هي الليالي فلا تغتر بالامل — Shabrawy

Such are the nights; do not be deceived by hope.

How many a lord has decayed beneath layers of earth!

O you who vainly seek ease from your days,

desist, for time is filled with nothing but cares.

How many a fair countenance has had its beauty destroyed

by death's hand, which left it helpless to devise a stratagem!

And how many a noble man, how many a chieftain, how many a king

lie beneath the earth—how many a gallant man, how many a hero!

And how many an imam to whom states ultimately turned

has, through death, been deposed from those states!

And how many a mighty man death has humbled, and no

wealth or retinue kept it away from him!

O you who know your age, that knowledge suffices you;

and if you do not know time's vicissitudes, ask:

Have you ever heard, in your time or before it,

with your own ears, that a [son] of woman does not pass away?

And have you seen people who rose high and excelled

in virtue increase their lifespan through what they attained?

Or have you [forgotten 'Beget children for death']? Or have

your eyes grown blind to one setting down a bier and another bearing it?

And has death spared a man of might because of his might?

Or has anyone lived an age without adversity?

Death is a door, and all people enter it;

but the man of virtue is borne away in haste.

And the loss of an [imam], a learned luminary, is not

like the loss of one with neither knowledge nor deeds.

And the death of one whose loss is death to nations is not

like the death of someone among the base and the lowly.

For this reason our lamentation has lasted long, and down have flowed

our tears, like a torrent of heavy, pouring rain,

for a resolute imam, virtuous and discerning,

a wise scholar, a refuge for learning, [a saint].

He had a hand that reached the sea of [guidance] and recounted

its discourse on the disciplines of the early masters.

And how many of his writings, with their precious substance,

shone forth; their meaning had no need of flaws [wording uncertain].

O Lord, by the Chosen One, the guide, and his companion

in the cave, then the martyr of the house, then [Ali],

forgive Your servants by Your grace, and pardon the one who has

departed; grant him safety from fear and dread.

And be gracious to Your servant Abd Allah, this poem's composer;

for You have ever been gracious, from eternity.

Then blessings upon the purest of humankind in noble standing,

and upon his family, companions, followers, and attendants.