As for sheer strength and courage, your master inflicts but feeble harm (1), is scantily protected, a subordinate who simply obeys orders and lives under the judgment of others, whereas my master is awe-inspiring, of great benefit, an obeyed leader and commander (2) to whom people bring their disputes. Your highest ambition is to count as one of his servants, to be enrolled among his followers and attendants. Through me lands were conquered and bowed in obedience to the Lord of all creation; my companions are kings, princes, and soldiers, while yours are merely sentinels upon the battlements. My comrades are the lords of momentous enterprises and vast fiefs.

How astonishing! (3) Can the rider of a donkey ever be equated with the rider of a stallion? How can the noble bow—divinely supported and victorious, the very kind to which the Messenger of Allah ﷺ testified that victory and aid belong—be matched with a bow whose ultimate lot is to serve among servants and slaves? (4)

My arrows fly forth in an unbroken, ceaseless cascade—shaft after shaft, hit upon hit—so that you would think them torrents pouring from rain-laden clouds. They come in swift succession, each pursuing the other, driving souls toward their doom.

Thus my master is like a lion in valor, formidable wherever his mounts (5) turn, feared and revered wherever his encampments face, for my power is with him and my might is in