That in times of decadence strict conformity is better than free speculation

The present age has many tumults hid Beneath its head; its restless temperament Swarms with disorders.

The society Of ancient nations in these modern times Is in confusion; sapless hangs life’s bough.

The glamour and the glitter of our days Have made us strangers to our very selves, And robbed our instrument of melody;

Filched from our heart its pristine fire, and dimmed Within our breast the radiance and the flame There is no god but God.

Whene’er decay Destroys the balanced temperament of life, Then the community may look to find Stability in strict conformity

Go thou thy fathers’ road, for therein lies Tranquility; conformity connotes The holding fast of the community.

In time of Autumn, thou who lackest leaf Alike and fruit, break never from the tree, Hoping that spring may come.

Since thou hast lost The sea, be prudent, lest a greater loss Befall thee; the more carefully preserve Thy own thin rivulet;

for it my hap Some mountain torrent shall replenish thee And thou once more be tossed upon the breast Of the redeeming tempest

If thy flesh Is yet possessed of a discerning eye, Take warning from the Israelitish case; Consider well their variable fate,

Now hot, now cold; regard the obduracy, The hardness of their spare and tenuous soul.

Sluggishly flows the blood within their veins, Their furrowed brow sore smitten on the stones Of porticoes a hundred.

Though heaven’s grip Hath pressed and squeezed their grape, the memory Of Moses and of Aaron liveth yet;

And though their ardent song hath lost its flame, Still palpitates the breath within their breast.

For when the fabric of their nationhood Was rent asunder, still they laboured on To keep the highroad of their forefathers.

O thou whose ancient concourse is dispersed, Within whose breast the lamp of life is out,

Grave on thy heart the truth of Unity, And in conformity essay to mend The ruin of thy fortune.

Of decadence, to seek to exercise The speculative judgment of the mind Completes the people’s havoc finally;

Salvation lieth less in following The blinkered pedant’s dictum, being found Humble imitation of the past.

Caprice corrupted not thy fathers’ brain; The labour of the pious was unsoiled By interested motive,

finer far The thread of thought their meditation wove, Closer to the Prophet’s way conformed Their self-denial.

Jaafar’s raptured view And Razi’s patient delving are no more; Departed is the glory that adorned The Arab nation;

narrow shrunk for us The defile of the Faith, whose mysteries Every impostor boasteth to possess.

Thou, who art stranger to the secret truths Of Faith, if thou art wise, accord thyself With one sound Law

for I have heard it said By those who take and know the pulse of Life, Thy contrariety severs Life’s veins.

The Muslim lives by following one Law; The body of our Faith’s community Throbs vital to the Word of the Quran.

All earth we are; that is our conscient heart; Hold firm to its protection, since it is The Cord of God.

Upon its sacred thread Gem-like be safely strung, or otherwise Be scattered, as the dust upon the wind.