Rahman in English

We hope you enjoy these poems.  Each Poem is in the same order as the Diwan.   I have added my own Titles.

You are welcome to use these translations, but please add a note  so that others will know where they came from like this: Translated by Robert Sampson and Momin Khan.

Thanks!

D 1   My Lord.

Look! My Lord is such a great doer of things,
That my Lord commands full authority.

Of great and virtuous people that one can name,
My Lord is beyond them all.

He is not dependent upon others for His needs;
My Lord owes nothing to anyone.

He created life from nothingness;
My Lord is this kind of creator.

He has fashioned all created things;
My Lord hears all speech.

Of which there is no similarity or likeness;
My Lord is the maker of such scents.

Of every structure in this world or the one to come;
My Lord is mason of them all.

He is the reader of unwritten scriptures;
My Lord is the knower of all secrets.

The overt, the covert and the part-known;
My Lord knows them all.

What is created, what is concealed, what is between;
My Lord is aware of them all.

He does not have any associate in His kingdom,
My Lord is a king without a partner.

His oneness is not due to weakness,
For my Lord is infinite in one body.

He needs friendship from no one,
Whose friend is my Lord.

I don’t need to look elsewhere,
For my Lord is with me in my home.

He is not transformed or changed O Rahmān!
My Lord is always constant.

D 2   Muhammad. (P.B.U.H.)

If the body of Muhammad had not been born,
God would not have created the world.

The whole world was created for the sake of Muhammad;
Muhammad is father of the whole world.

Prophet-hood ended with Muhammad;
There are no prophets after Muhammad.

The light of Muhammad was in the world
Before there was even a notion of Adam and Eve.

Though created last in body;
In reality he is the first of all.

Do not consider him God. He is truly a man.
All good qualities are really his.

Whether prophet, saint or sinner;
Muhammad is the guide of them all.

Those who have accepted the religion of Muhammad
Are heaven-bound; both the sinner and the pious.

Muhammad is the guide of the lost,
The walking stick in the hand of the blind.

If there is any light, it is obedience to Muhammad.
Besides this, there is no other light in the world.

Muhammad is the helper of the helpless;
The remedy for every suffering person.

I Rahmān am a sweeper at Muhammad’s gate,
May God not separate me from His door.

D 3 The Way of the World.

Do not consider the knowledgeable of this world as clever;

The dim-witted are the clever ones of this world.

Light is harām for those hearts

On whom the dust of the world has settled.

The worldly make useless talk;

Their every expression and utterance is base.

All of those that deal in the business of the world

Are playing like children in the dust.

All of them are nursing babies;

The experienced and seasoned of this world.

They will always be stupid and senseless;

Those who are intoxicated with the euphoria of this world.

Even wine does not have as much intoxication

As the drinkers of this world get.

For every ailing person there is a remedy,

But there is no cure for those diseased by the world.

Every burnt person can be treated in this world,

But not those burnt on the spark of this world.

Whatever you throw in the fire is burnt; 10

But the passion of the worldly will never be satisfied.

Those enthralled by the world will drown in its sorrows;

May none ever be enslaved by this world.

He will forever be lying in the dark;

Who is imprisoned by the beloved of this world.

They are real Muslims among Muslims;

Who have broken the shackles of this world.

The body is left, the head is gone;

The chieftains of this world are never the head.

The mothers and fathers in this world are faithless;

For they leave their sons and daughters as orphans.

They will always have a bundle of sorrows;

Those who have the turban of this world on their head.

Whether you buy or sell, all is sorrow;

There is nothing else in the bāzār of this world.

They are all cheats and swindlers;

Those who sell and buy in this world.

They will never love the world

If they sense its malignancy.

Those who have their eye on their religion and faith 20

Won’t look to this world.

Both young and old are deceitful;

How can you trust the cunning of this world?

The friends of the world are all enemies;

There is no friend in this wide world.


All those who are born depart;

Come and see the destruction of this world.

