Sol 5.6

  1. A man cherishes hopes, only for them to be cut short

    by a decree that parts one soul from another.

  2. So accept inescapable fate and be content with it;

    you will ease your soul of brooding and obsession.

  3. In Ibn Sahl and those like him are lessons

    by which the mind can dispense with grasping and guarding.

  4. He had acquired rare books of learning

    so that he might reserve them for certain people in al-Andalus.

  5. But fate kept him from what he had hoped for,

    and he came to rest in a grave, far from family and companionship.

  6. His companion there is a Qur’an that he would recite again and again,

    and a pilgrimage and an ʿumra he performed quietly.

  7. Among all people, we have seen none resembling him:

    more God-fearing, or further removed from blame and stain.

  8. How many acts of charity were his in the Hijaz, and in

    Egypt and Syria—bestowed upon whoever came seeking.

  9. He journeyed by night; and in Tayba, when its people were overwhelmed,

    he gave, and gave lavishly of his bounty to the distressed.

  10. Ever fasting through the noonday heat, ever praying through the dark night,

    ever reciting verses of the Qur’an in the last darkness before dawn.

  11. O garden of Ibn Sahl, now inhabited by a man

    whose equal in gracious companionship we have never seen!

Sol 5.6