The keenest minds among the people of piety gather around him, and whoever comes to draw honey from his words never labours in vain.

When tangled questions exhaust every other scholar, who is there to untie their stubborn knots but he?

Even when an assembly is packed tight with nobles, the moment he sits, the foremost seat becomes his.

With the reports he narrates—things that add still more guidance to those already guided—he all but steals the very wits of men.

They spring from the sciences that flow from his Lord and from hadith transmitted from the Chosen Prophet,

as well as from his Companions, their Successors, and the leading Imams whose chains of transmission reign supreme among narrators.

Who else delights the ears of humankind with discourse more precious than pearls, whether scattered or strung?

None but the Imam, Taqi al-Din Ahmad, the crown of the gnostics—may Allah protect him from every harm.

When one speaks of an ocean, he is blameless for speaking at length; he would be at fault only if he were stingy with his words.

There may be many promising youths in Egypt and in noble Syria, yet not one of them, taken together, equals this scholar.

Sufficient as a sign of divine support is that those who schemed against him could not so much as touch his body with harm.

From early youth he seized the lead, outstripping every elder who had once excelled (1), and stood peerless.

He acquired divinely granted knowledge and a merit that made the livers of his enemies burst with envy.

So they pooled their plots, seeking to entrap him, but his Lord let no one help them against him.

No envier anywhere on earth had the power to stretch forth a harmful hand toward him (2).

He was a sword, famed for flashing against his foes, and they strove to force that sword back into its sheath.