وَحِّدِ الله ولا تُشْركْ بهِ

إنْ تكنْ عبداً مُنيباً أحدا

Affirm God’s oneness, and associate nothing with Him.

If you would be a penitent servant, single-hearted.

واتْركِ الأغْيارَ إنْ كُنتَ فتًى

نَظرُ الأغيارِ يا هذا سُدَى

Leave all others behind, if you are truly noble;

To gaze toward others, O you, is vanity.

كم أُناسٍ دينهُمْ دِرْهمُهُمْ

عبَدوا زوجَتهُمْ والوَلدا

How many people have made their dirham their religion,

Worshiping their wives and children.

وحَّدوهُ بِكلامٍ ناشئٍ

عن فؤادٍ غافل طولَ المَدى

They professed His oneness with words arising

From a heart heedless all its days.

منْ رأى الواحدَ يَنْسى غيرَهُ

كيفَ لا ينسى السِّوى من وحَّدا

Whoever sees the One forgets all else;

How could one who affirms His oneness not forget what is other?

نحنُ قومٌ خُلَّصٌ نَعْبُدُهُ

لنْ نرى من دونهِ مُلْتَحدا

We are a people made sincere; Him alone we worship,

And apart from Him we shall see no refuge.

ما قصدْنا غيرَهُ في حاجةٍ

خابَ من للغَيْرِ قلباً قَصَدا

Never have we sought another in any need;

Lost is the one whose heart intends another.

لم نرَ التَّأثيرَ للعبدِ بما

يفعَلُ العبدُ دَنا أَو صَعدَا

We see no power belonging to the servant in whatever

The servant does, whether descending or ascending.

إنَّما التَّأثيرُ للهِ الَّذي

عبدَهُ من عَدَمٍ قَدْ أَوجَدَا

Power belongs only to God, who

Brought His servant forth from nothingness.

هذه في نَهْجِنا سيرَتُنا

عن رسولِ اللهِ نَروي السَّنَدَا

This is our way of life upon our path;

From God’s Messenger we transmit its chain.

وبحمدِ اللهِ قَدْ هذَّبَنا

مَشرَبُ القُطبِ المُعَلَّى أَحمَدَا

By God’s praise, we have indeed been refined

By the draught of the exalted Pole, Ahmad—

سيِّدُ الأَقطابِ يا أَكرِمْ به

لهُمُ في كلِّ عصرٍ سيِّدا

Master of the spiritual poles—how noble he is!—

Their master in every age.

بحرُهُمْ قَدْ أَخذوا من موجِهِ

كلُّهُمْ في كلِّ فنٍّ مورِدا

He is their sea; from its waves they have drawn,

And all have found in every art a watering place.

أَسدٌ لكنْ إلهيُّ الوَحا

عبدُهُ في الغابِ يُردي الأَسَدَا

A lion—yet divine is his swiftness;

God’s servant in the forest strikes the lion down.

صاحِبُ اليدِ فأَعْنِي مذْ دَعا

جدَّهُ جَهراً له مدَّ اليَدَا

He of the Hand—I mean that when he called,

His grandfather openly stretched the Hand to him.

كم قَضى اللهُ به حاجاتِنا

وقضَى الأَعْداءُ غَيْظاً حسَدَا

How many needs has God fulfilled through him for us,

While enemies expired in rancorous envy.

هاشِمِيٌّ أَطْلَعَتْ هِمَّتُهُ

لأُولي الجُحْدِ شِهاباً رَصَدَا

A Hashemite whose spiritual aspiration raised

A watchful meteor against those given to denial;

الحُسَيْنِيُّ الكبيرُ المُرْتَجى

إنْ دَهى باغٍ وإِنْ عادٍ عَدَا

The great Husaynid, the one in whom hope is placed—

Should an aggressor threaten him or a transgressor attack.

ذو رِحابٍ يَفِدُ الأَشْقى له

وتَراهُ بعدَ رَمْشٍ سَعَدَا

A man of spacious courts, to whom even the most wretched comes;

In the blink of an eye, you see him blessed.

لم يَخِبْ عبدٌ طَوى نِيَّتَهُ

مُخلِصاً في حُبِّهِ مُعْتَقِدا

No servant who set his intention upon him was disappointed,

Being sincere in love for him and firm in faith.

أَنتَ إِن أَصبحتَ من أَتْباعِهِ

قل لأَهلِ البَغْيِ موتوا كَمَدَا

If you have become one of his followers,

Tell the people of tyranny: die of grief.

إِن تكنْ في البحرِ من هِمَّتِهِ

تُلْفِ بينَ الموجِ منها مَدَدَا

If you are at sea, through his spiritual resolve

You will find amid the waves succor flowing from it.

كم وكم ناداهُ عَانٍ خائِفٌ

وله جمرُ الغَضا قَدْ خَمَدَا

How many a frightened sufferer has called to him,

And the burning coals of the ghada tree have died away.

كم وكم حاضَرَهُ ذو لهفَةٍ

ردَّ عنه سِرُّهُ كَرَّ العِدى

How many a desperate soul has come before him,

And his secret has repelled the enemy’s charge.

كم لديغٍ فاز جمراً سَمُّهُ

ثمَّ ناداهُ وحَالاً بَرُدا

How many a snake-bitten man, his venom blazing like embers,

Then called to him—and at once it cooled.

تاجُ أَهلِ اللهِ بل أَحمَدُهُمْ

أَتَرى كلَّ ولِيٍّ أَحمَدَا

Crown of the people of God—indeed, their most praiseworthy;

Could you imagine every saint to be an Ahmad?

كلُّنا خُدَّامُهُ في ذَيلِهِ

قَدْ طُوينا فغَدَوْنا سُعَدَا

We are all his servants, gathered at his hem;

We have crossed the way and become blessed.

ملجَأُ العَرْجاءِ مَعْقودُ اللِّوا

فارِسُ الهَيْجاءِ كشَّافُ الرَّدى

Refuge of the afflicted, bearer of the bound standard,

Knight of battle, disperser of destruction.

عَلَمُ القَوْمِ إِذا الخطبُ دَجا

عَلَوِيُّ الشَّأنِ فيَّاضُ النَّدا

Standard of the people when the crisis darkens,

Alid and lofty in station, pouring forth bounty.

ذو شُؤُنٍ لو ذَكَرْناها له

لملأْنا الأَرضَ فيها عدَدَا

Were we to recount the deeds that are his,

We would fill the earth with their number.