On Birth and Its Timing

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

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

Praise be to God who drove the clouds of desire with the thunder of a banished wind.

The seminal droplets poured into the most secure wombs.

It then passed through the most astonishing states until the moment of emergence.

Then he brought out a child who moved from the rags of the swaddling cloth into the small chest.

And he would pursue his aims if reason did not prevent him.

فَأَعْجَبَ وَالِدَيْهِ فَأَنْفَقَا عَلَيْهِ كُلَّ مَكْنُونٍ،

He amazed his parents, so they spent all their hoarded wealth on him.

فَلَمَّا حَلَّ الْهَدْمُ بِوُدِّ سَارَةَ مَنْعُ الْوِلْدَيْنِ يَجُوزُ،

When destruction befell Sarah's household, preventing the two sons was permissible.

وَأَقْلَعَ أَشْجَارًا بُسْتَانِهَا، وَتَعَطَّلَتْ المَرَاوِزُ،

And someone uprooted the trees of her orchard, and the waterwheels stopped working.

The era of indulgence has ended, and the time for defiance has passed.

And the least trial of the elder is that the pit falls into the jug.

Then the good news came in the December of despair, bringing the hopes of July.

So she began to say, "When will there be confirmation of what has come of the promise, O young man?"

She said, "Alas, will I give birth while I am old?"

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