Sol 5.6

  1. The feast of millions shone resplendent in his majesty,

    and they saw the beauty of their life in his beauty.

  2. All creation’s feast—for all creation

    rejoiced in the inspiration of his radiance and shade.

  3. The feast of civilization—for civilization was nothing

    but the offspring of reason in its independence.

  4. The feast of great equality, which sprang up

    at his dawn and clung to his crescent.

  5. The feast of brotherhood through all the ages—in his name

    the loftiest men were fashioned from among his heroes.

  6. The feast of guidance, and of sacrifices along its path,

    that humankind might be freed from its shackles.

  7. The feast of revealed laws, whose signs were gathered

    and crystallized in his light and perfection.

  8. The feast of holding fast to truth alone—

    for truth does not endure among those ignorant of it.

  9. The feast of moral ascent—and moral ascent alone

    is existence’s path toward happiness in its condition.

  10. A feast to whose covenant a free man calls,

    and a yearning man calls for the loosening of his tether.

  11. The feast of peace—though perhaps its realization

    has made blood a ransom, and part of the price of attaining it.

  12. The feast of prophecy: a message to life,

    through which he grew mighty and rose above his peers.

  13. What honor, O leader of reformers, for a nation—

    we belong to you, and to a world enamored of you.

  14. Through your radiant birth, inspire its peoples,

    until they are stirred by the lessons of its majesty.

  15. O unlettered one, O you whose mind

    embraced the sciences as stars for his men,

  16. and, far from excess, held out to them a life of freedom—

    not the vanity of a deluded man flaunting his wealth.

  17. O you who deemed the conveying of your message sufficient for your life

    and turned away from dominion and its riches.

  18. O you who embraced austerity in its entirety,

    whose noble traits shine before those who prosper.

  19. O you whose forbearance and proud refusal were evenly matched,

    and who held your struggle for truth as dear as your family.

  20. Today your noble wrath is awaited

    for a right held captive among its betrayers.

  21. Today let me hear from you the revelation of a message;

    resound—the forest’s roar issuing from its lion!

  22. Far be it from you to accept humiliation for humankind,

    you who freed the slave from his abasement.

  23. The Muslims are valiant warriors, ardent in zeal,

    rebels against insolent tyranny and its reach,

  24. and against the treacherous thieves, whose treachery

    never ends, like the trackless waste in its terrors.

  25. They made brazen boasting, like a plague, a law

    for oppression, and appealed to the malice of its creed.

  26. They enslaved peoples through their colonialism

    and sang rapturously of its virtue and deeds.

  27. Like a slave, it oppresses every fresh, radiant beauty,

    then boasts of favoring it in the name of union with it.

  28. Sickness penetrates deep into the healthy person, who then becomes

    its prey—and this is then reckoned among its favors.

  29. O you who refused submission short of your rights

    and savored pain in pursuit of your hopes,

  30. restore to Islam the dignity of its people

    through the great awakening, that it may attain the impossible.

  31. And bring low the domineering rulers despite their defenses—

    with ignorance foremost among them, bearing the venom of its arrows.

  32. Let your radiant birthday remain a beacon

    for every fighter who battles with utter resolve.

  33. For life is a form of death to one abased,

    while death, to the proudly free, is like his own kin.

  34. How much Islam has suffered at its enemies’ hands,

    just as it suffered from its own chieftains.

  35. So let your favor greet the guides at its advent,

    and let your sternness fall upon tyrants amid its convulsion.

Sol 5.6