He set no store by elaborate analysis among his aims,1 nor did he pad what he fashioned with idle excrescences. For he was created for the greatest purpose—the Abode of Everlasting Settlement, with its felicity and its privation—and upon him rest the commands and prohibitions of Allah, which draw the sound intellect back from neglecting them.

Yet a stricken breast must inevitably heave a sigh, a cough that relieves the heart by the very sputum it expels. Although his verse is but meagre merchandise, untutored and at the mercy of diction in its quest for cadence,2 he is a lowly slave, weak and enfeebled at his beginning and at his return. But once he sought help from his Lord and bowed to Him in humbling submission, He made the reply easy for him; and if it truly accords,3 in its inscription, with the description required, then praise and boundless favour belong to our Lord in gratitude for the praiseworthy beauty of His handiwork. Whatever blessing we possess is from His bounty, and every good pours forth from Him in unceasing torrents.

Should there be any fault, it is mine, for I could not reach the lofty height of the theme. Deficiency is an inseparable trait of man—so long as he recognises his own lowliness.

Praise, then, belongs to Allah—the Merciful toward His creation, the Benevolent, the Loving toward His obedient servant—who, through His subtle kindness, makes the arduous affair easy after it had been withheld and forbidding.

Next, blessings be upon the Prophet, his family, and the elect from among all humankind; and upon them be our perpetual salutations for as long as the face of the earth quivers with life after its stillness.