56 – Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Ayyub narrated to us, from Ibrahim ibn Saʿd, from Muhammad ibn Ishaq, who said: Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, Allah be pleased with him, wept for the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and recited:

[in the al-Baḥr al-Kāmil metre]
O ‘Aʾish, alas! my loved-one now lies still;
Your father’s wings are broken, crushed and torn.
Would that—before my comrade met his end—
I had been laid beneath a mound of stone.
Great marvels will unfold when he is gone,
And hearts and breasts will seethe with fiery grief.

Abu Bakr also said:

[in the al-Baḥr al-Basīṭ metre]
A surge of countless sorrows battered me—
Like tumbling rocks, they almost broke my frame.
I wish the Hour had dawned the day he died,
So wealth and children would be seen no more.
By Allah, nothing else can make me mourn
Now that the Messenger lies dead and lost.
They knew he was the Chosen, free of flaws—
Perfect in modesty; none equalled him.