أشعة الحق لا تخفى عن النظر

وإنما خفيت عن فاقد البصر

The rays of truth are not hidden from sight;

they are hidden only from those bereft of vision.

وكلمة اللّه لم تنزل محجبة

عن البصائر بين الوهم والفكر

God's word did not descend veiled

from inward sight, amid conjecture and thought.

نادى المنادي بها بيضاء نيرة

حنيفة سمحة لم تعي بالفطر

The herald proclaimed it, white and radiant,

upright and tolerant, never faltering before human nature.

أقامها اللّه ديناً غير ذي عوج

جاء البشير بها للجن والبشر

God established it as a religion without crookedness;

the bearer of glad tidings brought it to jinn and humankind.

والجاهلية في غلواء عارضة

من جهلها ومن الأشراك في غمر

Ignorance was then in a raging frenzy,

immersed in its ignorance and in idolatry.

فقام مضطلعاً ثقل الرسالة مج

دود العزائم فرداً خيرة الخير

So he arose, bearing the message's burden, blessed

in resolve, alone, the choicest of the good.

والوحي يأتي نجوماً معجزاً قيماً

والشرك يكبت والإِسلام في ظفر

Revelation came in portions, wondrous and upright;

idolatry was subdued, while Islam triumphed.

وكلمة اللّه تعلو فوق جاحدها

وآية الحجر تمحو آية الحجر

God's word rose above those who denied it,

and the sign of al-Ḥijr effaced the sign of stone.

حتى تجلى منار الدين منبلجاً

بصادع الذكر والصمصامة الذكر

Until religion's beacon shone forth clearly,

through the proclamation of revelation and the keen, mighty sword.

وآمنت برسول اللّه طائفة

أعطاهم السبق فيه سابق القدر

A company believed in God's Messenger;

the prior decree granted them precedence in this.

زكى قلوبهم النور المبين كما

يزكو النبات بما يلقى من المطر

The manifest light purified their hearts, just as

plants flourish through the rain they receive.

لاقى صدورهم الايمان فانشرحت

له وقاموا به في عزم منتصر

Faith met their breasts, which opened

to it; they upheld it with triumphant resolve.

تأزروا شعب الايمان وانتبهوا

بين الجهادين منهم أنفس العمر

They girded themselves with faith's branches and kept watch;

between the two struggles passed their most precious years.

أحاطهم وأمين اللّه فانتشئوا

بين الامينين والقرآن في وزر

He encompassed them, as did God's trusted envoy, and they grew

between the two trusted ones, with the Qur'an as their shelter.

غذاهم الوحى في مهد الرسالة من

طور إلى آخر كالماء في الشجر

Revelation nourished them in the message's cradle, from

one stage to another, like water within trees.

نور بواطنهم نور ظواهرهم

نور خلائقهم في الفعل والخبر

Light was within them; light was their outward bearing;

light was their character, in deed and report.

تضائق الملأ الأعلى مكانتهم

في فطرة اللّه لا في فطرة البشر

Their station pressed close upon the heavenly host,

in God's creation, not in human fashioning.

كم جاء جبريل في أحزابه مددا

من السماء على المعتاقة الضمر

How often Gabriel came with his hosts as reinforcement

from heaven, upon swift, lean steeds!

خير القرون قرين المصطفى وكذا

حكم القرينين لا ينفك من أثر

The best generation is the Chosen One's own; likewise,

the standing of the two succeeding generations rests on transmitted report.

فمات عنهم رسول اللّه عدتهم

كالأنبياء عدول الحكم والسير

Then God's Messenger died, leaving them—a company

like the prophets, just in judgment and conduct.

وكلهم أولياء غير مقترف

كبيرة لم يتب منها فمنه بري

All of them are God's allies, except one committing

a grave sin without repenting of it: such a one is disowned.

ومن مصوب ذي بطل لدى فتن

لا واقف جاهلاً من بالصواب حري

And likewise one endorsing a wrongdoer amid discord—

not one withholding judgment, ignorant of who deserves to be deemed right.

