September 4, 2010
يا آل أحمد أنتم الأمراءُ * والسادة الأمجاد والنقباءُ
وسراجكم طه المنير وأنتمُ * من نوره والكون والأشياء
أسماؤكم بالوحي ليست مثل من * سمّاهم الأجداد والآباء
.
Oh house of Ahmad, you are the leaders,
the glorious masters, the chiefs
Your sun is TaHa the luminous and you,
are from his light, and so is the universe
Your names came by revelation, not like the ones
who were named by their fathers and grandfathers
.
- From a poem by Shaykh Saleh al-Ja’fari, may Allah please him and be pleased with him
nuruddinzangi
September 5th, 2010 at 2:05 am
This is very beautiful ma sha Allah. I’m just interested in the choice of translating الأمراء as “leaders” instead of “princes” and سراجكم as “your sun” rather than “your lantern” – I know literal isn’t always best, I’m just curious about the choice here.
Anyway, awesome stuff.
September 5th, 2010 at 6:19 am
well umaraa literally means “commanders” or “leaders”, but has now come to mean princes. i didnt know which one to go for, so went for the original, because a “prince” is not necessarily the highest in command, especially in the modern sense, whereas the “amir” could mean the highest authority, such as “amir al- mu’mineen”.
as for siraj, though originally meaning lantern, the Qur’an uses the word to describe the sun, and many sufis use it in the sense of sun, and that’s what came to my mind when translating, because it is saying that all things are created from his light, salla Allahu alayhi wa Alihi wa sallam, so it is more fitting to think of him in this image as a sun, illuminating the whole universe, rather than a lantern whose job is to illuminate in the darkness in the night time on earth.
also because “you are from his light” reminded me of this imagery or simile made by the shaykh elsewhere in explaining the hadith: “Husayn is from me, and I am from Husayn.”
The shaykh says:
He, salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam, is like the sun. And “Husayn is from me” means: A ray that shone to the universe from the sun. And the meaning of “and I am from Husayn” is: I am connected to al-Husayn like the sun is connected to its rays, and this applies to all his Ahlul Bayt, radi Allahu anhum, because they are connected to him, salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam, as the rays of the sun are connected to the sun.
September 5th, 2010 at 6:44 am
Salam wa aliakum brother!
Beautiful poem. I feel as if part of this verse is also a rebuttal to those who de-value the House of Ahmed pbuh …
“Your names came by revelation, not like the ones
who were named by their fathers and grandfathers”
September 5th, 2010 at 7:05 am
wa alaykum assalam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu!
hmm yes that is true.
September 12th, 2010 at 12:37 am
Jazakum Allah kheir for the response. Ma sha Allah, I do agree with the idea of the ‘sun’ as opposed to ‘lantern’ and thank you for the explanation about prince/leaders. When I was just curious about the thought process behind the translating
, I like thinking about different possibilities. Arabic is so beautiful, elegant and compact, and each word is loaded with so many dimensions sub7an Allah. And something like these simple few lines contain so much spiritual depth and dimension in meaning that translating is always a challenge. (As all poetry is in general I guess). But yeh, in a nutshell, that’s a very cool translation!