هِيَ الدُّنْيَا يَغُرُّ بِنَا سَنَاهَا

فَنَأْمَنُهَا فَيَفْجَأُنَا دُجَاهَا

The world allures us with its splendor

This is the world, its brilliance deceives us,

We feel safe, then darkness descends

So we trust it, only to be ambushed by its darkness.

تُعَلِّلُنَا بِإِدْرَاكِ الأَمَانِي

وَلاَ يَنْفَكُّ يَرْشُقُنَا رَدَاهَا

It promises fulfillment of desires

It beguiles us with the attainment of our desires,

Yet ceaselessly it shoots its arrows

While its ruin never ceases to shoot at us.

فَلَوْ أَنَّا عَقَلْنَا مَا لَهَوْنَا

بِمَا أَبْدَتْ إِلَيْنَا مِنْ حُلاَهَا

Had we but wisdom, we’d not be fooled

If only we possessed reason, we would not have reveled

By the charms it flaunts before our eyes

In the adornments it displayed before us.

وَلَكِنَّا أَضَرَّ بِنَا هَوَاهَا

وَأَرْدَانَا التَّنَافُسُ فِي خَلاَهَا

But passion harms us, desire misleads

But our passion for it has brought us harm,

As we vie for the jewels it dangles

And our competition for its emptiness has ruined us.

أَنَلْهُو وَالرَّدَى فِينَا مُقِيمٌ

أَعَدَّ لَنَا نِبَالاً قَدْ بَرَاهَا

Distraction stays, evil remains

Do we play while doom dwells among us,

Aiming arrows it deftly prepared

Having readied arrows for us that it has sharpened?

وَنَرْجُو الْخُلْدَ فِيهَا وَالْمَنَايَا

تُدِيرُ عَلَى أَحِبَّتِنَا طِلاَهَا

We hope for immortality here

And do we hope for immortality within it, while the fates

While death spins its wheel round our loved ones

Pass around their wine to our loved ones?

وَتَفْجَعُنَا بِرُزْءٍ إِثْرَ رُزْءٍ

عَلَى أَنََّا سَتَطْحَنُنَا رَحَاهَا

Blow after blow makes us weep

And it afflicts us with tragedy after tragedy,

For it will grind us in its mill

Even as its millstone is bound to grind us down.

سَقَى الرَّحْمَانُ قَبْراً ضَمَّ شَخْصاً

تَسَرْبَلَ بِالْمَكَارِمِ وَارْتَدَاهَا

The Merciful has watered a grave holding one

May the Merciful send rain upon a grave that encloses a soul

Who wore the raiment of nobility

Who was cloaked in noble deeds and wore them as garments,

وَنَضَّرَ مَضْجِعاً لِفَتَاةِ صِدْقٍ

حَوَى غُرَرَ الْفَضَائِلِ إِذْ حَوَاهَا

And refreshed the bed of a maid of truth

And may He brighten the resting place of a righteous young woman,

Who harbored virtues when she embraced them

Which contained the finest virtues when it contained her.

لَقَدْ كَانَتْ تَحُضُّ عَلَى الْمَعَالِي

وَتَنْدُبُ لِلْمَكَارِمِ مَنْ أَبَاهَا

She urged others towards high ideals

She used to urge others toward lofty heights,

And mourned for those who shunned them

And summon to noble deeds those who refused them.

وَقَدْ كَانَتْ بِأُفْقِ الْفَضْلِ شَمْساً

فَحَطَّتْهَا الْمَنِيَّةُ عَنْ ذُرَاهَا

She was a sun in the sky of merit

She was indeed a sun upon the horizon of virtue,

Brought down by death from its lofty orbit

Yet fate brought her down from her peaks,

وَأَلْبَسَهَا الْمَنُونُ مُلَى كُسُوفٍ

فَهَلاَّ فَضْلُهَا الْوَافِي حَمَاهَا

The owl of death clothed her in the garb of eclipse

And death dressed her in the robes of an eclipse.

Did not her overflowing virtue protect her?

So why did her abundant virtue not protect her?

فَكَمْ أَحْيَتْ مَوَاهِبُهَا كَئِيباً

أَحَلَّتْهُ النَّوَائِبُ فِي حِمَاهَا

How often her gifts revived the despondent

For how many a sorrowful soul did her gifts revive,

Whom misfortunes had consigned to her care

Whom calamities had driven into her sanctuary?

وَكَمْ رَبَّتْ بِأَنْعُمِهَا يَتِيماً

قَلَتْهُ أُمُّهُ حَتَّى سَلاَهَا

How often she nurtured with her bounty an orphan

And how many an orphan did she raise with her blessings,

Whose mother perished before weaning him

Whose mother had forsaken him, until he forgot her?

لَئِنْ مَاتَتْ فَمَا مَاتَتْ حُلاَهَا

وَإِنْ أَوْدَتْ فَمَا أَوْدَى عُلاَهَا

If she died, her charm died not

Though she has died, her noble traits have not died,

If she went, she took her loftiness with her

And though she perished, her eminence has not perished.

فَقَدْ أَبْقَتْ مَآثِرَ مُشْرِقَات

تُخَبِّرُ عَنْ عُلاَهَا فِي نَوَاهَا

For she left shining achievements

For she has left behind radiant legacies,

That speak of her loftiness in her stead

That speak of her eminence in her absence.

وَمَنْ يُنْجِبْ بِمِثْلِكَ يَا ابْنَ عَمِّي

فَقَدْ ذَخَرَ الْمَحَامِدَ وَاقْتَنَاهَا

He who sires one such as you, cousin

And whoever begets someone like you, O cousin of mine,

Has stored up praise and acquired it in full

Has surely amassed praiseworthy traits and acquired them.

تَجَلَّدْ وَاحْتَسِبْ وَاصْبِرْ لِتُعْطَى

أُجُوراً لاَ يُحَاطُ بِمُنْتَهَاهَا

Bear it with patience and fortitude

Be steadfast, seek your reward from God, and be patient, that you may be granted

To be rewarded beyond measure

Rewards whose boundaries cannot be encompassed.

وَلاَ تَحْزَنْ فَإِنَّا عَنْ قَرِيبٍ

سَيَسْقِينَا الرَّدَى مِمَّا سَقَاهَا

Grieve not, for soon we shall drink

And do not grieve, for we, very soon,

The poison it made her drink

Will be made by death to drink from what it gave her.

جَزَاهَا اللهُ خَيْراً مِنْ حَصَانٍ

وَقَدَّسَ رُوحَهَا وَسَقَى ثَرَاهَا

May God grant her the best of steeds

May God reward her abundantly as a chaste woman,

And sanctify her soul and water her tomb

And sanctify her soul, and water her earth.

وَلاَ زَالَتْ جِنَانُ الْخُلْدِ تُهْدِي

إِلَيْهَا مَا تَأَرَّجَ مِنْ شَذَاهَا

The gardens of eternity continue to send her

And may the gardens of eternity forever present

The sweetest scents that they exhale

To her the most fragrant of their perfumes.