Harful Laam · حَرْفُ اللَّامِ

جُــــلُّ فِكْــــــرِي فِــــــي مَعَالِـــي
أَحْمَــــــــدَ الْجَــــــــــمِّ النَّــــــوَالِ

Jullu fikrī fī ma‘ālī
Aḥmada al-jammi al-nawālī

All my thought is occupied with the heights of Ahmad, the one of abundant bounty.

إِنَّـــــــــهُ حَقًّـــــــــا ضَجِيعِــــــي
وَرَفِيقِــــــي فِـــــــــي مَجَالِـــــي

Innahu ḥaqqan ḍajī‘ī
wa-rafīqī fī majālī

He is, in truth, my companion of the bed and my friend in [every] field of mine.

بَـــــاتَ يَسْـــــــــرِي فَتَدَلَّـــــــــى
دُونَ كَيْـــــــــــفٍ أَوْ مِثَـــــــــــالِ

Bāta yasrī fa-tadallā
dūna kayfin aw mithālī

He spent the night traveling and then descended [to me], without a "how" or any comparison.

جَــــــلَّ طَـــــــــــهَ وَتَعَالَــــــــى
فَــــــــوْقَ فِكْـــــــرِي وَمَقَالِــــــي

Jalla Ṭāhā wa-ta‘ālā
fawqa fikrī wa-maqālī

Exalted and high is Taha, far above my thought and my speech.

دَبَّ فِـــي سِــــــــرِّي هَــــــــــوَاهُ
مِـــــــنْ قُرُونِـــــــــــي لِنِعَالِـــــي

Dabba fī sirrī hawāhu
min qurūnī li-ni‘ālī

His love has crept into my secret core, from the hair of my head to my sandals.

هُـــــــوَ سِــــــرُّ الْحَـــقِّ أَبْــــــدَى
السِّلْـــــمَ مِــــنْ عَيْــــــنِ الْقِتَــــالِ

Huwa sirru al-ḥaqqi abdā
al-silma min ‘ayni al-qitālī

He is the Secret of the Truth who manifested peace from the very midst of combat.

وَهْــــوَ يَدْعُـــــو الْحَــــقَّ دَهْـــرًا
بِسِـــــــــــــوَاهُ لاَ يُبَـــــــــالِــــي

Wa-huwa yad‘ū al-ḥaqqa dahran
bi-siwāhu lā yubālī

He calls to the Truth always, and for anything else, he has no concern.

زَجَــــــرَ الْأَحْــــــزَابَ بِالسَّيْــــ
ـــــفِ أَوْ صُــــــدُورٍ لِلْعَــــوَالِي

Zajara al-aḥzāba bil-say-
fi aw ṣudūrin lil-‘awālī

He rebuked the confederates with the sword, or with chests [aimed] at the spears.

حَكَّــــــــــمَ الْأَسْيَـــــــافَ فِيهِـــمْ
مَاحِيًـــــــــا كُـــــــــلَّ جِــــــدَالِ

Ḥakkama al-asyāfa fīhim
māḥiyan kulla jidālī

He let the swords judge among them, erasing every dispute.

طَــــــــــرَدَ الْأَصْنَــــــــامَ وَالْأَوْ
ثَــــــــــانَ تَــــــــدْعُو لِلــــزَّوَالِ

Ṭarada al-aṣnāma wal-aw-
thāna tad‘ū liz-zawālī

He drove away the idols and the images that call toward perishing.

يَسْجُـــدُ الْمُشْــــــرِكُ كَرْهًــــــــا
لِإِلَهِــــــــي ذِي الْجَــــــــــــــلاَلِ

Yasjudu al-mushriku karhan
li-ilāhī dhī al-jalālī

The polytheist prostrates—even if unwillingly—to my God, the Possessor of Majesty.

كُـــلُّ كُفْــــــرٍ صَــــــارَ سِلْمًــــا
رَغْـــــــمَ أَنْــــــــــفٍ لِلضَّــــلاَلِ

Kullu kuf-rin ṣāra silman
ragh-ma anfin liḍ-ḍalālī

Every disbelief has turned to peace, despite the pride of misguidance.

لاَنَ صَخْــــرٌ وَهْـــــوَ صَخْـــــرٌ
ثُـــــمَّ عَمْــــــرٌ فِــــي انْجِــــدَالِ

Lāna ṣakhrun wa-huwa ṣakhrun
thumma ‘Amrun fī-njidālī

The rock softened, even though it was a rock; and then ‘Amr [ibn al-’As] entered the fold.

وَالْمُــــــــــــرَادُونَ جَمِيعــــــــاً
قَادَهُـــــمْ بَـــــــدْرُ الْكَمَـــــــــالِ

Wal-murādūna jamī‘an
qādahum badru al-kamālī

And the "Intended Ones" (Murādūn) were all led by the Full Moon of Perfection.

نِعْمَـــــــهُ بَطْنًــــا وَظَهْــــــــرًا
مُصْطَفًـــى عَيْـــــــنُ الْجَمَـــــالِ

Ni‘mahu baṭnan wa-ẓahran
Muṣṭafā ‘aynu al-jamālī

What a blessing he is, inwardly and outwardly! The Chosen One, the essence of beauty.

صَفْـــــــــــــوَةُ اللّٰهِ نَجِــــــــــــيُّـ
ـــلَّهِ مَحْمُـــــــــودُ الْفِعَـــــــــــالِ

Ṣafwatu Allāhi najiyyu-
llāhi maḥmūdu al-fi‘ālī

The elite of Allah, the intimate confidant of Allah, the one of praised actions.