وعالم الحق في حزن توقف عن

عالم فذاك وقوف غير مغتفر

But one who knows the truth, yet in hardship withholds judgment about

a learned man—such suspension is unforgivable,

تشهيا أو رجوعاً عن بصيرته

فالحكم يبرأ من هذا بلا حذر

whether from mere desire or retreat from his insight;

the ruling disavows such a one without hesitation.

وهم وإن شرفوا من أجل صحبته

فحكم تلكيفهم كالحكم في البشر

Though they were ennobled by companionship with him,

their moral obligation is judged like that of other people.

ومدحه لهم فرع استقامتهم

في طاعة اللّه لا مدحاً على الغير

His praise of them depends upon their uprightness

in obedience to God, not praise despite their deviations.

وللموفين في الايمان متجه

ما جاء من مدحهم في محكم السور

Toward those faithful in belief is directed

the praise of them found in the unequivocal chapters.

وفي البراءة من أبقى ولاية ذي

بطل المحض عموم المدح في الزبر

And concerning disavowal of one who keeps allegiance to a man of

sheer falsehood: the general praise in the scriptures.

والحب والبغض فرضان استحقهما

خصمان في اللّه من بر ومن فجر

Love and hatred are two duties deserved by

two opponents before God: the righteous and the wicked.

والأمر يبنى على الأعمال كيف جرت

والمدح والذم بحتاً غير معتبر

The matter rests upon deeds as they occur;

mere praise and blame are not decisive.

وأكرم الخلق أتقاهم فليس إذا

للمدح والذم بالأهواء من أثر

The noblest creatures are the most God-fearing; thus

praise and blame driven by whims have no weight.

فيم المحاباة ما قربي بمزلقة

من دون تقوى ولا بعدي على خطر

Why favoritism? My nearness is no foothold

without piety, nor does my remoteness imperil me.

لا نسل لا أهل لا أصحاب يفرقهم

ديناً عن الخلق حكم ما من الصور

No offspring, kin, or companions are set apart

religiously from other creatures by any ruling based on outward forms.

نادى العشيرة في رأس الصفا علناً

وصاح فيهم رسول اللّه بالنذر

He called his clan openly from the summit of al-Ṣafā;

God's Messenger cried warnings among them.

فانظر إلى حكمة التخصيص كيف أتت

للأقربين من أهل البدو والحضر

Consider the wisdom of that particular address: how it came

to the nearest kin, among desert dwellers and townspeople,

ليعلموا أنه التكليف لا نسب

يغني ولا فيه دون اللّه من وزر

so they might know that obligation is what matters: no lineage

avails, nor offers any refuge apart from God.

لو كان بالشرف التكليف مرتفعاً

إذا تعطل عدل اللّه في الفطر

Were obligation lifted through noble birth,

God's justice among created natures would be nullified.

وحجة اللّه بالتكليف لازمة

سيان في الأمر مفضول وذو الخطر

God's proof through obligation is binding;

the lesser and the eminent are equal in this matter.

للرسل والملأ الأعلى وأشرفهم

بالاستقامة تكليف بلا عذر

The messengers, the heavenly host, and their noblest

are obliged to remain upright, without exemption.

الكل في قرن التكليف مؤتسر

ما بال من ليس معصوماً من الغير

All are captive in the tether of obligation;

what then of those not protected from reversals?

لا نبخس الناس بالأهواء حقهم

ولا نبالي بقدح الخاتر الأشر

We do not deny people their due through whim,

nor heed the slander of the treacherous, insolent man.

قد جاءنا اللّه بالقرآن بينة

وسنة الحق والاجماع والأثر

God has brought us the Qur'an as clear proof,

the true Sunnah, consensus, and transmitted tradition.

فما وجدنا بحكم اللّه عاصية

لمحض قرباه معدوداً من البرر

We have never found, under God's judgment, a sinner

counted among the righteous merely through kinship.

