SELECT POEMS OF IMAM AL SHAFI

Select poems of Imam Al Shafi Translation by Ammar Al Shukry

SELECT POEMS OF IMAM AL SHAFI

From the Book

• 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