Lâ ilâha illalâh (x2) Lâ ilâha illalâh Rahmat rabbî mawjûda (x2)
1st version: Lâ –ilâha –illa Llâh (x3) Wal habib rasûl llâh
2nd version: Lâ –ilâha –illa Llâh (x3) Yafna l’abd wa yabqa llâh
3rd and 4th versions: Allâh (x6) Lâ –ilâha –illa Llâh
Charibna ‘alâ dhikril habibi mudâmatan
Sâkirna bihâ min qabli an youkhlaqal karmou
Lahal badrou ka-soun wa hya chamsoun youdîrouhâ
Hilâloun wa kam yabdou idhâ mouzzijat najmou
Wâ lawlâ chadhâhâ mâ htadaytou lî hânihâ
Wâ lawlâ sanâhâ mâ tasawwarahal wahmou
Wa lam youbqi minha ddahrou ghayra houchâchatin
Ka-anna khafâhâ fî soudouri nnouhâ katmou
Fâ -in dhoukkirat filhayyi -asbaha -ahlouhou
Nâchâwâ wa lâ ‘âroun ‘âlayhim wa lâ -ithmou
Wâ min bayni -ahchâ-i ddinâni tasâ’adat
Wa lam yabqa minhâ fil haqiqatilla -ismou
Wâ in khatarat yawman ‘alâ khâtiri mri-in
Aqâmat bihil -afrâhou wartahalalhammou
Wâ law nadara nnadmânou khatmâ inâ-ihâ
Lâ -askârahoum min dounihâ dhâlikal khatmou
Wâ law nadahou minhâ tarâ qabra mayyitin
Lâ’adat îlayhil rrouhou wantâ’achal jismou
Wâ law tarahoulî fi fay-î hâ-itî karmîhâ
‘Alîlan wa qad achfâ lâ fârâqahoussouqmou
Wâ law qarrabou min hânihâ mouq’adan machâ
Wa tantiqou min dhikrâ madâqâtihal boukmou
Wâ law ‘abâqat fî chcharqi -anfâsou tîbihâ
Wâ fil gharbi mazkoumoun lâ’âda lahou chchammou
Wâ law touliyat sirran ‘alâ abkama ghadâ
Bâsîran wâ min râwîqîhâ tasma’ou ssoummou
Translation
We drank to the remembrance of the Beloved a wine with which we were drunk before the vine was created.
The full moon is its glass; and it is a sun passed round by a crescent. How many stars shine forth when it is mixed!
Without its fragrance, I would not have found the way to its taverns. Without its radiance, the imagination could not conceive it.
Time has preserved so little of it that it is like a secret hidden deep within the breasts.
If its name is mentioned in the tribe, that people becomes drunk without dishonour and without sin.
It has risen little by little from the depths of the vessels, and in truth nothing remains of it but the name.
Should it come one day to a man’s mind, joy takes hold of him and sorrow departs.
The mere sight of the seal set upon the vessels is enough to make the companions fall into drunkenness.
If they sprinkled the earth of a tomb with such a wine, the dead man would recover his soul and his body would be revived.
Lying in the shade of the wall of its vineyard, the sick man already in his death throes would at once regain his strength.
Near its taverns, the paralysed man walks and the mute begin to speak at the memory of its savour.
If the breaths of its fragrance are exhaled in the East, a man deprived of the sense of smell becomes, in the West, able to perceive them.
He who holds the cup, his palm dyed with this wine, will not go astray in the night; he holds a star in his hand.
One born blind who received it into his heart would at once recover his sight. The rustle of its strainer makes the deaf hear.
If, in a troop of horsemen heading for the land that gives it birth, someone is stung by a venomous creature, the poison does him no harm.
If the enchanter traces the letters of its name on the forehead of one possessed, these characters heal him.
Embroidered on the standard of the army, this name intoxicates all who march beneath the standard.
It refines the character of the companions, and through it those who have no reason are led on the path of reason.
He whose hand has never known largesse becomes generous, and he who had no greatness of soul learns to restrain himself, even in anger.
If the most foolish of men could kiss the lid of its ewer, he would come to understand the meaning of its perfections.
They say to me: “Describe it, you who are so well informed of its qualities.” Yes, in truth, I know how to describe it.
It is a limpidity and it is not water, it is a fluidity and it is not air, it is a light without fire and a spirit without body.
Its word eternally pre-existed all existing things, when there were neither forms nor images.
It is through it that all things here subsist, but they veil it wisely from whoever does not understand.
In it my spirit became so lost that the two of them mingled intimately; but it is not a body that has entered a body.
Wine and not vine: I have Adam for father, vine and not wine: its mother is my mother.
The purity of the vessels, in truth, comes from the purity of the ideas; and the ideas, it is it that makes them grow.
A distinction has been made, but the whole is one, our spirits are the wine and our bodies the vine.
Before it there is no “before”, and after it there is no “after”; the beginning of the ages was the seal of its existence.
Before time was, it was beneath the press. The testament of our father came only after it; it is like an orphan.
Such are the beauties that inspire harmonious prose and singing verse in its praise.
He who does not yet know it rejoices to hear it mentioned, as the lover of Nou’m rejoices to hear the name of Nou’m.
They said: “You sinned in drinking it.” No indeed, I have drunk only what I would have been guilty of denying myself.
Happy the people of the monastery! How drunk they became on this wine! And yet they did not drink it, but they had the intention of drinking it.
Before my puberty, I knew its intoxication; it will still be in me when my bones are dust.
Take it pure, this wine, or mix it only with the saliva of the Beloved; any other mixture would be sinful.
It is at your disposal in the taverns; go and take it in all its splendour. How good it is to drink it to the sound of music!
For nowhere else does it dwell with sadness, just as sorrows and concerts never dwell together.
If you become drunk on this wine, be it for the space of a single hour, time will be your docile slave and you will have power.
He has not lived here below who has lived without drunkenness, and he has no reason who has not died of his drunkenness.
Let him weep for himself, he who has wasted his life without taking his share of it.
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From the French translation by Emile Dermenghem.
