A towering mountain of forbearance whose peaks none can scale (1); so vast that, beside that massif, every boulder is but a stone.

An ocean of learning whose very overflow floods the land; the mighty seas themselves have ebbed away, unawares.

Would that I knew: do those who envy him have an equal among all people, were every name to be recalled?

Is there among them anyone devoted to the hadith of the Chosen Prophet who can sift the genuine from the flawed, or to whom even a single report is traced? (2)

Is there one of them who marries inquiry to deep reflection—or anyone like him in whom inquiry and reflection are perfectly joined?

Why not gather for him a full assembly from among your own folk, as Pharaoh once mustered against Moses, so that they may take heed? (3)

Say to them, “He has spoken thus; meet him with your collective proofs, and see—if the unlearned can—what they are able to do.” (4)

Falsehoods are hurled in spellbinding dawns, yet truth instantly swallows whatever they utter and whatever they conjure.

Would that they resembled that earlier band of elders, so that lessons might be drawn from their story.

Would that they bowed to the truth as those elders did, and that all of them believed after having once denied. (5)

How often have they fled from him in aversion (6); if only they had helped in our distress—or at least taken flight for a worthier cause.

Is there among them a herald who proclaims the truth with a forceful tongue, or a warrior who plunges into the fray when the fires of war blaze?