And his achievements outnumbered the very stars in the sky—together with the raindrops—surpassing even the grains of sand and the sprouting blades of grass. (1)
Alas for that decree concerning him—how it stings the heart! Alas for the day it was enacted—how terrifying it is to the eye. (2)
What an awesome calamity, what a momentous event, through which we were bereft of the gallant, open-handed, illustrious one.
On a day of grim misfortune, scowling and dark, there was snatched from us an Imam who allayed the fears of the most panicked. (3)
He was obedient to the Lord of the Throne, never disobeying His command; in his age we saw no one more submissive to Him.
Ever turning back to his Lord, upholding His limits—from his earliest years until the moment he departed.
A lion, a foremost champion who never quailed before horrors; a sovereign firmly barring every form of evil. (4)
A valiant combatant in the jousts of scholarly debate, he reduced even the bravest to timidity. (5)
He would charge with the sword of knowledge in the arena of reason, while the lances of ignorant law came rushing forward.
In his era, how many an innovation he uprooted, how many a reprehensible practice he abolished with consummate skill! (6)
He was nothing less than the sun amid the night of falsehood, through whose light we beheld the rising of truth.
How many a darkness of oppression he swept away with the radiant light of justice once it shone forth!
And how many miraculous karamāt and noble virtues he possessed—so many that even the vastness of time is too narrow to contain them.