وكم مِن مُصَلٍّ ما له من صلاته

سوى رؤيةِ المحرابِ والكدِّ والعنا

How many a worshipper has nothing from his prayer

but the sight of the mihrab, toil, and weariness;

وآخر يحظى بالمناجاةِ دائماً

وإن كان قد صلَّى الفريضةَ وابتدا

while another is graced with intimate converse always,

though he has performed the prescribed prayer and only made a beginning.

وكيف وسرُّ الخلق كان إماماً

وإن كان مأموماً فقد بلغ المدى

How could it be otherwise, when the Secret of Creation was our imam?

Though himself led in prayer, he had reached the utmost bound.

فتحريمُها التكبير إنْ كنتَ كابراً

وإلا فحل المرء أو حومه سوا

Its consecration is the takbīr—if you have become great;

otherwise, one’s unconsecrated state and one’s hovering about it are alike.

وتحليلها التسليم إن كنت دارياً

لرجعته العلياءِ في ليلة السُّرى

Its release is the final salutation, if you understand,

because of his exalted return on the Night of the Journey.

وما بين هذين المقامين غايةٌ

وأسرارُ غيبٍ ما تحسُّ وما ترى

What lies between these two stations is an ultimate goal,

and mysteries of the unseen that you neither sense nor see.