Sol 5.6

  1. How closely beneficence and kindness resemble al-Ḥasan—

    Abū Muḥammad, the praised one, possessor of bounties!

  2. He is the man who will not preserve wealth at the cost of his health;

    rather, he arrays wealth against reproach like shields.

  3. Guileless: when the world presented herself to him, he yearned

    for the noble qualities she offered, not for her temptations;

  4. and he allotted us her fruit, not her thorns.

    Thus through her we dwell amid blessings, untouched by affliction.

  5. In generosity he made his face familiar, yet never vulgar,

    and placed his body in glory’s service, yet never demeaned.

  6. He has a sanctuary: whenever a neighbor takes refuge within it,

    Time itself becomes utterly trustworthy toward him.

  7. It is as though the Garden of Paradise had been secured:

    within it souls are safe from terrors and sorrow.

  8. How often we have stood amid the days of his prosperity,

    yet never stood among ruins or blackened traces;

  9. how often we have entrusted ourselves to a fair expectation of him,

    yet never devoted ourselves to a tyrant or an idol.

  10. A noble youth whom God willed only to perfect,

    in word and deed—so he neither stinted nor betrayed.

  11. When he races in noble deeds, weariness does not halt him

    short of the farthest goals, nor does he stray from the right paths.

  12. And when he speaks, he does not blunder blindly down the paths of speech,

    but speaks from ready wit, delivered upon an eloquent tongue.

  13. The trace drawn by his two hands, rich with their bounty, has become

    like the lines of his eyes in a face endowed with beauty.

  14. Just as people behold, in a single day, his benefactions—

    many times what he himself might behold of them in an age.

  15. His petitioners continually obtain from his wealth

    many times what he keeps for spirit and body.

  16. Generosity indeed found refuge after Ibn Māmata,

    and after its Ḥātim, it found in him a home.

  17. Come to his watering place without a well-rope, if you would drink from him:

    the Euphrates spares the water-drawer’s hand any need of rope.

  18. This praise is in return for that bounty, though we have not rendered our master

    his rightful due of praise—and so precious a right has its price.

  19. And listen, Abū Jaʿfar, if indeed you are listening,

    for you have ever been noble in attentiveness and ear.

  20. O you who matched Ḥātim in every noble deed:

    whoever aids a man of righteous deeds shall himself be aided.

  21. You and the son of the truthful vizier succeeded your Ḥātim

    in generosity, so he rose again, unwrapped from his shroud.

  22. And in this world we are your dependents,

    weavers, through our wit, of the robes of praise.

  23. Toward the likes of us you have always had customary ways

    that please God, both in secret and in public.

  24. And we cherish a hope—a hope enveloped in confidence:

    that your righteous custom toward us will not change.

  25. Our hopes in you are hopes assured,

    and our trust in you is raised above all doubts.

  26. They already encompass provisions by which we live,

    for your promise and fulfillment have always been yoked together.

  27. So hasten the rescue—we hope for it from you,

    O lord of rescue—indeed, O lord of good fortune.

Sol 5.6