and you say—(1)
“My needs with him are blocked unless I humour him.
So leave him—(2) and turn to the Lord of those needs; they will be granted even though the master of the house dislikes it.
Among the lines Shaykh Muwaffaq al-Dīn composed for himself—may Allah have mercy on him and be pleased with him—are the following (3):
[Ṭawīl metre]
After my hair has turned white, shall I build a dwelling other than the grave?
If I were to do so, I would indeed be a fool.
My grey hairs inform me that I shall die soon;
They announce my death to me—and they speak the truth. (4)
Day and night my lifespan is being torn away;
Who is able to mend what is being rent? (5)
It is as though I see my body stretched upon the bier:
Some stand silent, others wail in burning grief. (6)
When they are asked about me, they reply and lament,
And their tears stream down: “This is Muwaffaq.” (7)
I am hidden in a narrow cleft of earth,
Placed in a grave that the rock above seals shut. (8)
Even my most loyal friend will heap earth upon me,
And the one who pities me will still hand me over to the grave.
So, O Lord, be my companion on the day of my loneliness,
For I believe in what You have revealed. (9)
Nor will it harm me that I am returning to Allah,
Who is kinder and more gracious to me than any of my kin. (10)
Fakhr al-Dīn Ibn ʿAsākir (11), ʿAbd al-Raḥmān son of [Muḥammad son of] al-Ḥasan son of Hibat Allah Ibn ʿAsākir—known as Fakhr al-Dīn, Abū Manṣūr al-Dimashqī—was the leading Shāfiʿī scholar of Damascus.
(1) Editions A and B, and Ibn Rajab’s supplement read: “He says.”
(2) Edition Ṭ and the remaining sources read: “and leave it.”
(3) The rhyming verses are found in Mirʾāt al-Zamān (vol. 8, p. 415), in the supplement to al-Rawḍatayn (p. 141), in Ibn Rajab’s supplement (vol. 2, p. 141), and in Shudharāt al-Dhahab (p. 161).
(4) Edition Ṭ reads: “fayanʿāni ilayya wa-yuṣaddiq.”
(5) Edition Ṭ reads: “fa-hal mustaṭāʿ ruqaʿ mā yatakharruq?” In Ibn Rajab’s supplement, the word rafū has been misprinted as rifq—please correct it there.
(6) In manuscript A the verse appears as:
“Kaʾannī bi-qawm yattabiʿūna janāzatī … wa-ʿuyūnihum tadharī al-dumūʿ wa-tadfiqu.”
It is suitable as the tenth verse of this poem. In Mirʾāt al-Zamān it appears as “Kaʾannī binafsī,” and in the supplement to al-Rawḍatayn as “fawqa naʿshī mamdūd.”
(7) Editions Ṭ and Mirʾāt al-Zamān read: “… wa-ʿawwalu.”
(8) In Mirʾāt al-Zamān: “wa-awdaʿtu fī laḥdin bihi al-turāb.”
(9) In the supplement to al-Rawḍatayn: “muṣaddiq.” In the supplements of Ibn Rajab and in Shudharāt al-Dhahab: “lammā anzaltuhu limuṣaddiq.”
(10) In the supplement to al-Rawḍatayn: “abarru wa-awthaq.”
(11) The biography of al-Fakhr Ibn Asākir is found in:
• Ibn al-Athīr, al-Kāmil fī al-Taʾrīkh, vol. 9, p. 352.
• Mirʾāt al-Zamān, vol. 8, p. 415.
• Takmīlat al-Mundhirī, vol. 3, pp. 102–103.
• Supplement to al-Rawḍatayn, pp. 136–139.
• Wafāyāt al-Aʿyān, vol. 3, p. 135.
• Tārīkh al-Islām, vol. 13, p. 613.
• Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ, vol. 22, p. 187.
• al-ʿIbar, vol. 5, pp. 80–81.
• Fawāt al-Wafayāt, vol. 2, pp. 290–298.
• Ṭabaqāt al-Subkī, vol. 5, pp. 66–71.
• al-Nujūm al-Zāhira, vol. 6, p. 256.
• Shudharāt al-Dhahab, vol. 7, pp. 163–164.