من الفقير كاتب المواقف — Aloshari

From the poor man, the scribe of al-Mawaqif,

To the discerning imam, the spiritual knower,

To Sulayman, noble and peerless,

The unique jewel, eloquent and unrivaled.

I offer a greeting whose perfume wafts abroad,

And in its fragrance the spirit revives.

Its light captivates the eyes,

And its renown spreads through the cities.

He has fashioned it from his mind and thought;

The hands of noble, righteous men carry it

To a beloved who has gained the bondage of love,

And who has dwelt in my lifeblood and my heart.

He journeyed, and the heart journeyed in his train,

As though, O friend, it were one of his companions,

To the abode of revelation and the prophetic message,

And the mine of wisdom and valor,

And the source of virtue, and the spirit of his person,

As given in his transmitted account and his text:

Master of the masters of creation, and its head,

Its musk, its fragrance, and its myrtle,

Muhammad, Ahmad, most praiseworthy of all creation,

And the best of its people, together and apart.

There Salman set down his travel-pack.

Blessed is he: safety has come to him.

Then the tongue of circumstance calls to him:

Salman is one of us; he has attained union.

And after he has fulfilled, through the Chosen One,

His desires, he comes to the companion of the cave:

The master al-Siddiq, the best of the caliphs;

And after him, al-Faruq, patron of the upright monotheists;

And after him, to the illumined witness.

And after fulfilling his desire there,

He journeys toward honored Mecca,

Circles the House, and comes to Arafat.

Oh, what unassailable happiness—

Lofty and sublime, with the sky beneath it!

May you be blessed, O son of the noblest young men,

For the honors God has bestowed upon you.

You departed from us rightly guided and learned;

May God return you to us unharmed.

So listen, Abu Ahmad, to what happened to me

During your journey, O honored, generous one.

The Commentary on al-Mawaqif, whose like none has woven,

Truly, among those who have followed its method—

When you reached Hit, your friend began

Copying it—and truth is a saying to be followed.

Then severe, biting cold came upon us,

From whose fury no young man had escape.

It paralyzed our hands and fingers,

And struck the eloquent tongues dumb.

The ice shattered every vessel,

And stilled every bleating creature, O Salm.

It kept ruling us with its vengeance,

As though it were al-Hajjaj among his subjects.

Then its consecutive days came to an end,

And we had not copied two-fifths of a leaf of it.

And after it turned away from us and departed,

And the sun of my resolve had risen above Saturn,

I girded my loins, lighting my lamp,

Writing quire upon quire.

I kept writing in the margins,

Until my joints weakened from my toil.

And whenever I remember a good friend,

My vigor comes from here and from there.

But I took red ink,

And paper to complete it, and a ruling-board.

May you remain victorious over our enemies,

And may God return you to our land.

News of you has reached us

Of what the wicked young men did:

When they gathered their armies and fought,

And their rebels spread out and exchanged blows,

Your beautiful self then confronted them,

Though you were among a small band.

Our Lord protected you from their harm,

Until you turned their plot back upon their own throats.

So praise be to God for safety;

Whoever gains it has no regret.

Then greetings, born of growing love,

To the true brother, Mulla Hamid,

And after him, Sayyid Isa al-Kurdi,

As though he were with me, even though far away.

And we ask everyone for prayers

In the garden of the purified one, the intercessor.

May God bless him as long as the rain pours down,

And his family and his noble, pious companions.

To the Hijaz or to Damascus,

May this sheet arrive—so understand my words—

Kissing the writing fingertips

Of Salman, possessor of wisdom and prudence.

May it arrive with goodness and happiness,

And good fortune, safety, and eminence.