Sol 5.6

  1. I pondered the excellence of the Imam—

    al-Maqqarī, the learned sage—for a time.

  2. And found him the firstborn of the age,

    the world’s one peerless man, beyond all doubt.

  3. Never have I seen, nor have I heard

    of his like among all created beings.

  4. He came to Damascus as a visitor—

    would that he had become a resident!

  5. And he came, by a wondrous coincidence,

    at the fast-breaking of the month of those who fast.

  6. It was as though the crescent were his radiant brow,

    while we were making our vows.

  7. And Knowledge, setting down the date, declared:

    “There he brought forth manifest excellence.”

Sol 5.6