Those who are dismayed by wells and dizzying heights

Don’t walk the way of the world.

As quickly as he gains the world, he loses it;

I have seen the speed of this world.

For a moment it is spring, then suddenly it’s autumn;

The spring of this world is not forever.

Even if propped up with thousands of supports,

The wall of this world is without foundation.

If you cover yourself with a fort of steel;

Consider the fort of this world as glass.

As shadows move in front of the sun,

The world is forever changing.

Do not expect it to improve; 30

The world is getting worse day by day.

It cuts a man’s life without scissors;

This very day and night of the world.

After death an account will be demanded from each;

According to the style and size of his life in the world.

As a result, they will become a handful of dust;

The beautiful rosy-cheeked of this world.

They will rise as equals;

The princes and beggars of this world.

It will be a stain on the chest of the miser;

Every darham and dinār of this world.

For the contentment of the content,

Let the rich and their riches be sacrificed.

After death all will be tortured;

The heartless and the cruel of this world.

It is always tens and twenties;

But none fulfills the tally of this world.

At death he’s bathed and wrapped;

Disgraced are the respected of this world.

On the takhta he is stripped of his clothes; 40

The shameful and shy of this world.

The Prophet would have had more wealth than any;

If the world were of any value.

Rahmān cannot elucidate the depravity of this world;

So numerous are the vices of this world.


D 4 Contentment.

Blessed in the world are those

Who have been content in it.

A thousand years of Solomon’s kingdom

Is not equal to a single moment of devotion in this world.

One breath remembering God is better

Than all the world’s wealth in this world.

Those who have really gained in the world

Are those who have worshipped there.

If there is any blessing it is only in obedience and worship;

There is no other blessing in the world.

If there is any toil or hard work; it is for the sake of religion.

No other work is needed in this world.

Besides God, everything else is transient;

Whether sweetness or beauty in this world.

Even if he’s king he must go into the ground;

Such is the honour and respect of this world.

There will not be another more stupid in the world

Than he who seeks leisure in the world.

You want a few moments peace in the world; 10

Who has ever found it in the world?

You build on top of shifting sands,

Whatever building you erect in this world.

No more than the staggering of drunkards

Is a man’s standing in this world.

A person who comes across a dead man’s grave

Has enough advice for this world.

Visit running water and judge your life’s speed by it;

This hint of advice is enough in this world.

These sturdy solid inns and palaces

Will finally be destroyed in this world.

The hungry eyes of fate are not so kind

That they will leave any safe in this world.

All who enter it leave again,

Everyone is but a traveller in this world.

Worship cannot be done on the Day of Judgment;

A man is he who worships in this world.

He will rise up tomorrow with these same qualities;

May no one have bad-character in this world.

That very thing will be his harvest after death; 20

Whatever he has sown in this world.

Though that world cannot be seen in this;

I can see its impression in this world.

On Judgment Day we will not be able to help each other;

I have seen the Judgment Day in this world.

He will be lying safe in the middle of the grave;

Whoever lives unspoiled in this world.

Good deeds make paradise now: piety should be carried out

By anyone wanting heaven in this world.

Good character, good deeds and good manners

Are both heaven and happiness in this world.

Spite makes one’s life a torment;

It should be avoided in this world.

To be civil and respectful to everyone;

This is nobleness in the world.

If anyone desires great prestige;

Justice holds great eminence in this world.

No regret can be carried from this world,

Except for love that was not extended to others.

All the dealings of that world are here; 30

If you are to do any business in the world.

Unless a man’s fate is turned against him,

The truth is not concealed at all in this world.

Treat the good kindly, the bad harshly;

If anyone aspires to sainthood in this world.

God has made saints of those

Who don’t want to associate with this world.

Even if the whole world were to become united;

They won’t change their destiny in this world.

If there is a man in the world, it is he

Who has no concern for this world.

Thus has life passed by Rahmān;

As a single moment spent in this world.