Death and Decree

Ibn al-Jawzi, Bustān al-Wāʿiẓīn wa-Riyāḍ al-Sāmiʿīn. Creed. Advanced.

The English is machine-translated. The audio uses AI voices.

Praise be to Allah, who gives respite and does not fear what is missed,

الذي قال للكون كن فواتى،

Who said to the universe, "Be," and it came into existence,

He gathered diverse elements by His power,

And He separated between the two close companions, though they stayed together for long,

And He subdued by His might those who acted arrogantly and insolently,

How many, secure in their pride, did He take by His might overnight,

And how many fortified castles has He demolished, and how many homes has He shaken,

He knows the secrets of hearts and hears all voices,

His kingdom is not diminished by what He grants and gives,

He made the dowry of the Hereafter a final divorce from this worldly life,

And He informed the ascetics that it cannot endure,

He spread out the earth and firmly anchored it with mountains,

And He brought forth pasture and herbage, making it sustenance,

And He made it the dwellings of creation, nurturing them as infants and receiving them as remains,

And He decreed a lifespan and an appointed time for the demise of its inhabitants,

So He decreed life for them and decreed death for them,

No lesson is as profound as the fact that your father and mother have passed away,

Have We not made the earth a repository, for the living and the dead?

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