Sol 5.6

  1. They intended evil and awaited an imam

    who would arise to fold up what the Prophet had spread.

  2. Should what men hope for come to pass,

    the hidden marvel may then appear to you.

  3. If the people of religion do not pray,

    then every form of guidance spurns their creed.

  4. I found the sacred law worn threadbare by the nights,

    as the Sharʿabī cloak was worn threadbare.

  5. They are but customs; through them the old man continues

    on the course to which boyhood accustomed him.

  6. I have no knowledge of what has yet to come,

    though spring has already beckoned with its fingertips.

  7. One king passed away, for another king to succeed him afterward;

    one beloved vanished, then another beloved grew.

  8. Rabbits may indeed be shielded from lions

    by lion-braves who are the cubs of foxes.

  9. An Eastern archer only grazed the truth,

    and another, a Westerner, was not granted it.

  10. Here is ʿUmar speaking, and here is ʿAlī;

    both men are witless in their claim.

  11. Better for the heart than overlooking it

    is a Yathribite blade against reproach.

  12. If a Bakrite overtakes you through treachery,

    a Taghlibite has not been free of it.

  13. You were harmed by those you counted as kin,

    while the stranger spared you injury.

  14. All who inhabit the earth are blameworthy—

    their cultivated freeborn and their captive alike.

  15. So if they are named Arqam or Layth,

    a wolfish man has come to you, and a scorpionish one.

Sol 5.6