1. نحن ضياء الغارب الطالعِ

    ونحن كالآلات للصانعِ

    We are the radiance of the one who sets and rises;

    And we are like instruments for the Maker.

  2. ونحن أسباب أمور الورى

    نفعل بالمعطي وبالمانع

    And we are the causes of humankind's affairs;

    We act through the Giver and the Withholder.

  3. لا تحسن الأوقات إلا بنا

    ولا يطيب العيش في الواقع

    Times do not grow fair except through us,

    Nor does life, in truth, grow sweet.

  4. وليس منا زمن خالياً

    من باصرٍ حقاً ومن سامع

    And no age is devoid of us—

    Of one who truly sees, and one who hears.

  5. والله إن يقطع كل الورى

    ليس لنا والله بالقاطع

    And God, even if He cuts off all humankind,

    Is not, by God, one who cuts us off.

  6. ملتنا ملة طه الذي

    جاء بحال الفارق الجامع

    Our creed is the creed of Ta-Ha, who

    Came bearing the state of one who distinguishes and unites.

  7. وديننا ما في الورى غيره

    وما عداه خدعة الخادع

    And our faith—there is no other among humankind;

    And whatever lies outside it is the deceiver's trick.

  8. إياك بل إياك من عصبة

    في حقنا لم تخشَ من رادع

    Beware—indeed, beware—of a band

    That feared no restrainer in its dealings with us.

  9. قد حاولوا بالجهل أن يطفئوا

    أنوار علم عندنا نابع

    They tried, in ignorance, to extinguish

    The lights of knowledge welling up among us.

  10. وأنكروا الأسرار واستصغروا

    دين النبي المصطفى الشافع

    And they denied the mysteries and belittled

    The faith of the chosen Prophet, the intercessor.

  11. والعقل قد قاموا به يحصرو

    ن الدين في المستحسن النافع

    And they have wielded reason to confine

    Religion to what is deemed good and useful.

  12. وقد نفوا ما عقلهم قاصر

    عن فهمه من شرعنا الواسع

    And they have denied what their reason is too limited

    To grasp within our expansive sacred law.

  13. والدين قد خصوه في ظاهر

    لجهلهم بالباطن الشاسع

    And they have confined religion to the outward,

    Through their ignorance of the vast inward realm.

  14. وقاربوا أن يجعلوا ملة

    عظيمة المتبوع والتابع

    And they came close to making a creed,

    Whose leader and follower are great,

  15. كملة للكفر مفهومة

    بالعقل في الخافض والرافع

    Like a creed of unbelief, understood

    By reason, concerning the Abaser and the Exalter,

  16. خوفاً على منصبهم بالعلى

    بين عوام الناس في الجامع

    Out of fear for their lofty station

    Among the common people in the mosque.

  17. يا خيبة المسعى لهم إنهم

    قد نظروا بالبصر الهاجع

    Alas for their failed endeavor! They

    Have looked with a slumbering eye.

  18. فأبصروا الدنيا فأضحى لهم

    عما سواها عفة القانع

    So they saw this world, and theirs became

    The contented one's abstinence from all beyond it.

  19. وما لهم من قبح نياتهم

    عن غضب الجبار من دافع

    And because of their foul intentions, they have

    No defender against the Compeller's wrath.

  20. ألم يصلهم أن دين الهدى

    كالبحر أو كالوابل الهامع

    Have they not heard that the faith of guidance

    Is like the sea, or like a torrential downpour—

  21. ظواهر تدرك بالعقل مع

    بواطن كالبارق اللامع

    Outward aspects grasped by reason, together with

    Inward realities like gleaming lightning?

  22. وكلها حق بحقٍّ أتت

    من عند حق بالهدى صادع

    And all are truth; with truth they came

    From a true one who openly proclaims guidance.

  23. ويح شجيٍّ من خليٍّ وهل

    سالي الحشى كالواله الوالع

    Alas for the sorrowful at the hands of the carefree! Is

    One whose heart is free of longing like the bewildered, ardent lover?

  24. والجسم لا تشبهه روحه

    ما جامد كالسائل المائع

    And the body is unlike its spirit;

    No solid is like a flowing liquid.

  25. وبارع يدري جهولاً ولم

    يدر جهول قطُّ بالبارع

    And an adept knows an ignoramus, but never

    Has an ignoramus known the adept.