Today I lift the veil from the enigmas of his secret; today what was once obscure is clarified through him.

He would favor anyone who came to him in need of sustenance and would spend the whole day without tasting a morsel himself.

Whatever he possessed he gave away freely, and with his guidance he would direct the stubbornly wayward and set them straight.

The marks of piety shone upon him, so that on the Day of Confrontation (1) he appeared the foremost scholar.

Who now will be seen untying the knots of intricate questions and emergent cases, the one to whom we used to cling for refuge?

And when the heretical Christians advanced, who will refute them—who will answer and comprehend?

The mursal reports in their chains yearn for him, as do the sciences of abrogating and abrogated texts, and the decisive rulings.

Even the ʿanʿanah chains of hadith and their pathways wept for him, as did the elucidation of all that the major compilations contain.

He was the one who, for the sake of the religion, analyzed, classified, grouped by genre, and taught.

He is that Imām, the decisive proof, the erudite master through whom the clouds of doubt were dispelled and cut off.

Excellence, renunciation beyond all limit (2), chastity, devotion, dignity, and forbearance were his.

For you, O son of Majd al-Dīn, there stands a towering mountain of virtue, lofty and unassailable on every side, formidable (3).

I swear, no man has ever been praised for self-restraint but that your judgment proved the sounder (4).

Your prayer-niche itself burst into tears—and it suffices that it weeps for you, for it has every right to feel regret.