ولا تقيا لأمر اللّه متبعاً

بالحب حكماً لاجل البعد غير حري

Nor a pious follower of God's command

judged undeserving of love merely through remoteness.

كمال توحيد ربي حب طائعه

وبغض أعدائه في السر والجهر

Perfect affirmation of my Lord's oneness means loving those who obey Him

and hating His enemies, privately and openly.

يا من أعاب على الأبرار نحلتهم

أعبت ويلك دين اللّه عن بصر

You who faulted the righteous for their creed—

woe to you! Did you knowingly fault God's religion?

هم حجة اللّه أهل الاستقامة ما

خامت عزائمهم عن آية الزمر

They are God's proof, the steadfast; never

did their resolve falter before the verse of al-Zumar.

متى جهلت أبا السبطين خطته

وأنت أعلم أهل الطين والوبر

When did you fail to grasp his design, father of the two grandsons,

you, the most knowledgeable among dwellers in clay houses and hair tents?

حاكمته بعد ما ألحمته قرما

بعقر سبعين ألفاً عقرة الجزر

You sought arbitration with him after engaging him, a mighty champion,

through the slaughter of seventy thousand, slaughtered like camels.

حاكمته بعد عمار وروحته

إلى الجنان وبعد السادة الطهر

You sought arbitration with him after ʿAmmār and his departure

into the gardens, and after the pure leaders.

حاكمته بعد حكم اللّه فيه بما

يشفي الغليل وقد أيقنت بالظفر

You sought arbitration with him after God's judgment upon him, through what

satisfied the burning thirst, when you were certain of victory.

أقمت في البغي حد اللّه أولها

ففيم تستن بالتحكيم في الأخر

At first you upheld God's prescribed judgment against rebellion;

why then institute arbitration at the end?

أصبت في حربك الباغين ثغرتها

بحكم ربك لم تضلل ولم تجر

In fighting the rebels, you struck their vulnerable point

by your Lord's judgment, neither straying nor acting unjustly.

قبلت عوراء من عمر ويفت بها

سواعد الدين فت العصف بالحجر

You accepted flawed counsel from ʿAmr, by which were crushed

religion's arms, like straw crushed with a stone.

ولم تعر نصحاء الدين واعية

وليت للأشعث الملعون لم تعر

You lent no attentive ear to religion's sincere advisers;

would that you had lent none to the accursed al-Ashʿath!

فاصرف أعنتها صوب العراق فقد

سدت عليك ثغور الشام بالبدر

Turn their reins toward Iraq, for

Syria's approaches are barred to you by moneybags.

فطالبو الدين قد نابذت عصمتهم

والأمر من طالبي الدنيا على ضرر

You have cast aside the protection of those seeking religion;

those seeking this world bring affairs only harm.

فيم الحكومة أخزى اللّه ناصبها

لم يترك اللّه هذا الحكم للبشر

Why arbitration? May God disgrace whoever established it!

God did not leave this judgment to humankind.

ولست في ريبة مما عنيت به

ولا القضاء قياسي على صور

You are not in doubt about the matter confronting you,

nor is the judgment an analogy drawn from outward forms.

فما قتالك بعد الحكم راضية

وما قتالك من لم يرض بالنهر

Why, after the ruling, fight those who accepted it?

And why fight those who rejected it at the River?

قد ارتكبت أبا السبطين في جلل

وفاتك الحزم واستأسرت للحذر

You have ventured into a grievous matter, father of the two grandsons;

firm judgment escaped you, and you became caution's captive.

وما قتال ابن صخر بعدما انسكبت

خلافة اللّه في بلعومه البحر

Why fight Ibn Ṣakhr after there had poured

God's caliphate into his oceanlike gullet?

حكمته في حدود اللّه ينسفها

نسف العواصف مندوفاً من الوبر

You made him judge over God's limits, which he scatters

as tempest winds scatter carded hair.

بأي أمريك نرضى يا أبا الحسن

تحكيم قاسطهم أم قتلة البرر

Which of your two deeds should satisfy us, Abū al-Ḥasan:

appointing their unjust man as arbiter, or slaughtering the righteous?

