its verses shine with lucid meaning,
Recited to Allah upon the tongue, (1)
Safeguarded within breast and heart, (2)
Inscribed upon the parchments by the hand.
As for the Divine attributes, my brothers,
We speak of them as we do of the Essence—
Of Knowledge and of Speech alike:
We let them pass as they have come, without rejection,
Without likening and without stripping them away. (3)
He said: and he recited to me, of his own composition: (4)
[metre: al-Ṭawīl]
Has not the whitening of my hair—
Together with weakness and pain—
Been warning enough to turn me from idle play?
A calamity has befallen me; were I to weep for it
My whole life until my tears ran dry, (5)
No blame would rest upon me.
He said: (6) He fell ill for a few days, yet left nothing of the awrād he customarily performed, until his death at the pre-dawn hour (7) of Tuesday night, the twenty-ninth of Rabīʿ al-Awwal. He was washed in the monastery (8) and borne to his grave by a multitude known only to Allah, Mighty and Majestic. Not a single person from the government, the emirs, the scholars, the judges, or others failed to attend his funeral (9). It was a day long remembered. The heat was intense, but a cloud shaded the people, and from it was heard a hum like that of bees. The crowd nearly tore away his shroud, and his garments were sold for exorbitant prices. Poets composed fine elegies for him, and righteous dreams were seen concerning him—may Allah have mercy on him.
He left three sons (11): ʿUmar—his kunya was taken from him—al-Sharaf ʿAbd Allah, who assumed the pulpit (12) after his father and was the father of al-ʿIzz Ibrāhīm, (13) and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān. (14) When al-Sharaf ʿAbd Allah passed away, it passed