And why do you not weep for the Bestower of grace—whose favor spreads over all people in abundant embrace?

So lavish your tears upon him and raise your wail—for the loss of one whose equal shall never be found throughout time.

No earlier age has ever suffered a calamity like the passing of Muhammad—nor will any age, until the Day of Resurrection, experience a loss such as his.

He was the most chaste, the most faithful to every covenant upon covenant—none more accessible in generosity, none whose bounty was ever marred.

No hand was freer than his to both the new-come and the long-time friend—while other givers begrudged what their palms possessed.

No fame was nobler in the houses when lineages are proclaimed—no grandsire of the Abṭaḥ more honored than he.

He held the loftiest peaks secure and planted in the heights—towering pillars of glory that he founded and upheld.

His root is the firmest of all roots, his branch the soundest of branches—a trunk the rain clouds nourished, so its boughs are ever fresh.

Reared an orphan, he came to perfect stature—under the care of a Glorified Lord, upon the noblest of boons.

In his hand the Muslims’ welfare reached its utmost; never was knowledge withheld, nor sound judgment discredited.

I say this, and none will find fault with my words—save one whose reason has wandered far astray.

My heart will never cease extolling him—hoping thereby to abide forever in the Garden of Eternity.

With the Chosen One I seek the honor of close companionship—and for the attainment of that day I strive and labor.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū’l-Qāsim al-Suhaylī, at the end of his book al-Rawḍ, relates that Abū Sufyān ibn al-Ḥārith ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, lamenting the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), said:

I am kept awake; my night will not depart—indeed, the night of one stricken by calamity is ever long.

Tears have brought me solace, though in face of what the Muslims have suffered, that solace is but scant.

Great and grave is our disaster—the evening it was announced, “The Messenger has been taken.”

So shaken is our land by what has come upon it—that its very sides seem about to tilt beneath us.

We have lost revelation and the descent of Scripture among us—the message Gabriel would bring each morning and evening.