Sol 5.6

  1. O prince of God’s religion, peer of His Prophet—

    you whose love is a binding duty imposed by God;

  2. your station shines above the Pherkad stars,

    and your glory keeps watch from above al-Simāk.

  3. Your sword upon the enemies’ necks is necklaces—

    necklaces over which no bead-piercer ever labored.

  4. The day of Badr offers ample proof and testimony,

    when hardships were laid low beneath your two striking blades.

  5. And at Uhud, when you came while one of them—

    if they ask—was plainly heartsick and fleeing.

  6. And on the day of ʿAmr—by my life!—what exploits,

    manifest—there are no exploits like them!

  7. And in the feat against Marhab, were they but to know, is proof enough;

    for every day brings those beloved a Marhab to face.

  8. And in a report, its radiant details make clear

    its truth: the Lion effortlessly wielding the sword.

  9. How many a prayer of the Chosen One for him was answered,

    and how many hopes of the Trustee’s enemy came to nothing!

  10. Among them was an inflammation of the eye that afflicted him, which he dispelled with a prayer

    that very hour, while the gale of war blew furiously;

  11. and the assaults of heat and cold were warded

    away from him by his prayer—and therein are wonders.

  12. On what day was he not that day’s very sun,

    when it was said, “This is a day on which desires are fulfilled”?

  13. Was it at al-Zahrāʾ’s betrothal, when he chose him alone

    as her equal, though everyone before him had sought her hand?

  14. Or in the account of the Bird, when he prayed and he answered him,

    though a devious fool had turned him away from me?

  15. Or on the day of Khumm, when he proclaimed his renown,

    and all living souls heard it—those arriving and those departing?

  16. Or when, on the day of Mutual Imprecation, he elevated his rank—

    a glory which, as I know, does not pass away?

  17. Or when he embraced him on the Day of the Cloak and said:

    “They are my family and my household,” while Gabriel stood witness?

  18. Or when he was mending the sandal, and placed him

    in a station where the piercing-bright stars beheld him?

  19. Or in the explicit words he addressed to al-Zubayr, warning him:

    “You will fight him unjustly when you fight”?

  20. O community whose eyes misguidance has blinded,

    and which the broad path of right guidance has passed by!

  21. For your forebears brought the House of Muhammad to ruin

    through wars whose consequences will yet be known.

  22. And you follow in their footsteps and along their chosen course,

    making them die of hunger—such are the calamities!

  23. Give them their right; they do not seek your largesse.

    Relinquish to them their rightful revenues, and do not quarrel.

  24. How vile this is—a manifest disgrace upon the faith,

    to which a hostile outsider can point!

  25. If the world and its riches belong to the House of Muhammad,

    why are his children starving while the enemy rules it?

  26. My intercessors before God are a people through whom

    the foul is distinguished from the pure.

  27. Through loving them, I have become deserving

    of that which none other than I deserves.

Sol 5.6