يا عابدا رباً بتصويرِهِ

وعقله من تحت تسخيرِهِ

O worshipper of a Lord through your imagining of Him,

With your mind under His control,

يفهم شيئاً ويظن الذي

يفهمه الله بتسطيره

You understand something and think that

What you understand is what God means through His dictation,

خالقك الله بلا شبهة

وخالق العقل وتصويره

Your Creator God is undoubtedly without likeness,

And the Creator of the mind and its imagining,

من لم يكن يعجز عن علمه

بربه فاه بتغييره

Whoever was not incapable of knowing his Lord,

Alas for his changing [Him],

فإن ما في عقله كله

خلق له من بعض تأثيره

For all that is in his mind

Was created for him through some of His influence,

يا قانعاً بالعقل في ربه

ما ثم فيه غير تقديره

O you who are content with the mind regarding your Lord,

There is nothing in it but His ordainment,

وإنك المحجوب عنه بما

تخيلته النفس من غيره

While you are veiled from Him by what

The self imagined without Him,

تظن أن الله ذاك الذي

عقلته تلجا إلى خيره

You think that God is the One whom

You intellectualized, hoping for His goodness,

هيهات هيهات فيا ويح من

يعبد مفهوماً بتدبيره

Never, never! Woe to whoever worships

A concept through devising it,

يدعوه في سر وجهر ولن

يجيبه في حال تعسيره

Calls upon it in secret and in public but it will

Never answer him in his hardship,

لأنه في عجزه مثله

خلق عليه وسم تحقيره

Because it is like him in its incapacity

He created over it and stamped its contemptibility

يجله وهو له خاضع

معترف عنه بتقصيره

He extols it while it is submissive to Him

Admitting its shortcoming regarding Him,

وكل هذا حاصل منه في

صورة معنى مثل تعبيره

And all of this ensues from it in

The form of a meaning like its expression,

ما عنده الإيمان بالغيب كي

يزول تنجيس بتطهيره

It has no faith in the unseen so that

Its pollution may be removed through purification,

ويعرف الله القديم الذي

ما مثله شيء بتطويره

And so that it may know the Eternal God whom

Nothing resembles through evolving,

والله حق والسوى باطل

فاحذر من العقل وتزويره

And God is true while anything else is falsehood

So beware of the mind and its deception,

واثبت على الشرع وما جاء من

أحكامه تظفر بتنويره

And stick to the Sacred Law and what judgments came from it,

You will triumph through its enlightenment,

وافهم من القرآن مستدركاً

ما خرب العقل بتعميره

And understand from the Qur’an while deducing

What the mind corrupted through building it up,

واقبل على الغيب وكن واثقاً

به وخف من حكم تدميره

And embrace the unseen, being confident in it,

While fearing the judgment of its destruction,

واقطع بعجز الكل عن دركه

واهرب من العقل وتحكيره

And profess the incapacity of all to grasp Him,

And flee from the mind and its confusion,

عجبت ممن يترك الفهم في ال

قرآن لا يلوي لتفسيره

I am astonished by one who avoids understanding in the

Qur’an, not inclining to interpreting it,

ليعرف الرب به وهو لا

ينهى عن العقل وتفكيره

In order to know the Lord through it while He

Does not prohibit the mind and thinking,

تراه يخشى الفهم في آية ال

قرآن تلقيه لتكفيره

You see him fear understanding in any verse of the

Qur’an, submitting to its declaration of unbelief,

ولا يخاف العقل يطغي به

كأنه يقضي بتوقيره

While not fearing the mind overflowing thereby

As if commanding its veneration,

فافهم كتاب الله واحكم بما

فيه على الأدنى وقطميره

So understand God's Book and judge by what is in it

Over the base and its urine,

واضرع إلى ربك ترجوه في

تهليله حقاً وتكبيره

And plead to your Lord hoping for Him sincerely

In His pronouncing His Oneness and Greatness,

وإن أراك الله فضل امرئٍ

من كامل الدنيا وتحريره

And if God shows you the favor of a man

Of perfected worldly enjoyment and freedom,

فثق به واركن إلى قوله

واعكف على تكرار هجِّيره

Then trust in him, rely on his words,

And devote yourself to repeating his poetry,

واشمم شذا الروضة من نفسه

وعش به واقنع بتعطيره

And smell the fragrance of the garden from his soul,

And live by it, content with its scent,