Sol 5.6

  1. God’s delegations came one after another, choosing His religion,

    and accepting Him as Lord—they have no lord but Him.

  2. He called them, and they answered, seeking truth as their way;

    they came, caravan after caravan following without cease.

  3. Sound counsel guided them to Islam:

    no turmoil to wound souls, and no war.

  4. If a man does not restrain his own soul from error,

    neither spear-thrust nor blow will guide him to the path.

  5. The worst trait of the soul is that it should prefer blindness

    and dislike medicine’s drawing out its maladies.

  6. Their hopes and their mounts bore them far onward,

    to one whose precincts are broad and whose dwelling is spacious.

  7. Great in benefactions, he never lets his guest go without

    abundant hospitality from his bounty and largesse pouring forth.

  8. When the afflicted comes to him while care weighs heavily,

    he relieves what afflicts him until it is as though no anguish ever was.

  9. And if a drought-stricken man goes to seek rain through him,

    the drought clears away from him and plenty flows unbroken.

  10. How many a denier, when he saw the light of his face,

    had blindness lifted from his eyes and his heart awaken!

  11. Through him the people learned the path to guidance:

    no path was rugged, and no mount hard to ride.

  12. In his far-spreading shade they laid down their sins,

    then returned with neither burden nor sin upon them.

  13. Purity clothed them—a splendor from truth’s radiance,

    with a glow that endures through time and never dims.

  14. O children of the age, sleep until the end of time—or awake!

    The darkness has dispersed and the veils have withdrawn.

  15. God has willed nothing but to uphold His religion;

    whoever rejects it has neither reason nor discernment.

  16. When the onrushing torrent takes its course,

    no passes in East or West are closed before it.

  17. Religion is only that which effaces evil and harm,

    so that no nation and no people laments misery.

  18. The two seas are not alike: this one’s taste

    is bitterly salt, while the other is sweet and pleasant to drink.

  19. The Lord of heaven ordained it for us as sacred law,

    purifying—with neither injustice nor usurpation issuing from it.

  20. Ours is our religion, by which we rise, and ours our Book,

    to heights no other religions or scriptures can attain.

  21. May God preserve a people who honor nothing but His right,

    whom neither reproach nor censure daunts in serving it.

  22. They love Him with a love by which their hearts grow tender,

    yet within them that love, like their faith, is firm.

  23. Whoever asks about the state of lovers—

    those are their qualities, and this indeed is love.

  24. Learn the people’s qualities and follow their path:

    those are the party of God—no party is like them.

Sol 5.6