أم بانقيادك عزماً خلف أشعثها

يفري أديمك لا يألوا بلا ظفر

Or your determined submission behind their Ashʿath,

who rends your hide, sparing no effort, with no gain?

أرضعته درة الدنيا فما مصحت

وأنت من دمها ريان في غمر

You suckled him on the world's flowing udder, which did not run dry,

while you, sated with its blood, remained immersed.

ما زال ينقب خيل اللّه مشئمة

فاعرقت صهوات الخيل بالدبر

He kept wearing down God's horses, bringing ill omen,

and the horses' backs grew deeply marked with saddle sores.

ألم تقاتله مرتداً فمذ علقت

به البراثن ألقى سلم محتضر

Did you not fight him as an apostate? When the claws fastened

upon him, he offered the surrender of a dying man.

يلقى شراشره مكراً عليك وما

ينضم من حنق الأعلى سعر

He flings his whole self upon you deceitfully, and never

does his rancor subside: its blaze is at its highest.

أصبحت في أمة أوترت معظمها

بهيمة اللّه بين الذيب والنمر

You found yourself among a people whose majority you had bereaved,

God's beast between the wolf and the tiger.

تسدد الرأي معصوماً فتنقضه

بطانة السوء مركوساً إلى الحفر

You frame an unerring opinion, then it is overturned

by an evil inner circle, cast headlong into pits.

تنافرت عنك أوشاب النفاق إلى

دنيا بني عبد شمس نفرة الحمر

The rabble of hypocrisy scattered from you toward

the worldly realm of Banū ʿAbd Shams, fleeing like wild asses.

محكمين براء من معاوية

ومن علي ويا ليت الأخير بري

Declaring God the judge, they disavow Muʿāwiya

and ʿAlī—would that the latter were innocent!

والقاسطين أبي موسى وصاحبه

عمرو اللعين فتى قطاعة البظر

And the two unjust men, Abū Mūsā and his companion,

ʿAmr the accursed, son of the woman who cut clitorises;

وقاسطي الشام والراضي حكومتهم

من أهل صفين والراضي على الأثر

and Syria's unjust men, and those approving their arbitration

among the people of Ṣiffīn, and those approving it afterward.

ليت الحكومة ما قامت قيامتها

وليتها من أبي السبطين لم تصر

Would that arbitration had never risen!

Would that it had never issued from the father of the two grandsons!

ملعونة جعلتها الشام جنتها

من ذي الفقار وقد أشفت على الخطر

Accursed! Syria made it its shield

against Dhū al-Fiqār, when it had drawn close to peril.

عجت بتحكيم عمرو بعدما حكمت

همدان فيما بحكم البيض والسمر

It clamored for ʿAmr's arbitration after

Hamdān had judged the matter with bright swords and dusky spears.

تباً لها رفعت كيداً مصاحفها

ومقتضاهن منبوذ على العفر

Damnation upon it! It raised its Qur'an copies in deceit,

while their demands lay discarded upon the dust.

مهلاً أبا حسن إن التي عرضت

زوراء في الدين كن منها على حذر

Gently, Abū Ḥasan! What has been proposed

is crooked in religion: beware of it.

ضغائن اللات والعزى رقلن بها

تحت الطليق وعثمانية الأشر

The grudges of al-Lāt and al-ʿUzzā sped along with it,

under the freed captive and the insolent ʿUthmānī partisans.

لا تلبسن أبا السبطين مخزية

فذلك الثوب مطوي على غرر

Do not put on a disgraceful garment, father of the two grandsons;

that garment is folded around peril.

لم تنتقل عبد شمس من نكارتها

دم الكبود على أنيابها القذر

ʿAbd Shams has not departed from its abomination;

filthy liver-blood remains upon its fangs.

فما صحيفة صفين التي رقمت

إلا صحيفة بين الركن والحجر

The document inscribed at Ṣiffīn is nothing

but the document between the Corner and the Stone.

