His ambition sits beneath the lowest depths,
while mine soars higher than every star.
Had his ignorance been merely simple, I would have pardoned it,
but he flaunts a layered, compound ignorance.
He asks, “Why did you choose the school of Ahmad?”
I answered, “Because Ahmad himself is the school.”
Can any critic find a word to speak against Ibn Shaybān?
Is there a thrust that can pierce him from a would-be striker?
Is he not the one whose fame has flown across the earth,
filling it from east to west?
Leader of guidance, caller to the paths of right guidance,
while passions were overflowing from every direction (1).
They brought forth a monstrous lie and championed it,
every claim they voiced exposed by proof as false.
They said, “The speech of Allah is created,” and rejected
what has been soundly conveyed from Ubayy and Musʿab (2).
The people of truth awoke to find themselves either punished outright
or waiting in dread, braced for harm.
Then he rose—a stance that would crumble Thabir and Yadhbul—
like an enraged lion springing upon its prey (3).
Neither the penalties of a tyrant nor the torment he meted out
could deter or turn him back.
Until Islam shone forth, bright and dazzling,
banishing every layer of their darkness.
He toppled every lofty pillar of their fortress
and subdued each swaggering champion among them (4).
He scattered them like the dispersed folk of Sheba;
their battalions fled, eastward and westward.
And his companions—the people of guidance—remain unharmed;
no stab from an ignorant fool can injure their faith.