The Poetry of the Imam

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ 

A man came to Imam Abu ‘Abd ar-Rahman ‘Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak (r.a.) and said to him, “May Allah be Pleased with you!  Describe for me those who are wild and distracted by love of Allah.” 

He replied, “They are as I will tell you: 

Alert, on mounts as if they were a caravan desiring to pass,

That is how they are moved.

Their limbs are restrained from every foul action.

Truthfulness is their school, as well as zuhd and fear.” 

Another person asked him to describe the fearful.  He said: 

“When the night is darkest, they endure it,

And it travels from them while they are still bowing.

Fear dispelled their sleep, so they stood alert while the people of security

In this world were sleeping peacefully.

While they are prostrating under the cloak the darkness,

Their groan pierces their ribs.

They are mute in the day by the length of their silence.

They have tranquillity from their humility.” 

He also composed: 

“Seize the two raka’at of nearness if you are free and at rest.

When you desire to speak about the false, put glorification in its place.

Seizing silence is better than plunging,

Even if you are eloquent in speech.” 

Imam ibn al-Mubarak (q.s.) had a lot of poetry on more than one subject.  He had a short poem in rajaz metre on the companions and the followers and long qaswa’id on constancy and jihad which are famous.  He wrote Kitab ar-Raqa’iq which is famous, and “The Book of the Objectives of Jihad.”



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