Its remedy lies in earnest striving to acquire it, by means of the preliminaries that give birth to it and distinguish its varieties. Every people has an ample share of it, and the very realities of tawḥīd (1) reside in what the Law has ordained for it. It comes with outward tokens for the perceptive, and with principles that anchor the creeds reason draws from what is heard.
All of it is scattered through his saying, “No one safeguards a covenant better than the one who lets it slip.” Thus the ʿayn, the lām, and the mīm of that word each receive their allotted portion when it is divided up (2).
With the water of life at its spring it quenches the thirst of the seeker of certainty, parched for its source; and by the light of its guidance, made manifest, it shows the bewildered scrutinizer the dawning of its splendor. So it rose, and by its light laid bare the straight path, untying the knot of its marvels. It revealed what had been disclosed, after the remoteness of its first appearance, unlocked what was closed, and brought its farthest reaches near (3).
It clarified what was terse, set in order the gems of its necklace, and the virgin meadow was now browsed in luxuriant ease. He (4) unveiled the pristine beauty hidden within the finest adornment, breaking her seal like a worthy consort who has taken up residence in her abode.
Take, then, the answer—purified to its very core, distilled in these verses for the attentive ear—even though mere versification can never encompass the perfection of its purport (5) nor explain it in its entirety. These lines sprang from a mind in hurried eagerness, one that had no leisure (6) to ponder deeply over what it produced.