In today’s post, I am going to tell you about a famous Arab and Muslim figure; Muhammad Bin (son of) Idris Al-Shaf’ie مـُـحــمـَّــد بــن إدريـــس الــشــافــِــعـــىّ . Al-Shaf;ie was a Muslim jurist فــَــقــــيـــه /Faqeeh/. He was a active in juridical matters in relation to the Islamic law. His thoughts and teachings led to the establishment تـــَــاســيـــس of the Shaf’ie School of Fiqh that was named after him. The name Shaf’ie is also given to any of his students and/or followers. Hence, he is often called Imam إمــَـــام . He is considered the founder of the Islamic jurisprudence (Fiqh) عــِــلــم الــفــِـــقــْــه / عــِــلــم الــتـــَّــشـــريـــع . He authored many books and some of them were translated into English.

      Al-Shaf’ie was not only a religious figure but he also was a poet شــَـــاعــِـــر and deep thinker. He has written so many poems that are full of deep wisdom حــِــكــْــمــَـــة and morality أخـــْـــلاق . Al-Shaf’ie was born in Gaza, Palestine in 767 AD (150 AH) and died in Egypt in 820 AD (204 AH). In today’s post, I am going to present a small wise poem of Al-Shaf’ie and I will do the English translation.

دَع الأيــَّــامَ تــَــفــعــَــلُ مــَــا تــَــشــَـــاءْ

Let Days do whatever they want

دَع الأيــَّــامَ تــَــفــعــَــلُ مــَــا تــَــشــَـــاءْ

Let Days do whatever they want

و طــِــبْ نــَــفـــْــــســـاً إذا حــَــكــَـــمَ الــقــَـــضــَـــاء  

And be satisfied if destiny talks

و لا تــَــجــْـــزَعْ لــِــحـــَـــادِثــَـــةِ الـلــَّــيــَـــالــى  

And don’t panic from the incidents of nights

فــَــمــَــا لــِــحــَـــوادِثِ الــدُّنــْـــيـــَــــا بــَـــقــَـــاء

Incidents of life never last forever

و كــُــنْ رَجــُـــلاً عــلــى الأهــْـــوالِ جــَــلــْــداً  

And be strong against hardships

و شــيــمــَــتــُــكَ الــســَّـــمـَــاحــَــة و الــوفــَـــاء

And let tolerance and loyalty be your habit

و إنْ كــَــثــُــرَتْ عــُــيــُـــوبــُــكَ فــى الــبــَــرَايــَـــا  

And if your faults were so many in this world

و ســَـــرَّكَ أنْ يــَــكــُـــونَ لــَــهــَـا غــِـــطـــَــاء

And if you would like a cover to them

تــَـــســـَـــتــَّـــرْ بالــســَـــخــَــاءِ فــَــكــُــلُّ عــَــيــْــبٍ  

Seek cover under generosity, for every fault

يــُــغــَــطــّــيــهِ كــَــمــَــا قــِــيــلَ الــســَّـــخــَـــاء

 As said, is covered by generosity

و لا تــُــرِى للأعــَــادى قــَــطّ ذُلاً  

And never show any humiliation to enemies

فــَــإنَّ شــَــمــَـــاتــَـــةِ الأعــْـــداءِ بــَـــلاء

The enemies’ schadenfreude is a curse

و لا تــَــرْجُ الــســَّــمــَـــاحــَــةَ مــِــنْ بــَــخــيــلٍ  

And never seek tolerance at a mean (person)

فــَــمــَــا فــى الــنــَّـــارِ لـِـلــظــَــمــْـــآنِ مــَــاءْ  

Fire has no water for the thirsty

و رِزقــُــكَ لــَــيــْـــسَ يــُــنــْــقــِــصــُــهُ الــتــَّــأَنـــِّــى  

And your livelihood is never lessened by slowness

و لــَــيــْــسَ يــُــزيــدُ فــى الــرِّزقِ الــعــَــنــَـــاء

And pain has never increased livelihood

فــَـــلا حــُـــزْنٌ يــَــدُومُ و لا ســُـــرورٌ  

There is no sorrow that lasts, nor pleasure,

و لا بــُــؤْسٌ عــَــلــَــيــْـــكَ و لا رَخــَـــاءْ  

Nor misery, on you, nor prosperity

إذا مــَــا كــُــنــْــتَ ذَا قــَــلـــبٍ قــَــنـــُـــوعٍ

If you have a content heart,

فــَــأنــْــتَ و مــَـــالــِــكِ الــدُّنـــْـــيـــَـــا ســـَـــوَاء  

You are equal to the world owner

و مــَـــنْ نــَــزَلــَـــتْ بــِــســَـــاحــَـــتــِـــهِ الــمــَــنــَــايــَـــا  

And he who death falls into his yard,

فــَـــلا أرْضٌ تــَـــقــيــهِ و لا ســَـــمــَـــاء  

Has no land to protect him or a sky

و أرْضُ اللهِ و اســِـــعـــةٌ و لــَــكــِـــنْ  

And God’s land is vast but

إذا نــَـــزَلَ الــقــَــضــَـــا ، ضــَــاقَ الــفــَــضــَـــاء

If destiny comes, there is no space (escape)

دَعْ الأيـــَّـــامَ تــَــغـــْـــدُرُ كــُــلَّ حــِــيــنٍ  

Let days betray now and then

فــَــمــَـــا يــُــغــْـــنــِـــى عــَــنْ الــمــَــوْتِ الــدَّوَاء

Medicine has nothing to do with death.

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Peace  ســـــَـــــــلام /Salam/