نسيت بدراً واحداً يا أبا حسن

وندوة الكفر ذات المكر والغدر

Have you forgotten Badr and Uḥud, Abū Ḥasan,

and unbelief's council, with its plotting and treachery?

ويوم جاءك بالأحزاب صخرهم

فاندك بالريح صخر القوم والذعر

And the day their Ṣakhr came against you with the confederates,

and the people's rock was shattered by wind and terror?

وفتح مكة والأعياص كاسفة

وأنت حيدرة الاسلام كالقمر

And the conquest of Mecca, when the Aʿyāṣ were eclipsed,

while you, Islam's Ḥaydara, shone like the moon?

والقوم ما أسلموا إلا مؤلفة

والرأي في اللات بين السمع والبصر

Those people accepted Islam only as people won over,

while thoughts of al-Lāt remained between hearing and sight.

متى ترى هاشم صدق الطليق بها

وثغرة الجرح بين النحر والفقر

When will Hāshim see the freed captive's sincerity in it,

while the wound still gapes between throat and spine?

ما لابن هند بثار الدار من عرض

له مرام وليت الدار في سقر

Ibn Hind has no concern for avenging the house;

he has his own aim—would that the house were in Saqar!

لقد تقاعد عنها وهي محرجة

حتى قضت فقضى ما شاء من وطر

He held back from it while it was hard pressed,

until it perished; then he satisfied whatever desire he pleased.

تربص الوغد من عثمان قتلته

فقام ينهق بين الحمر والبقر

The scoundrel awaited ʿUthmān's killing,

then rose braying among asses and cattle.

ينوح في الشام ثكلى ناشراً لهم

قميص عثمان نوح الورق بالسحر

In Syria he lamented like a bereaved woman, displaying to them

ʿUthmān's shirt, mourning like doves before dawn.

حتى إذا لف أولاها بآخرها

بشبهة ما تغطى نقرة الظفر

Until, when he had bound its first ranks to its last

with a specious claim not covering the hollow of a fingernail,

أتاك يقرع ظنبوب الشقاق له

روقان في الكفر من جهل ومن بطر

he came to you beating strife's shinbone, bearing

two horns of unbelief: ignorance and arrogance.

تعك عك نفاقاً خلف خطوته

كأنها ذنب في عجمه الوضر

ʿAkk crowds hypocritically behind his steps,

like a tail with filth lodged in its bone.

يدير بين وزيريه سياسته

عمرو وابليس في ورد وفي صدر

He conducts his policy between his two ministers,

ʿAmr and Iblīs, in approach and withdrawal.

وعزك الجد والتوفيق فانصدعت

سياسة الدين صدعاً سيء الأثر

Fortune and right guidance deserted you, and split apart

religion's governance—a rupture with evil consequences.

قد كنت في وزر ممن فتكت بهم

أحسن عزاءك لست اليوم في وزر

You once had shelter among those you slaughtered;

console yourself well: today you have no shelter.

ما ذنب عيبة نصح الدين إذ عصفت

بهم رياحك لا تبقي ولم تذر

What was the fault of religion's treasury of sincere counsel, when

your winds swept them away, sparing and leaving nothing?

بقية اللّه قد هاضت عظامهم

عرارة الحرب أواهون في السحر

God's remnant—their bones were broken

by war's roar; they sighed with devotion before dawn.

اقعصتهم في صلاة لا بواء لهم

هلا مشابرة والقوم في حذر

You struck them dead at prayer, with no blood-debt owed;

why not close combat, with the people on their guard?

قد حكموا اللّه لم يفلل عزيمهم

عن نصرة اللّه قرع الصارم الذكر

They had made God the judge; their resolve was not blunted

from helping God's cause by the clash of the keen, mighty sword.

رميت سهمك عن كبداء في كبد

حرى من الذكر والتسبيح والسور

You shot your arrow from a broad bow into a heart

burning with remembrance, glorification, and Qur'anic chapters.

إن القلوب التي ترمى تطير بها

مصاحف الذكر والايمان لم يطر

Indeed, the hearts you shoot at are carried aloft by

the scriptures of remembrance; their faith has not flown away.

