Umar Bin Abdul Aziz's Advice To His Son. Poem by Mohammad Younus

O my son, I have heard—
word reaches me as the wind carries whispers—
that you have adorned your hand with a jewel
that gleams with the weight of a thousand dirhams.

But tell me, my son, what is true worth?
Does it lie in the shimmer of a stone,
or in the prayers of a thousand souls
whose hunger aches beneath the sky?

When this letter finds you,
let not your fingers close around vanity.
Unclasp the ring, let it pass from your hand,
and in its place, fill the hands of the empty.
Let the dirhams dissolve into bread,
let the gold become sustenance,
let the luxury turn into mercy.

Then, my son, fashion another ring—
a circle of humility, a band of two dirhams,
its stone not of vain brilliance, but of iron,
dark as the soil from which we rise and to which we return.

And upon it, engrave these words,
a reminder, a truth, a measure of all things:
'God has mercy upon one who knows his true value.'

For riches are fleeting, but wisdom endures.
Gold may adorn the hand,
but righteousness adorns the soul.

MyKoul