend your hands to me, that I may clasp them;

I remain true to the covenant and will fulfill my promise to you.

ولتبسطوا الراح داعين الكريم معي

للانتصار مصلين على الهادي

And spread your palms, praying with me to the Generous One

for victory, invoking blessings upon the Guide.