111 – Abū Bakr ibn Abī Dāwūd, the ḥadīth scholar of Baghdad (230–316 AH).

278 – Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd informed us; Muḥammad ibn Qudāmah narrated to us in the year 618 AH; Fāṭimah bint ʿAlī informed us; ʿAlī ibn Bayān narrated to us; al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī al-Tanāhirī related to us; Abū Ḥafṣ ibn Shāhīn reported to us. He said: “Our shaykh Abū Bakr ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sulaymān composed this poem and polished it well.”¹

Hold fast to Allah’s rope, follow true guidance,
And never be an innovator—so may you prosper.

Live by the Book of Allah and by the Sunnahs
That came from the Messenger; you will be saved and gain.

Say: “The speech of our Sovereign is uncreated”—
This is the creed the godfearing professed and declared.

Do not say: “The Qur’an is a created recitation,”
For the speech of Allah is clarified by its very wording.

Say: “Allah will be unveiled to creation openly,
Like the full moon—yet your Lord is even clearer.”

He neither was begotten nor begets, and He has no peer;
Transcendent is the One who is glorified.

The Jahmite may deny this, but with us
Is a ḥadīth that states it explicitly.

Jarīr transmitted it from the words of Muḥammad;
Repeat what he said and you will succeed.

Say: “The Almighty descends each night,
Without asking how—majestic is the One worthy of praise—

To the lowest heaven, bestowing His bounty;
The gates of heaven are opened wide.”

He proclaims: “Is there one seeking forgiveness who will meet a Forgiver?
One requesting goodness or provision, that it may be granted?”

This was narrated by people whose reports are unimpeachable;
Wretched are the folk who called them liars and reviled them.

Say: “The best of humankind after Muḥammad
Are his two ministers of old, then the eminent ʿUthmān;

Their fourth is the best of creation after them—
ʿAlī, ally of goodness, lavish in beneficence.”

They and the rest of that company—of whom there is no doubt—
Will roam, radiant with light, upon noble steeds in Paradise:

Saʿīd, Saʿd, Ibn ʿAwf, Ṭalḥah,
ʿĀmir of Quraysh, and the praised al-Zubayr.

Speak only the finest words about all the Companions;
Do not be a reviler who faults and wounds.

For the clear revelation spoke openly of their merit,
And in the “Victory”—that is, regarding the Companions—there is praise.²