أَبا العَبّاسِ ما ظَنّي بِشُكري

إِذا ما كُنتَ تَعفو بِالذَميمِ

O Abu al-Abbas, what do I think will be my gratitude

O Abu al-Abbas, I do not deem my gratitude,

When you pardon the slanderer?

Should you choose to pardon, a thing of blame.

وَإِنّي وَالَّذي حاوَلتَ مِنّي

لَمُعوَجٌ دَفَعتَ إِلى مُقيمِ

By Him whom you have tried with me,

For truly I, in the task you sought to mend,

I am crooked, but you made me upright,

Am a crooked branch entrusted to a straightener.

وَكُنتَ أَباً سِوى أَن لَم تَلِدني

رَحيماً أَو أَبَرَّ مِنَ الرَحيمِ

You were a father to me, had you not given me birth,

You were a father—save that you begot me not—

Merciful, or more merciful than the Merciful.

Merciful, nay, even kinder than the merciful.

حَلَفتُ بِرَبِّ ياسينٍ وَطَهَ

وَأُمِّ الآيِ وَالذِكرِ الحَكيمِ

I swear by the Lord of Ya Sin and Taha,

I have sworn by the Lord of Ya-Sin and Ta-Ha,

And the Mother of the Book, and the Wise Remembrance,

By the Essence of Verses and the Wise Reminder:

لَئِن أَصبَحتُ ذا جُرمٍ عَظيمٍ

لَقَد أَصبَحتَ ذا عَفوٍ كَريمِ

If I wake up guilty of a terrible crime,

That if I have come to bear a sin of vast proportion,

You will have woken up with noble pardon.

Then you are possessed of a pardon most noble.

وَلي حُرَمٌ فَلا تَنتَطَّ عَنها

فَتَدفَعَ حَقَّها دَفعَ الغَريمِ

I have inviolable rights, so do not turn away from them

I hold sacred claims, so do not turn far from them,

And reject her rights, rejecting the disinherited,

Denying their due like a debtor shunning payment.

تَغافَلُ لي كَأَنَّكَ واسِطِيٌّ

وَبَيتُكَ بَينَ زَمزَمَ وَالحَطيمِ

You overlook my sins as if you are my intercessor

You feign ignorance of me like a stranger from Wasit,

And your house is between Zamzam and Hatim.

Though your true house stands 'twixt Zamzam and Al-Hatim.