The sighs of my longing, their heat so fierce, almost tear my very soul apart (1) as they burn within me.
Since the passing of the god-fearing one I have been left in anguish, and my tears, after him, will not relent.
With every veil rent and my heart bewildered, I weep blood for him until the day we meet again.
My sorrow for him shall last forever—O my eyes, pour forth blood and overflow!
O heart, melt away in grief and remorse for him; the little I have endured has already streaked my temples with gray.
O soul, dissolve for him in passionate yearning; be torn and rent apart at our separation.
O eyes, rain down a torrent of tears, pouring like the deluge of a tightly-shut cloud.
Would that I had been present on the day of parting, so I might have renewed the covenant that once bound us,
And bade farewell to that radiant face with a final glance that would revive the anxious, grieving heart.
How pleasant our life was while he lived! If only we had never been created for the day of his departure.
Had ransoms been possible, I would not have withheld my very life for his sake; I would have been the first to shield him.
O his family, do not despair at his separation; he has but been given to drink a single cup of death.
Tomorrow he will dwell in the Gardens of Eternity and ascend to their lofty stations.
He is our shaykh, our leader, our imam—how splendid is that pure, devout scholar!
If I say he was a mountain of knowledge, I speak the simple truth—hear these words about him and know them for certain.
He issued legal verdicts that embraced all four schools, yet in virtue he was the last of those who remained.
In Qur’an recitation he was peerless in his age; in the principles of jurisprudence he was our instructor and master logician.