Sol 5.6

  1. Even if a base man, obscure in renown and ignorant—

    ignorant of the station of high honor, stingy with counsel and hand,

  2. dull of wit, scant in understanding, turning away

    from excellence, astray in his hopes and unguided—

  3. were to become attentive to the endeavors of the Ṣāḥib, the foremost lord,

    Muhammad’s renown would guide him to the heights.

  4. The account of a radiant, cultivated man would guide him—

    one versed in winning glory, a daring scaler of uplands.

  5. Whenever his striving wins him wealth and honor,

    an exiled neighbor and a petitioner divide that wealth between them.

  6. He hates to let a single hour of time pass

    without being seen in it as either protector or benefactor.

  7. Famine-stricken men make their mounts kneel in his land,

    drawn to one radiant and graceful amid life’s delights,

  8. to a towering summit of the honor of highest rank.

    He built it, and thereby exalted lord after lord.

  9. There drought dies, while whoever alights is drenched in plenty;

    even the might of the Indian-forged sword stands in awe of it.

  10. Nor will generous ʿAḍud al-Dīn ever find

    a peer to his loftiness in glory and lordly eminence:

  11. a young lord whose generosity, for those seeking his bounty, exacts

    his freely offered gift like a relentless creditor.

  12. Noble in character, he is untouched by the baseness of the—

    boorish, and draws near neither amusement nor idle play.

  13. So may he be congratulated on the blessed feast and on his glory,

    and may he never cease casting off a threadbare garment for one renewed.

Sol 5.6