1. God is greater than any calamity, however momentous.

    Children have gone gray from the horror of that calamity.

  2. A tragedy has left Islam in gloom;

    at its impact, ears have surely gone deaf.

  3. A calamity has bridled all creation, stunned;

    indeed, an edifice has crumbled from the heart’s breaking.

  4. A calamity that split the innards of humankind—

    no company of a priest and monks could accept it.

  5. Its murk engulfed all creation, and

    Time itself became for it title after title.

  6. Its murk engulfed the horizons, and split apart were

    the hearts of the wise, of humankind, and of the jinn.

  7. Behold, the Messenger calls: “My kindred have been wronged!

    Your sovereignty today no sovereign can overpower.”

  8. Yazid is your master, and Shimr your leader

    to Hell—what a wretched abode of fires!

  9. Is killing a soul in the mosques your pride,

    and violating the sanctity of those who champion truth?

  10. What recompense, then, will be yours tomorrow, on Judgment Day?

    From God, yours will be banishment, then fires—

  11. on a Day when neither wealth nor faction will avail you

    to protect you; in the blaze, you and transgression will be neighbors.

  12. On the Day of Recompense, God’s Messenger will be your adversary;

    you will have neither plea nor proof in this.

  13. Woe to you! Prepare: you shall come to the Reckoning upon

    your faces; there await abasement and loss.

  14. All this—and still you have not ceased, while Time recites to you

    a verse whose pillars are pearls and pure gold:

  15. “Why this estrangement among you within Islam,

    when you, servants of God, are brothers?”

Sol 5.6