Sol 5.6

  1. You will not please God until you make piety sincere,

    Nor will you ever see piety joined with ignorance.

  2. The servants’ due is an obligation you will never discharge

    If you do not know what is obligatory and what forbidden.

  3. God’s trust—you can fulfill it

    When, with God’s aid, you know what He has ordained.

  4. A craftsman’s mastery of his craft will not avail

    Until he knows what he has made.

  5. Whoever travels a road with no guide

    And no waymarks to lead him will stray and be cut off.

  6. One bereft of sight needs someone to guide him;

    Without him, he would not know, whatever the path, whether he veered or went straight.

  7. Rouse the soul, then, to grasp what it does not know,

    Until you see knowledge blazing along its horizons.

  8. This soul is a mirror by its very nature:

    Whatever being it faces is reflected in it.

  9. Its essence is luminous; impurities are incidental

    To its light, and when you seek its clarity, they are rent apart.

  10. Knowledge is the noblest treasure to which you can give weight;

    Whatever occupies God’s place is brought low.

  11. Seek it for God, and He will open it to you without toil;

    Let no covetousness confine you to anything but what pleases Him.

  12. Ease attends the seeker of knowledge when

    His quest is severed from created things.

  13. Knowledge is an encompassing sea you cannot fathom;

    So be content with what is most beneficial to your faith.

  14. Even if we supposed all knowledge confined to one man,

    It would not benefit him if he sought something other than God’s countenance.

  15. Turn the aim of your quest toward God, securing

    The choicest treasures of knowledge—for a person ends where he strives.

  16. Knowledge of God is the worthiest object of your care,

    And all besides Him tends toward apprehending Him.

  17. Seek the branches of knowledge as instruments for His service,

    Through every science by which the servant may live and benefit.

  18. Seek freely, without restriction or distress,

    But stop where the Sacred Law has forbidden it.

  19. Put first the knowledge by which, through acts of obedience, you fulfill

    The due of what it forbids or of what it calls you toward.

  20. Leave the geometrician floundering among shapes,

    And the astrologer watching a star whenever it rises.

  21. Seek instead a jurist kindled with the light of God,

    Who shows you as spacious what ignorance made seem narrow.

  22. On Resurrection Day, geometry will be no concern of yours,

    Nor the question of how much distance Mars has traversed.

  23. In the book inscribed by an angel, you will see

    On Judgment Day only sin and piety.

  24. Act upon knowledge and occupy your two recording angels with it,

    So that nothing you dictate or they record escapes you.

  25. Do not squander life in idleness, for you will find

    On the day of regret no room left for deeds.

  26. Within life’s brief moment lie opportunity and a field to sow,

    And in the Hereafter one will reap what one has sown.

  27. When you are mustered with neither knowledge nor deeds,

    You will know how neglect deceived you.

  28. Seize the remaining days as they pass without

    Respite, for life’s appointed end has already knocked.

  29. Awaken resolve if its glances have fallen asleep—

    To strive for God, without weakness or panic.

  30. Devote your life, from beginning to end,

    To learning your faith, following the Qur’an.

  31. That is the vital thing whose outcome may be hoped for:

    If you die, it revives you; if sent ahead, it intercedes.

  32. The excellence of knowledge is the highest blessing ever to raise

    A servant; without it, no one who rose would be remembered.

  33. Above the Chosen One’s rank there is no rank,

    Nor can any capacity rise beyond what he encompassed.

  34. Every created being’s knowledge that came before him,

    Or will come after him, sprang from his sea.

  35. Every particle of light and every station of guidance

    Rose from the radiant horizons of the Chosen One.

  36. For all this, the Qur’an commands him:

    “Say: My Lord, increase me in knowledge beyond what I have gathered.”

  37. For knowledge possesses a dignity above every rank,

    And every lofty distinction is low beside it.

  38. The soul can always receive increase, so it

    Is never too narrow for knowledge, however far knowledge expands.

  39. Inscribe it upon the soul’s tablet and make it its guide

    To the true purposes for which its deeds were prescribed.

  40. Let it seek knowledge to serve its deeds,

    Like a sword borne for the stroke by one who is brave.

  41. What do you want with knowledge that does not turn you away from

    Evil, while through it you do not pursue the good?

  42. The donkey carrying books derives nothing from them

    Except their burdens weighing upon him.

  43. Wretched is the example of one who contains the sciences yet

    Gains nothing but the claim, “So-and-so is a brilliant scholar.”

