Sol 6.1

  1. Take comfort, submit, and be patient—for what good

    does grief do you when the departed is consigned to the grave?

  2. This secluded woman is no exception to death;

    she is but a part of the total number.

  3. She has sisters who preceded her: Maryam,

    and Asiya, and the secluded, ascetic Rabi'a.

  4. If that secluded lady has died, then she is

    pure in her limbs, her side, and her cloak.

  5. She never wore a garment of shame—no, nor

    divulged what lay within the barrier when entrusted with it.

  6. Indeed, she had a day on which death visited her;

    it came neither before her span was fulfilled nor afterward.

  7. She is only a daughter of Hawwa and Adam,

    like ourselves in life's span, in death, and in the cradle.

  8. Behold, we are dead, together with our fathers

    and our sons; we neither restore life nor bring it into being.

  9. They are the caravan already gone ahead, while we

    are urged along their tracks by a swift-galloping steed.

  10. This world is no abode for lasting residence,

    and the shade of permanence within it does not stretch far.

  11. We were created here for gathering, separation, and suffering,

    and for death, and afterward for threats and promises.

  12. Here, the decree of good fortune and ill is already set;

    so pity the unfortunate, and woe to the fortunate!

  13. Blessed is he among us whose provision on the way to God

    is His good pleasure, which leads him to the Garden of eternity.

  14. How strange—a dead man weeps for a dead man, and a dead man

    is consoled by a dead man; then one performs duties for a dead man.

  15. The forbearing person's watchword is patience after a loss,

    when he lacks the power to restore it.

  16. Though sorrow at losing a beloved wears away,

    all Hawwa's children are given over to loss.

  17. Death is a gate through which we all enter,

    to the Gathering's watering-place, whose waters we all seek.

  18. The army's commander dies the death of a pauper,

    and in death a hare is like a lion at the watering-place.

  19. These condolences among us are a custom

    that the living exchange, near and far.

  20. The dwellers in the graves do not know what is within us

    of wailing, sorrow, and anguish over them.

  21. Nor do we know their state, or what their final destination

    is, or what share of fortune they have encountered.

  22. We escort them in sorrow, then turn back from them,

    and set about dividing newly acquired and inherited wealth.

  23. How different is love for the living and the dead, once

    the two have parted! One love does not grow like the other.

  24. And a beloved is loathed when he lies in the earth,

    and his cheek has become filled with that dust.

  25. You will recoil from him after a day and a night,

    when cold appears within his shrouds.

  26. You pass by them morning and evening

    with hard hearts, indeed like solid stone.

Sol 6.1