ما علقوها على أعناقهم غرضاً

فاكفف سهامك واكسرها عن الزبر

They did not hang them about their necks as targets;

restrain your arrows and break them, keeping them from the scriptures.

أعظمتها يوم أهل الدار ترفعها

واليوم ترمى كرمى العفر والبقر

You revered them when the people of the house raised them;

today they are shot at like pale antelopes and cattle.

هانت عليك جباة ظلت ترضخها

لطالما رضختها سجدة السحر

You held cheap the foreheads you kept crushing,

foreheads long pressed down by prostration before dawn.

لم تقتل القوم عن سوء بدينهم

وإنما الأمر مبني على القدر

You did not kill the people for any evil in their faith;

the matter rests only upon destiny.

قتلتهم بروايات تقيم بها

عذر القتال وليست عذر معتذر

You killed them on the strength of reports by which you establish

an excuse for fighting—yet they offer no valid excuse.

ما ذو الثدية إلا خدعة نصبت

للحرب توهم فيها صحة الخبر

The man with the small breast was only a ruse devised

for war, to suggest that the report was true.

وما حديث مروق القوم معتبر

فيهم لمن سلك الانصاف في النظر

The report of the people's defection carries no weight

against them for anyone judging impartially.

خلصت نفسك بالتحكيم منخدعاً

وأنت أولى بها من سائر الفطر

You extricated yourself through arbitration, deceived,

though you had the greatest claim to it of all created souls.

فحكموا اللّه واختاروك أنت لها

فكان قولهم نوعاً من الهذر

They made God the judge and chose you yourself for it;

yet their words were taken as a kind of prattle.

وقلت قد مرقوا إذ هم على قدم

صدق من الحق لم يبطر ولم يجر

You said they had strayed, though they stood on a footing

of sincerity and truth, without insolence or injustice.

مضوابه قدماً جريا على سنن

للمصطفى وأبى بكر إلى عمر

They advanced steadily with it, following the paths

of the Chosen One, Abū Bakr, and then ʿUmar.

ما بدل القوم في دار ولا جمل

وهم على العهد ما حالوه بالغير

The people altered nothing at the House or the Camel;

they kept the covenant, never exchanging it for deviations.

شفيت نفسك من غيظ بها بدم

من مهجة الدين والايمان منفجر

You soothed your own rage with blood

bursting from the very lifeblood of religion and faith:

دم ابن وهب وحرقوص وحبرهم

زيد ابن حصن خيار الأمة الطهر

the blood of Ibn Wahb, Ḥurqūṣ, and their learned man,

Zayd ibn Ḥiṣn—the pure, the finest of the community.

دماء عشرين ألفاً وقت جمعتهم

وسط الصلاة همت كالوابل الهمر

The blood of twenty thousand, at their Friday gathering,

poured down amid prayer like a torrential downpour.

ليهنك الدم يا منصور قد رجفت

منه السموات والارضون من حذر

May the blood bring you joy, O victor! It made tremble

the heavens and the earths, in dread.

لو أن رمحك في حرقوص اشتركت

فيه الخليقة أرداهم إلى سقر

Had all creation shared in your spear thrust into Ḥurqūṣ,

it would have hurled them into Saqar.

يا فتنة فتكت بالدين حمتها

تذوب من هولها ملمومة الحجر

O calamity whose venom ravaged religion!

A compact mass of stone would melt at its terror.

ما ساءني أن أقول الحق إنهم

قوم قتلتهم بغيا بلا عذر

It does not trouble me to speak the truth: they were

a people you killed unjustly, without excuse.

وإنهم أولياء اللّه حبهم

فرض وبغضهم من أفظع النكر

They are God's allies; loving them

is a duty, and hating them among the most dreadful wrongs.

صلى الإِله على أرواحهم وسقى

أجدائهم روحه بالأصل والبكر

May God bless their souls and water

their graves with His reviving mercy, at evening and dawn.