Let the Days
Let the days do as they please
And be optimistic when destiny decrees
Do not despair due to the events of nights past
For the events of this world were not meant to last
And be a man who, in the face of fear is strong
With loyalty and forbearance adorned
And if your mistakes are many amongst the folk
And you wish to have for those mistakes a cloak
Then conceal them with generosity as hence
Every fault is covered as –is said- by benevolence
And do not show weakness to an enemy
For dispersion of foes is a calamity
Generosity cannot be hoped from the miserly
For no water exists in the Fire for the thirsty
And your rizq will not decrease though late it may arrive
And it will not increase though one may slave and strive
No sadness lasts forever, nor any felicity
Nor any state of poverty or one of luxury
If you are the owner of a heart that is content
Then you and the owner of the world are equivalent
And for him upon whose horizon death descends,
No earth can offer him protection, nor any sky defend
The earth of Allah is certainly vast and infinite
But if decree descends, then all the sky constricts
Let the days betray every once in a while
For there is no medicine that will protect from death
Revealing of secrets
If a man spreads his secret with his own tongue
Then he is a fool, if blame to others he attests
If his own breast is too narrow to conceal his own secret,
The breast of another is even more compressed
Du’a
Do you belittle Du’a and discount it
While not knowing what the prayer accomplishes
The arrows of the night do not miss their target
But they have a delay, and the delay then finishes
Passions and Intellect
If two issues confound you
And you are unsure of which is wrong or right
Then go against your passions for verily desires
Lead the soul to that which is not upright
Separation from loved ones
Such sadness for a youth who lives
A moment beyond his friends and heart
The life of a youth, if in his hand
He would cast after his beloved depart
The Overturned Scales
While lions die of hunger in their dens,
Wolves feast on the tender flesh of sheep.
While the slave lies on his soft and silken couch,
The prince has nowhere but the dust to sleep!
Alternatively...
Such is this world…
A lion dies in the wilderness of hunger
While the sheep is ravaged by canines
And a slave may sleep on sheets of silk
While a nobleman on dust reclines
Sins Erode Knowledge
I complained to Waki’ about my poor memory:
“Give up your sins!” was his advice to me;
“For knowledge is a light from Divinity,
and the Light of God is veiled by iniquity!”
Were it not …
Were it not that poetry demeans those of knowledge,
I would this day be a better poet than Labid,
Be braver in crisis than every lion,
The kin of Muhallab, and the sons of Yazid.
Were it not for the fear of my Lord Most Merciful,
I would regard all men as my slaves, indeed!
Al-Shafi’i’s Humility
I love the righteous, without being of them:
Perhaps Allah will grant me righteousness.
I hate the one whose transactions are sin;
Although we have the same business!
As you treat others, so shall you be treated
“They judged, and were able to judge,
But soon the authority will be as though it never was.
Were they to be just, they would have been treated justly;
But they transgressed, so Time transgressed against them with sorrows and trials.
They awoke with their situation telling them:
This is for that – do not blame Fate!”
Insightful Worshippers of Allah
Indeed Allah has insightful worshippers
who forsook the worldly life and feared its trial.
They looked upon it, and when they realized
that It was not an abode to reside,
they deemed it as the fathomless sea,
and made righteous deeds their vessel
Treat foolishness with patience
The fools speak to me with all vulgarity
So I hate to respond likewise in turn
They increase in their evil, so I increase in my patience
Like an incense that becomes more fragrant when burned
On Advice:
Seek me while alone if you wish to advise me
And spare me from public recommendations
For public admonitions are a kind
of criticism that is not of my persuasion
So if you disobey me and defy my words
Don’t be surprised if you meet the same equation
