مالي وللنجم يرعاني وأرعاهُ
أمسى كلانا يعافُ الغمضَ جفناهُ
What is it to me if a star watches over me, and I watch over it
We both end up closing our eyelids in sleep
لي فيكَ يا ليلُ آهاتٌ أردِّدُها
أوَّاهُ لو أجْدت المحزونَ أواه
O night, I have sighs that I repeat to you
If only I could find the sorrowful one to sigh to
لا تحسبَنِّي محباً يشتكي وَصباً
أهْونْ بما في سبيل الحب ألقاه
Think not that I am a lover complaining of passion
The least I can bear in the path of love, I have borne
إنى تذكرتُ والذكرى مُؤَرِّقةٌ
مجداً تليداً بأيدينا أضعناه
I remembered and memory is agonizing
A glorious past that we lost with our own hands
ويحَ العروبة كان الكونُ مسرحها
فأصبَحت تتوارى في زواياه
Woe to Arabism! The universe was its stage
Now it hides itself in corners
أنَّى اتجهت إلى الإسلام في بلد
تجدْهُ كالطير مقصوصاً جناحاه
Wherever I turned to Islam in the country
I found it like a bird whose wings were clipped
كم صرفَتْنَا يدٌ كنّا نصرِّفها
وبات يملكنا شعبٌ ملكناه
How many times did a hand that we wielded
Become in the night the hand that rules us
كم بالعراق وكم بالهند ذو شجنٍ
شكا فردَّدَت الأهرامُ شكواه
How many in Iraq, how many in India cry in sorrow
And the pyramids echo back their laments
بني العمومةِ إن القُرحَ مسّكموا
ومسَّنا نحن في الآلام أشباه
O kinsmen, your wounds have pierced you
And we their likes suffer from similar pains
يا أهل يثرب أدمت مُقْلَتَيَّ يدٌ
بدريةٌ تسأل المصريَّ جدواه
O people of Yathrib, hands have exhausted my tears
Asking the Egyptian, has it any worth left?
الدينُ والضادُ من مغناكم انبعثا
فطبَّقا الشرقَ أقصاه وأدناه
Religion and the letter ‘dhaad’ were revived in your singing
Pervading East and West, south and north
لسنا نمدّ لكم أيماننا صلةً
لكنما هو دَيْن ما قضيناه
We do not stretch out ties of kinship to you
Rather it is a debt we have fulfilled
هل كان دِيْن ابنِ عدنانٍ سوى فلق
شقّ الوجود وليلُ الجهل يغشاه
Was the religion of Ibn ‘Adnaan other than the cleaving
That split existence while the night of ignorance covers it?
هي الحنيفةُ عينُ الله تكلؤها
فكلما حاولوا تشويهها شاهوا
It is the Hanifiyyah, the eye of God that they tried
To distort but failed however they endeavored
هل تطلبون من المختار معجزةً
يكفيه شعبٌ من الأجداث أحياه
Do you ask the Chosen One for a miracle
When a nation made from youths he brought back to life suffices?
سنُّوا المساواة لا عُرْبٌ ولا عجَمٌ
ما لامرىء شرفٌ إلا بتقواه
Make equality, not Arab nor foreigner
Man has no honor but through his piety
يا من رأى عُمراً تكسوه بردتُه
والزيتُ أدْمٌ له والكوخُ مأواه
O you who saw ‘Umar rule dressed
In his cloak while oil was his unguent and the hut his dwelling
يهتز كسرى على كرسيِّه فرَقاً
من بأسه وملوكُ الرومِ تخشاه
Khosrau trembled on his throne in dread
Of his might and the kings of Rome stood in fear of him
استرشد الغربُ بالماضي فأرشده
ونحن كان لنا ماضٍ نسيناه
The West took guidance from the past so it guided them
While we had a past we forgot
إنا مشَيْنا وَرَاءَ الغرب نقبس من
ضيائه فأصابتنا شظاياه
We walked behind the West, taking sparks of
Its brilliance, so we were struck by its fragments
بالله سل خلف بحر الروم عن عرَبٍ
بالأمس كانوا هنا واليوم قد تاهوا
By God, ask behind the Byzantine sea about Arabs
Who yesterday were here but today have vanished
فإن تراءتْ لك الحمراء عن كَثَب
فسائل الصرحَ أين العز والجاه
If the red (desert) appears before you in person
Then ask the mansion where is their might and glory?
وانزلْ دمشق وسائل صخر مسجدها
عمن بناه لعل الصخر ينعاه
And go down to Damascus and ask its rocky mosque
About who built it, perhaps the rock will lament it
وطُف ببغداد وابحث في مقابرها
علَّ أمرأ من بني العباس تلقاه
And circle Baghdad and search among its tombs
Perhaps you will find a man of the Abbasids
هذى معالم خرسٌ كلُّ واحدة
منهنَّ قامت خطيباً فاغراً فاه
These sites are mute, every single one
Was a speaker but now is silent, mouth agape
الله يعلم ما قلَّبتُ سيرتَهُمْ
يوماً وأخطأ دمعُ العين مجراه
God knows how I turned over their history
When tears misdirected their course down my cheek
أين الرشيد وقد طاف الغمام به
فحين جاوز بغداداً تحداه
Where is the Rashid when the clouds circled him?
When he passed Baghdad he challenged them
ماضٍ تعيش على أنقاضه أمَمٌ
وتستمدُّ القوى من وحي ذكراه
Nations live on the ruins of a past
And draw strength from commemorating its memory
ما بال شمل شعوبِ الضاد منصدعاً
رباهُ أدركْ شعوب الضاد رباه
Why are the peoples of the letter ‘dhaad’ fragmented?
Lord, make the peoples of the letter ‘dhaad’ prosper!
عهد الخلافة في البسفور قد درست
آثارُه طيب الرحمن مثواه
The caliphate on the Bosphorus, its traces have been erased
May the Most Merciful be pleased with its resting place
لا هُمَّ قد أصبحت أهواؤنا شيعاً
فامنُنْ علينا براعٍ أنت ترضاه
Our desires are not united but scattered into factions
So favor us with a leader you will approve
راعٍ يعيد إلى الإسلام سيرتَهُ
يرعى بنيه وعينُ الله ترعاه
A leader who will restore Islam’s ways
Leading his children while God watches over him
