NOAH, chosen of Allah, afloat on the wildering ocean,

How wilt thou pilot thy barque where never a landmark appears?

Precious the freight that thou bearest, more precious is life than thou knowest,

Knowing not, heedfully steer. See that thou risk not thy charge.

Over this measureless ocean he watches; and, lo! in the distance

Out of the sea, like a foam-fleck, rises the sign of His hand.

Thou too, Ahmad, apostle, and Lord of the realm of existence,

Thou whose command prevails in the world and all things therein,

King of the style and the tablet, to whose all-gathering vision

The world grows small in the vast prospects of aeons to be;

Monarch of all, on the floor of whose palace-portals the angels

Deem it a favour to sit humbly attending thy hest;

Thou whose unbounded grace accords an unlimited pardon

Now to the felon and rebel, now to the slaves of thy house;

Thou on the chart of whose foresight, portraying futurity’s secrets,

Destiny, dumbly concurrent, set her immutable seal,

Who shall approach or attend thee, whose flight on the day of ascension

Measured the heavens, while Gabriel laboured to follow in vain?

Fed by the wealth of thy mercy the earth pours forth her abundance,

Fruitful her plains, and the odours of Paradise breathe in her bowers.