عَيْـــــــنُ سِــــــــرٍّ جَاءَ جَهْــــرًا
ذُو انْفِصَــــــــــــالٍ وَاتِّصَـــــــالِ

‘Aynu sirrin jā’a jahran
dhū-n-fiṣālin wa-ttiṣālī

The essence of a Secret that came openly; possessor of separation and connection.

فَهْـــــــوَ سِــــــرًّا ذُو اتِّصَـــــــالٍ
وَهْــــــوَ جَهْــــرًا ذُو انْفِصَــــــالِ

Fahuwa sirran dhū-ttiṣālī
wa-huwa jahran dhū-n-fiṣālī

For in secret he possesses "connection" [with God], and in the open he possesses "separation" [among men].

ضَامَنِــــــي بَـــــــــــــاءٌ وَتَـــــاءٌ
نَالَــــــــــــــــــهُ لاَمٌ بِـــــــــــــذَالِ

Ḍāmanī Bā’un wa-Tā’un
nālahu Lāmun bi-Dhālī

"B" and "T" [likely referring to specific local antagonists] oppressed me; "L" and "Dh" reached them [in judgment].

قِيـــــــــدَ جَهْـــــــــرًا لاِنْحِطَــــاطٍ
وَانْخِفَـــــــــــاضٍ وَانْسِفَــــــــــــالِ

Qīda jahran li-n-ḥiṭāṭin
wa-n-khifāḍin wa-n-sifālī

They were led openly toward degradation, lowering, and debasement.

رَاشَ لِلْحَـــــــــــقِّ سِهَامًـــــــــــــا
وَيْلَــــــــــهُ كَيْــــــــــفَ يُبَالِـــــــي

Rāsha lil-ḥaqqi sihāman
waylahu kayfa yubālī

He feathered arrows for the Truth; woe to [the enemy], how can he handle it?

سُــــــــمُّ طَــــــــهَ لِلْأَعَـــــــــادِي
نَالَــــــهُ عَــــــــــذْبَ الْمَنَـــــــــالِ

Summu Ṭāhā lil-a‘ādī
nālahu ‘adhba al-manālī

The poison of Taha for the enemies reached them as a sweet fate.

تَــــبَّ هَــــــــذَا بَــــــــتَّ هَـــــذَا
فِـــــي اتِّسَـــــــــاقٍ وَتَــــــــوَالِ

Tabba hādhā batta hādhā
fī-tti-sāqin wa-tawālī

Perished is this one, cut off is that one, in a perfect sequence and succession.

ثُـــــمَّ رُوْحِـــي وَهْــــوَ عَوْنِـــي
وَهْـــــــوَ سَيْفِـــــــي وَنِبَالِـــــي

Thumma rūḥī wa-huwa ‘awnī
wa-huwa sayfī wa-nibālī

Then he is my spirit, he is my help, he is my sword, and my arrows.

خَاتِــــــــمُ الْأَرْسَـــــالِ طُـــــرًّا
وَهْـــــــوَ يَكْفِـــــي لِلنِّضَـــــــالِ

Khātimu al-ar-sāli ṭurran
wa-huwa yakfī lin-niḍālī

The Seal of the Messengers, one and all; and he is sufficient for the struggle.

ذَلِــــــكَ الْمُخْتَـــــــــارُ طَــــــــهَ
وَهْـــــــــوَ لَيْــــثٌ فِي الْقِتَــــــالِ

Dhālika al-Mukhtāru Ṭāhā
wa-huwa lay-thun fī al-qitālī

That is the Chosen One, Taha; and he is a lion in the heat of battle.

ظَعَـــــنَ الْقَلْـــــــبُ إِلَى الْمَـحْــــ
ـــمُـــودِ مِــــنْ طَيْـــــفٍ عَـرَالِي

Ẓa‘ana al-qalbu ila al-Maḥ-
mūdi min ṭayfin ‘arā-lī

My heart has set out toward the Praised One, because of a vision that appeared to me.

غُدْوَتِــــــي ثُــــــــمَّ أَصِيلِــــــــي
فِيـــــكَ يَــــا عَيْــــــنَ الْكَمَــــــالِ

Ghudwatī thumma aṣīlī
fīka yā ‘ayna al-kamālī

In my morning and in my evening, I am in you, O Essence of Perfection.

شُغِــــفَ الْقَلْــــــــبُ جِهَــــــــارًا
فِيـــــكَ يَــــا عَيْـــــنَ الْجَمَـــــالِ

Shughifa al-qalbu jihāran
fīka yā ‘ayna al-jamālī

My heart has been infatuated openly in you, O Essence of Beauty.

وَصَـــــــــــلاَةٌ وَسَــــــــــــلاَمٌ
نَحْــــوَ طَـــــهَ ذِي الْمَعَـــــــالِي

Wa-ṣalātun wa-salāmun
naḥwa Ṭāhā dhī al-ma‘ālī

And prayer and peace be toward Taha, the possessor of heights.

ثُــــــــــــمَّ آلٍ وَصِحَـــــــــابِ
الْمُصْطَفَـــى الْجَـــــمِّ النَّــــوَالِ

Thumma ālin wa-ṣiḥābi
al-Muṣṭafā al-jammi al-nawālī

Then upon the family and companions of the Chosen One, the one of abundant bounty.