أراني ما ذكرت لك الفراقا — Al Burai

Whenever I mention parting to you, I find

my tears poised to spill.

By your glance—may it never be forsaken! What a glance

that shed my blood—and what precious blood it shed!

Long indeed has postponement oppressed me; had not

your phantom visited my bed by stealth.

Nothing is more wondrous than bodies

kept apart while spirits meet.

How freely love has spent my blood and tears,

and burdened me, through you, with passion and hardship!

It made me ill and kindled the fire of my yearning;

such is the way of love, by common accord.

If chaste ʿUdhri love were just,

each heart would bear only what it could.

When the gentle east wind blows from Najd at night,

fragrant with laurel, it transports me with longing.

I love neither the dune nor those who dwell upon it,

nor fertile Egypt, nor Iraq.

Nor is my longing for Kāẓima, but rather

for him who mastered his nation and surpassed all others:

Muhammad, specially distinguished by the name Ahmad,

a name derived for him from “the Praised”;

leader of the messengers and their chosen one,

the noblest and purest of them in lineage;

a Prophet about whom the All-Merciful revealed

“Blessed,” “The Morning Bright,” and “The Sundering,”

as a Book possessing a straight path,

clear, with neither fabrication nor invention.

May rain clouds never cease their bounty upon a land

where we behold the radiance of its dome gleaming.

Within it is a sun surpassing the sun in light,

and a full moon that clothes the moon itself in eclipse.

He is generosity itself, whose bounty filled all creation;

he is the illustrious one who rode al-Burāq.

A Prophet who never ceased ascending in glory

until he passed beyond the seven layered heavens.

God unsheathed him as a sword for Islam,

and through him dispelled error and hypocrisy.

Thus he was glory for the people of God’s faith,

and their support in battle when the fray rose to full height.

He annihilated the idolaters at every breach,

leading lean, swift horses and driving them onward.

He broke the might of the tyrannical factions

and slaked the slender blades with their blood.

He advanced while the horses stood poised on three legs,

and battle-dust had spread a canopy above them.

The towering strongholds of unbelief became rubble,

and noble horses trampled over it.

He showed grace to the captives on the day of Badr,

and accepted ransom after their bonds had been drawn tight.

His noble generosity encompassed all creation;

whoever came to him departed having tasted it.

Will you accept, O Muhammad, the excuse of a servant

who yearns for you with surpassing longing?

I made the pilgrimage but did not visit you, through my ill fortune;

after adversity, one grows accustomed to flight.

Who will grant that I soon arrive in safety

and kiss the dust, if only for a fleeting moment;

that I may behold a dome filled with beauty

and sate myself by embracing it from every side?

Visitors have come to you from every region,

spurring on swift mares and she-camels.

My sins kept me from you, so know

that it was sin that stopped and hindered me.

Bind ʿAbd al-Rahim with a cord of bounty

whose reach encompasses beloveds and companions.

I have come to you, my master, bearing my excuse; show me compassion

when the wide world closes in upon me.

My steps fell short of reaching you because of my sins,

and with my guilt upon me, I could not set out.

Be my shade tomorrow, and intercede for my sin,

and from your Pool give me a brimming draught.

Welcome with acceptance the strangeness of my phrasing,

and relieve its author of choking anguish.

The burdens of sin have enslaved me,

yet through you I hope for emancipation.

How should one like me fear the Fire’s scorching blast

when one sheltered by your sanctuary need not fear burning?

May your Lord’s blessings be upon you so long as

the winds of heaven race one another in eager rivalry.