Sol 5.6

  1. May you rejoice in the hopes you have attained,

    and never cease to enjoy days of celebration.

  2. You are gladdened, even as you gladden all people

    through your radiant, noble, beautiful deeds.

  3. For what you have done, may you be rewarded with goodness—

    and what reward is there but eternity in Paradise?

  4. You performed the duty enjoined upon you,

    the circumcision established by the Prophet.

  5. You gave banquet after banquet, whose fare

    the poor savored, from far and near.

  6. You filled them with such an abundance of food

    that the serving bowls could scarcely contain it.

  7. People came to them in throngs,

    until no one could distinguish one man from another.

  8. Their drink was a sweet, sugared drink,

    and among the foods they craved was mutton.

  9. Food was mentioned, yet you were not blamed;

    and music was mentioned, yet you were not blamed—

  10. for your music was the remembrance of God. Even before this,

    you had no need of any songs.

  11. Nor are you diverted from the Seven Oft-Repeated

    by the sounds of three-stringed and two-stringed instruments.

  12. You circumcised your sons in auspicious days,

    in a temperate season of the year.

  13. And four hundred others were circumcised:

    orphans who had not undergone the rite.

  14. You clothed them in splendid garments,

    and they went forth like a garden of daisies:

  15. some in green, some in yellow, and some in red,

    like purple anemones,

  16. like joyous spring flowers

    watered by the life-giving rain of pouring clouds.

  17. You brought those garments from alms, brand-new;

    by your life, they were not worn and old.

  18. In this you sought the countenance of God, not what

    is said and spread from tongue to tongue.

  19. I love you not for wealth I might acquire,

    nor from hope of generosity or favor.

  20. Nor do I praise the good in you except out of

    conviction, with both tongue and heart.

  21. How could I not, when you are a pillar of Islam

    upon which its foundations and structures are raised?

  22. Through you, God has mightily strengthened the faith,

    though it had not been abased before.

  23. Thus you became its spirit, its meaning, and its loftiness—

    so say what you will of the spirit of all meanings.

  24. You speak the truth, fearing no reproach,

    and are no coward when it comes to speaking out.

  25. You neither placate nor wrangle with people

    on account of high office or lofty station.

  26. You pass no judgment upon a matter

    until it becomes plainly visible,

  27. and so, through patience, attain what you seek;

    yet when you pursue a noble deed, there is no delay.

  28. Muhammad the Trustworthy, you are safe from what

    you fear, and truly you are secure.

  29. May God protect you from sharp tongues:

    they have a sting—while spearheads have no sting by comparison.

  30. I have never heard anything said of you except

    words of praise, time after time.

  31. May you remain for us and for all the world;

    for everything but the Face of God must perish.

Sol 5.6