117 – Al-Ḥusayn narrated to us; ʿAbd Allah narrated to us; Sulaymān ibn Abī Shaykh told me; Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥakam recited to me verses by Abū Zubayd al-Ṭāʾī lamenting ʿAlī:

Tears have overflowed so that Abū al-Ḥasan might enter the Gardens,
and, after him, a blaze has been stoked for his assassin.⦗97⦘

What possessed them to strike the best of all mankind in faith,
the one who guided them most surely to the truth whenever they swerved?

Whatever he spoke was but the very words of the Prophet;
his public proclamations never strayed from his private counsel.

Umm Kulthūm now visits him with the women of her household—
visitors in earnest, unlike the casual caller or the pretender.

They weep for a noble, blessed champion, a guardian of honor
who shielded the sanctities whenever a people transgressed.