1. ربما يكذب حسادي عليّ

    بكلام السوء منسوباً إليّ

    My enviers may lie about me,

    with evil speech attributed to me.

  2. فيدسون نظاماً منهمو

    في نظامي ويحيلون علي

    So they slip in verse of their own

    among my verse, and ascribe it to me.

  3. أو يدسون بنثري نثرهم

    ذلك الكفر ويلقون لدي

    Or they slip their prose into mine—

    that unbelief—and cast it before me.

  4. وأنا ما قلت شيئاً خالف ال

    شرعَ شرع المصطفى نسلِ قصي

    Yet I have said nothing that contravenes the

    Law—the Law of the Chosen One, descendant of Qusayy.

  5. لا ولا أقبله إن سمعت

    ذاك أذناي ولو من أَبَوَي

    No, nor would I accept it if I heard

    that with my own ears, even from my parents.

  6. غاية الأمر لنا في حالنا

    كلمات ظهرت من شفتي

    The sum of the matter for us, in our state, is

    words that emerged from my lips.

  7. خصنا فيه تجلِّي ربنا

    نحن ندريها بذوق يا أُخَي

    Our Lord's self-disclosure singled us out in it.

    We know them through spiritual taste, O my dear brother.

  8. لم تخالف شرع طه المصطفى

    عند من بالله موجود وحي

    They did not contravene the Law of Taha, the Chosen One,

    in the eyes of one who exists and lives through God.

  9. وذووا الغفلة لا تفهمها

    أبداً بعد اللُّتَيَّا واللُّتَي

    But the heedless do not understand them,

    ever, even after ordeals small and great.

  10. فاتركوها يا أخلائي لنا

    ربما عنكم طواها الله طي

    So leave them to us, O my dear friends;

    perhaps God has completely folded them away from you.

  11. إنما نحن وأنتم خلقه

    وهو مولى في يديه كل شي

    We and you are only His creatures,

    and He is the Master; everything is in His hands.

  12. وكلام واحد يُفهَم من

    لفظه رشدٌ كما يُفهَم غي

    And a single utterance may be understood, from

    its wording, as guidance, just as it may be understood as error.

  13. وانظروا القرآن حق كله

    فهمت منه أناس فهم عي

    Look at the Qur'an: it is wholly true.

    Some people understood it with an inept understanding.

  14. وبذاك الفهم فيه اختلفوا

    فرقاً شتَّى وما فازوا بري

    And with that understanding they differed over it,

    forming diverse sects, without quenching their thirst.

  15. وكلام الله لا يشبهه

    من كلام الناس شيءٌ يا بني

    And God's speech is like nothing

    in human speech, O my dear son.

  16. مع هذا فهموا منه الخطا

    ولهم قطع به من غير لَيّ

    Despite this, they understood it wrongly,

    and they are certain of it, without wavering.

  17. ويضل الله قد قال به

    وبه يهدي كثيراً فلتهي

    And God has said that He leads astray through it,

    and through it guides many—so prepare yourself.

  18. وكلام العارفين المختفي

    منه ما ينكره القلب العمي

    And in the hidden speech of the gnostics,

    there is that which the blind heart rejects:

  19. وحدة الحق التي قد حققت

    كل شيءٍ وبها الشيْ ليس شي

    the oneness of the Real, which has made real

    everything—and through it, a thing is no thing.

  20. كل من قد قال عن شيء إذا

    أشرق النور عليه والضوي

    Anyone who has said of a thing, when

    light and radiance have shone upon it,

  21. أنه نور فقد أخطأ ما

    هو نور بل منير وهو فَيّ

    that it is light has erred: it is not

    light, but luminous, and it is a shadow—

  22. ظلمة تبدو وتخفى بالذي

    خلفها وهو الوجود الحق حي

    darkness that appears and disappears through what

    lies behind it—the true, living Being.

  23. فانظروا واعتبروا ما قلته

    إنه غاية شيء في يدي

    So look, and reflect on what I have said:

    it is the utmost of what I hold in my hands.