The Taymiyya clan once stood, and now they are gone—
the very stars of knowledge have fallen from their height.
Yet, for all our aching remorse over him, his passing has stripped the heretics of every doubt about him.(1)
He was an Imām who never shouldered a single public appointment,(2)
no endowment, stipend, or hospice was ever earmarked for him.
He did not vie with people in piling up wealth,
nor did social mingling ever distract him.(3)
Had they not cloaked his imprisonment in the mantle of the Law,
their own standing would have sunk in shame because of it.(4)
Certain matters here remain concealed from me;
it is not fitting for me to plunge into them.
Before Allah all creatures shall be gathered together,
and then this entire carpet will be rolled away.
(1) In the F and K manuscripts the poem includes the verse:
“Alas for the remorse of those who imprisoned him, for he erased every suspicion of shirk (associating partners with God).”
Then F and K add two further lines absent from the base copy:
“Rejoice, O Jews, in what you have done, for the adversary relishes confusion;
Was there not among you a man of sound judgment who, seeing the Imam confined, would flare with indignation?”
(2) F and K read: “he was hoping.”
(3) F and K read: “nor was your neighbor … he had never been known among you …”. From this line onward the wording and the number of verses in F and K diverge from the base manuscript.
(4) In reality they imprisoned him unjustly and aggressively for holding a purely juristic opinion that many scholars before him had already adopted. Earlier we cited several Iraqi and other works demonstrating that the shaykh’s imprisonment had no foundation in either Sharia (Islamic law) or sound reason.