Sol 5.6

  1. From the son of God’s Messenger, and the son of his appointed successor,

    to a Nasibi who insinuates corruption into the bond of faith:

  2. You grew up amid lute, tambourine, and harp,

    in a singer’s lap or against a minstrel’s breast,

  3. from a drunkard’s loins into a songstress’s womb,

    amid doubts about her ownership and every taint.

  4. You said, “The sons of Harb clothed you in turbans

    made of blows upon your heads, with blood-red tassels.”

  5. You spoke truly: swords are our appointed deaths, whereas

    you die upon your beds, the death of sheltered maidens.

  6. We are those among whom no blame roams free,

    and our honor is never known for faults.

  7. Whenever they convened, they were the suns of their assembly;

    whenever they rode, the full moons of the cavalcade.

  8. When they scowled on battle’s day, death itself laughed;

    when they laughed, the eyes of calamity wept.

  9. What have fair women to do with battle? So seek refuge

    in plucking paired strings from the clash of battalions.

  10. On the day of Hunayn, you said mournfully, “It was his boast”—

    had he understood, he would have counted it among his disgraces:

  11. his father was merely a herald, while the appointed successor struck blows.

    So speak of a loud-voiced herald—and of a fighter!

  12. You came with the children, seeking his inheritance;

    how far from it is one excluded by an heir who bars him!

  13. You said, “We rose as avengers; our battle cry was

    ‘Vengeance for Zayd the Good!’ when combat met.”

  14. Then why was Ibrahim not your battle cry,

    so that your claim might become a disappointed man’s excuse?

  15. He is the Chosen Prophet’s minister and appointed successor,

    his very likeness in character and innate qualities;

  16. the man of whom Muhammad said on the Day of Ghadir,

    fearing the treachery of the hostile Nasibis:

  17. “Do I not have a greater claim over you than your own selves?”

    They answered, “Yes”—despite the contentious doubter’s misgivings.

  18. Then he said to them, “Whoever among you has me as his master,

    this man, my brother, is his master after me and my companion.

  19. Obey him, every one of you: he stands in relation to me

    as Aaron stood to Moses, the one addressed by God.”

  20. Yet your Harun struck down, though they had committed no crime,

    stars whose lives were ended like the stars of heaven.

  21. And your Ma’mun poisoned al-Rida after a pledge of allegiance

    which even the lofty, deep-rooted mountains had rendered to him.

Sol 5.6