Sol 6

  1. You honored with your lofty throne and crown

    a sacred land and a hopeful people.

  2. O bearer of a joyous feast for a nation

    that has begun to call out and speak freely.

  3. At your noble birth, it recalled a blessing

    in kingship, and the memory of the Night of Ascension.

  4. Its ship passed into your hands, and you steered it,

    pure in purpose, safe amid the waves.

  5. To it, you are owed what is owed to a self-sacrificing rescuer:

    a duty of gratitude from one loyal and saved.

  6. Its hearts bore your banner before

    the stately towers bore your banner.

  7. The army and fleet are among what you build

    to free necks from bondage and dispel darkness.

  8. Within the hoped-for horizon lie the means you have gathered

    and the sound course you have devised.

  9. Your people did not seek companions

    among invaders of lands or collectors of tribute.

  10. Their critics persisted, and only increased their ardor

    with all their clamor and contention.

  11. Will a band settle there tomorrow,

    their hearts burning, their neck veins swollen,

  12. and grant the valley its full right

    to peace after turbulent conflicts?

  13. If the Nile does not flow there freely,

    its clear abundance will turn brackish.

  14. The caliphate is part of what the peoples offered

    to Egypt with the longing of those in need.

  15. Their call for you rises from the pulpits;

    it reached you before the pilgrims’ rites.

  16. Their delegations will come to you in throngs,

    with God around the processions of throngs.

  17. They will pledge allegiance to you as to al-Siddiq,

    in your valley beneath its radiant crescent.

  18. They entrust the Two Holy Sanctuaries to you, as one who holds

    the noblest key to the finest gate.

  19. It was a burden and an affliction for kings,

    yet tomorrow you will administer it without remedy.

  20. You will turn it into a garden for every believer in one God

    on earth, amid narrow passes and thickets.

  21. You will gain what your forefathers struggled to attain

    and prepare for Islam its finest bulwark.

Sol 6