I praised the Messenger of God, seeking by that praise
an ample share of the most generous objectives.
I praised a man who, in declaring God’s oneness, outstripped all praise,
his qualities acclaimed by those both far and near. (1)

A Prophet whose light rose over the eastern horizons,
whose first gleams shone upon the people of the West.
Reports of him reached us before his very advent,
and news of him spread to every quarter.

Soothsayers began to cry out his name aloud,
banishing thereby the stoning of lying conjectures.
Idols were made to speak, and in that speech they disavowed—before God—
the falsehoods people had uttered in their name.
They proclaimed, clearly, to the people of unbelief:
“A Prophet has come to you from the line of Luʾayy ibn Ghalib.”

A company of jinn sought to steal a hearing, but shooting stars
drove them from their stations and scattered them. (2)

He guided us to what we could never have found,
so long had blindness veiled us from the evident paths.
He came with signs that make plain
proofs of the Almighty, who rewards and punishes.

Among them was the splitting of the full moon,
its beams crowning the mountain peaks with light. (3)
Among them was water gushing between his fingers,
when the thirsty throng could find no wells nearby. (4)

He quenched a vast multitude; their water-skins
bowed their necks toward him, spouts outstretched in willing submission. (5)
A well overflowed at the touch of his arrow,
though before it had not granted even a sip to a drinker. (6)

He passed his hand over an udder, and milk flowed though before
it held not a drop for the hand of a milker.
A roasted foreleg spoke with eloquent clarity,
exposing the plot of an enemy intent on harm.

He foretold affairs before their occurrence,
and, when their beginnings showed, unveiled their conclusions.
Among those signs is the Revelation he brought—
accessible in its approach, replete with marvels.

Minds fall short of it; no orator can encompass it,
nor has it ever crossed the heart of a rhetorician.
It gathers all knowledge, embraces every wisdom,
and surpasses the reach of the persistent, evasive seeker.