They envied their brother Joseph and plotted against him, yet both the envier (1) and the envied are now dead.

And Solomon, who combined prophethood with sovereignty, met the same end as David.

Thus they both departed—after all creation had submitted to the one, and for the other iron was made pliant (2)(3).

The son of ʿImrān, even after his nine manifest signs and his cleaving of the sea so that its bed became dry land, is today mere dust.

The Messiah, son of Mary—Allah’s Spirit—was almost slain by the Jews.

The master of the prophets, the guide to truth, Aḥmad the Praised One, likewise passed away.

His sons and his radiant, pure household—may the One who is worshipped send blessings upon them—have also gone on.

The very stars of heaven will one day be scattered, and even the air will come to rest.

The fire of this world that can melt rock will be extinguished, and the waters (4) will freeze.

So too the earth: on the day people surge forth from it, it will quake and then lie still.

These four primal elements—fire, soil, moist air, and chill water—

will assuredly perish (5) just as we have perished; of all creation neither sire nor newborn shall remain.

Neither the wretched, wayward soul escapes the misfortunes of time, nor the fortunate, rightly guided one.

Whenever Death unsheathes its swords, both masters and slaves fall as its harvest.

Among those who died in this year (6):

Abū al-Futūḥ Naṣr ibn ʿAlī al-Baghdādī, the Shāfiʿī jurist, surnamed Thaʿlab. He devoted himself to the school’s jurisprudence and to the study of legal disagreement. Of his poetry are the following verses:

[al-Basīṭ]
My body is with me, yet my spirit abides with you;
the body is in exile while the spirit is at home.
Let people marvel that I possess a frame without a soul,
and a soul without a frame.

Abū al-Faḍl Jibrāʾīl (7) ibn Manṣūr ibn Hibat-Allah ibn Jibrāʾīl ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Ghālib ibn Yaḥyā ibn Mūsā ibn