تدفق دموعا أو دما أو قوافيا — Ismail Sabry

Pour forth tears, or blood, or rhymes.

Here are the mourning rites of the one most worthy of people's grief.

Is it fitting that virtues' death be announced to mankind,

While you—woe to you—are not weeping among the mourners?

Did the stillness of certain nights deceive you,

So that you spent the night content, serene of mind, at ease?

They were indeed still, but only to sharpen for battle

Minutes from their hours, and seconds.

Yet surely between the cup and the mouth there is a gap

For mighty calamities to gallop through, turning forelocks white.

So stir a little of your caution whenever

You see hopes at the edges of the heart.

Muhammad, the houses of learning were full of life,

Thanks to you, radiant among mankind.

Then at dawn they were left—save for grief and sorrow

For you—empty by imperious fate.

What ails death, then—may God not bless death—

That it turned yesterday's bearer of glad tidings in the world into a herald of death?

To the dismay of intellect and glory, decay has touched you

With harm, leaving your sturdy stem withered.

And that the door was locked, where you used

To receive the distressed and await the complainant.

Muhammad, who will guard the faith's pool

And ward off its assailants among mankind?

Some people meddled with the Book and sorely wounded

Its clarity with commentary far removed from its intent.

So you cast into it a gaze that penetrated to

The very heart of God's intent, when you stood forth as a guide.

And you reconciled divine law with reason, after

The two companions had believed there could be no meeting.

And many were those who fought Ahmad's faith;

So you rose against them with a charging lion's fury.

You stood firm while the pens of error were leveled for attack,

And the pens of truth's people gazed on heedlessly.

And with proof you silenced every opponent

Who, had you not grown angry, would have persisted all the more.

So they returned to the better way; had you not bested them in argument,

Their cry would have become a resounding roar again.

Good for them! Let them launch their assaults,

For the battlefield is empty now that you are gone.

Muhammad, you gave noble virtues their due,

And in your lifetime rose to call others to them.

And you taught the benevolent aspects of benevolence,

With renowned bright distinctions—and meanings too.

And you treated the diseases of hearts with wisdom;

Behind it you see healing, manifest and pure.

And you lodged in the students fragments of a soul

That deems knowledge mere babbling unless it uplifts a person.

Virtues which, if recounted, spread their fragrance among us,

As though we had made the garden's expanse our meeting place.

Ah, sleep at ease with the righteous in eternity,

For many a night you stayed among us, wakeful in resolve and toiling.

May you be rewarded on Islam's behalf with what you deserve,

For you were a keen sword in the hand of truth.