Qasida Burda - Chapter 4

أَبَانَ مَوْلِدُهُ عَنْ طِيبِ عُنْصُرِهِ
يَا طِيبَ مُبْتَدَإٍ مِنْهُ وَمُخْتَتَمِ
يَوْمٌ تَفَرَّسَ فِيهِ الفُرْسُ أَنَّهُمُ
قَدْ أُنْذِرُوا بِحُلُولِ البُؤْسِ وَالنِّقَمِ
وَبَاتَ إِيوَانُ كِسْرَى وَهْوَ مُنْصَدِعٌ
كَشَمْلِ أَصْحَابِ كِسْرَى غَيْرَ مُلْتَئِمِ
وَالنَّارُ خَامِدَةُ الأَنْفَاسِ مِنْ أَسَفٍ
عَلَيْهِ وَالنَّهْرُ سَاهِي العَيْنِ مِنْ سَدَمِ
وَسَاءَ سَاوَةَ أَنْ غَاضَتْ بُحَيْرَتُهَا
وَرُدَّ وَارِدُهَا بِالغَيْظِ حِينَ ظَمِي
كَأَنَّ بِالنَّارِ مَا بِالمَاءِ مِنْ بَلَلٍ
حُزْنًا وَبِالمَاءِ مَا بِالنَّارِ مِنْ ضَرَمِ
وَالجِنُّ تَهْتِفُ وَالأَنْوَارُ سَاطِعَةٌ
وَالحَقُّ يَظْهَرُ مِنْ مَعْنىً وَمِنْ كَلِمِ
عَمُوا وَصَمُّوا فَإِعْلَانُ البَشَائِرِ لَمْ
يُسْمَعْ وَبَارِقَةُ الإِنْذَارِ لَمْ تُشَمِ
مِنْ بَعْدِ مَا أَخْبَرَ الأَقْوَامَ كَاهِنُهُمْ
بِأَنَّ دِينَهُمُ المُعْوَجَّ لَمْ يَقُمِ
وَبَعْدَمَا عَايَنُوا فِي الأُفْقِ مِنْ شُهُبٍ
مُنْقَضَّةٍ وَفْقَ مَا فِي الأَرْضِ مِنْ صَنَمِ
حَتَّى غَدَا عَنْ طَرِيقِ الْوَحْيِ مُنْهَزِمٌ
مِنَ الشَّيَاطِينِ يَقْفُوا إِثْرَ مُنْهَزِمِ
كَأَنَّهُمْ هَرَبًا أَبْطَالُ أَبْرَهَةٍ
أَوْ عَسْكَرٍ بِالحَصَى مِنْ رَاحَتَيْهِ رُمِي
نَبْذًا بِهِ بَعْدَ تَسْبِيحٍ بِبَطْنِهِمَا
نَبْذَ الْمُسَبِّحِ مِنْ أَحْشَاءِ مُلْتَقِمِ

His birth made the purity of his pedigree evident;
O how pure were his beginning and his end!
On that day the Persians intuited that they
Had been warned of looming misery and retribution.
That night the throne room of Khusraw became cracked,
Khusraw’s people, too, crumbled, never to be restored.
The sacred fire, grief-stricken, breathed its last,
And the river [Euphrates] dried up out of worry.
Sāʾa was saddened by its lake drying up;
the thirsty who went to drink there came back in a rage!
As if the fire, from sorrow, took on the water’s wetness
And water assumed the fire’s quality of blazing.
There were jinn calling out, and dazzling lights
As truth was manifested in both word and reality.
They were blind and deaf, so the glad tidings proclaimed
Went unheard, and the warning lightning-flash was not seen.
Even after the soothsayers had informed their peoples
That their crooked religion would not endure,
And even after their eyes saw meteors on the horizon
Plunging downwards, as idols were toppled on earth;
Until devils, routed, from the path of revelation,
Fled in the wake of those who had been overpowered.
Fleeing like the brave warriors of Abraha
Or the army pelted by pebbles thrown by his hand,
Cast by him after glorifying Allah in the palm of his hand,
As he who glorified his Lord was cast from the whale.