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O Muhammad, my hand is inept to draw your life
Your graces, your jihad for His Word and your love!
Each dewdrop, each beauty in affair you champion
You gave to humanity, you returned to Allah
As wonderful and triumphant as a pen breathing in an ocean of ink
Your path straight in its depth, your belief unfaltering
By fountains and mirages of this fleeting Pasture
Making me believe of your trust in the Beloved
And how the children would sing for you
Their eyes bright and their smiles wide
How you received them in your arms, your cause
To clothe them, to feed them, to teach them
That they grow to be like you and to act like you
Thoughts of love, kindnesses and worship of Allah
Alone, and in this humanity your footprints lie
And how sadness would cling to your heart
When the whisperer seduced man to err
Your life is a mirror of divine mercy
And Allah be thanked; lo, Allah be thanked!
You bled in Tai'f for the sake of the Recitation
That cleaved to your tongue, your heart and your mark of the Seal
Pressed to the breast of the universe, spate of burning stars!
O Muhammad, my tears are few to write of your conquests
Ink is plenty though no education moves me
Solitary reflections of your victories, losses and spiritual ascensions
Birthed in the Year of the Elephant, living in the Year of Sadness
You split the stones and clay for therein the infant girl lay
Her soul wailing: "For what crime was I slain?" *
The Qur'an has come down from the Lord and Muhammad is His Messenger
And you displaced their gods and altars into the Waste
Only before Allah we must prostrate, no more shirk and hate!
The poets disputed the verses that you spoke
But none could imagine the flow; yield to Gabriel!
They didn't realise that you bore heaven's yoke
You were unlettered, and yet a sign unto jinn and mankind
Tracing the Word to Abraham and Moses and Jesus son of Mary
Prophets also of the Jews and Christians, People of the Book
Leaning on my spirit, I saw your inheritance in the storm
Ever magnificent, peaceable, gentle and human
To pardon the knives that cut your feet, but you leave the trail behind
For humanity to follow, in Allah's service we must wallow
Slowly but surely all creatures shall perish and die
But for the good-hearted and pious, Paradise is nigh!
Entrust us with your example to prepare for our tomorrow
* {And when the girl-child that was buried alive is asked for what sin she was slain} (Qur’an 81:8-9)
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