and a wealthy fool, and a penniless fool as well,
a mind without good fortune, and a mind whose scope is confined; (1)

wealth and poverty alike befall the ignorant and the discerning,
and to Allah belong the affairs—before and after.

Abu Zakariyya Yahya ibn al-Qasim (2) ibn al-Mufarrij ibn Daraʿ ibn al-Khadr (3), the Shafiʿi jurist known as Shaykh Taj al-Din al-Tikriti, first served as the qadi of Tikrit and later lectured at the Nizamiyya College in Baghdad.

He mastered numerous disciplines—among them tafsir (Quranic exegesis) (4), jurisprudence, adab, grammar, and lexicography. He composed works in all these fields and compiled for himself a fine chronicle. Among his verses are the following (5):

[from the Basit metre]
A man must taste both constriction and ease—
joy shall come to meet him, and sorrow as well.
Allah asks of him gratitude for His favor
so long as the favor endures, and He seeks patience in tribulation.
So, in both states, be with Allah, embracing them—
content with these two, in secret (6) and in public.
For no hardship lasts forever with time,
nor does a blessing remain unchanged through the ages.

He also said (7):

[from the Munsariḥ metre]
If passion’s judge were appointed over me,
no one to whom I am devoted would rule with injustice.
O peerless Joseph-like beauty! Your servant
has no stratagem (8) left among stratagems.
If Joseph’s shirt was torn from the back,
my heart for you is torn from the front.

The author of al-Jawāhir (9), the distinguished imam and scholar, [Jalal al-Din] (10) Abu Muhammad ʿAbd Allah ibn Najm ibn Shās ibn