  44. If through knowledge you seek this world, it becomes a ruinous thing

    More likely to bring you down than base ignorance itself.

  45. Shield it from everything unlike it—

    How ugly knowledge is whenever coupled with greed!

  46. The noblest knowledge guides to a righteous deed

    That becomes a treasure, and restrains from evil.

  47. Mastery lies neither in money nor property;

    It is knowledge whenever accompanied by piety.

  48. God had a chosen band of righteous men whom I have lost:

    They were security, and after them they left fear.

  49. They were the sea, and after them they left dry land;

    They were the clouds, and after them they left mere wisps.

  50. I accompanied them while the rains of knowledge poured;

    They left me, and the rain grew grudging and ceased.

  51. Those men were the salt of the earth when it decayed;

    Where are they now, when earth’s corruption has struck?

  52. Why have the branches of knowledge descended from their spheres

    And now taken lodging in the earth’s depths and ravines?

  53. Who will restore them to me in an age whose promised portion

    Is the raising away of learning—for this knowledge has been lifted?

  54. Its lifting is the death of one who seeks through it

    A righteous deed, even if it dwells among those who stray and innovate.

  55. Perhaps the subtle breaths of God’s spirit will raise,

    After despair, a cloud that rains down hope,

  56. And the dust of the days will clear to reveal a true successor

    Able to shoulder the task of benefiting creation.

  57. For I have hope in a noble band of youths;

    Even before they sought to attain it, difficulty yielded.

  58. They took hold of glory from the pillars of their forebears;

    The lightning of virtue flashed through their forms.

  59. Their faces are radiant lamps,

    As though pearls had risen upon their branches.

  60. Courageous and noble, the splendor of distinction shines in their lineage,

    And it has welled from their unstained, generous hands.

  61. The blossoms of virtues unfold; through them, glory

    Breaks from behind the sun’s veil, or from its dawn.

  62. Like stars in knowledge and in action,

    In hearts and in a reputation that reaches far.

  63. They vied to acquire glory and raced ahead,

    Each manifest in an ancestral glory none had fabricated.

  64. A purpose bright as the sun was heard of among them,

    And every formidable ambition bowed beneath it.

  65. They confronted grimacing time and days

    And drove them back through the noble freedom of free men.

  66. By joining together, they strung a necklace of glory;

    May it remain a necklace held together under God’s watch.

  67. Glory is difficult to attain, but they

    Attained it without tightening the cords of drowsiness for its sake.

  68. Bravo, bravo, O leaders of glory! You

    Have recalled all that glory ever granted or withheld.

  69. It kept selecting free men in an age

    With a scowling face, until its choice fell upon you.

  70. You were its radiant blaze upon the brow; never

    Was anyone more perfect than you seen or heard of.

  71. Joy is ours, for glory has brought us good tidings

    Of you—the noblest of all who aspire to honor.

  72. A future is coming for your aspiration

    That will not be content with anything short of embracing all lofty aims.

  73. You are indeed the truthful tongue that bears me witness:

    You rejoined the bonds of beneficence that had been severed.

  74. Once you perceived that ignorance is a defect

    And knowledge raises, despite ignorance, what had been brought low,

  75. You founded a school for the sciences of religion,

    Like the sun’s halo in light and benefit.

  76. It gathered youths whose souls are pure,

    Purer than pearls wrapped in shells.

  77. They thirsted to acquire knowledge once they understood

    That ignorance is abhorrent in the judgment of reason.

  78. Fruitful are the hems of earnest endeavor; their concern

    Is to worship God in the manner He ordained.

  79. Unstunted minds revealed to them

    The necessity of knowledge, so they followed its call obediently,

  80. With vigor and resolve opposed by no

    Opponent—as though the sea itself surged forward.

  81. Glad tidings to you, bearers of knowledge! A day is yours

    When ignorance will retreat, torn away.

  82. You will rejoice in enlightened minds

    That God preserves from relishing innovations.

  83. O my mainstay, O rains of the earth, sufficient for you

    Are the angels’ touch in blessing and the benefit bestowed.

  84. Will you accept me as one of your men,

    So that together we may live by this true success?

  85. You have been singled out for an affair wholly honorable;

    Will you allow a rightful share of it to remain for us?

  86. I have never ceased calling for endeavors like yours,

    And you, O men of virtue, have listened.

  87. May God make your endeavor firm and increase you

    In ascent through the heights as long as any star rises.

Sol 5.6