"You have gone grey before your time," they said.
I said, "What greys my head is fear of earthquakes!
Scalps whiten at the wrong you do to Taybah,
and Radwa shakes, and the peaky mountains tremble."
They said, "Black sandals are for Christians."
"Then they follow the example of our Prophet,"
I replied. "But the lot of you are clad in error,
shod in what protects old ladies' feet.
Red sandals are for women of the Maghreb,
and in the East, yellow ones go with a trailing hem."
"Ahmad in black sandals?" they protested.
"This contrarian is sore confused."
"What are the sandals that I wear among you?"
I said. "Now put aside this fruitless strife."
"But Ali dressed in yellow," they said.
I said, "That Companion has naught to do with this."
They said, "Oral and written tradition are in agreement:
The Messenger's sandals were not the black of kohl,"
"Pray tell," I asked, "what color were they, then?"
Their answer to my question was "I do not know."
"Do intelligent people deny what's well established,"
I asked, "trespassing into what they're ignorant of?
I marvel at such claims. They're based entirely
on ways and means of tradition that are depraved.
So many askers have I told about his sandals:
'As to their blackness, my tradition is the road of roads.'"
"Might you enlighten us," they said, "to this tradition?"
I said, "Might I enlighten someone who's not a fool?
Black was the color of the Messenger's sandals." To which,
like ignorami who think they know a thing or two,
they objected, and spoke against the truth in sight of God,
and every mortal being from high to low.
They broke the staff of Islam, rejecting sunna,
and shredded centuries' worth of scholarly consensus.
So I fought them until, fearing for their buttress,
they slunk in shame and repentance to their homes.
Helpless before the rampant lion of knowledge,
they wrung their hands after their overthrow at mine.
For I schooled them in the truth until they learned it,
while they slept on it like idiots who drool.
I schooled them in the truth until they learned it,
whose education was a kitchen mule's.
I schooled them in the truth until they learned it,
who were no better trained than hyena pups.
I schooled them in the truth until they learned it,
and voided the vain humbug of their views.
I strung pearls of truth and knowledge for safekeeping,
and hung it round their necks devoid of truth,
and guided them like lambs without a shepherd
out of straying, clear of error, to the truth.
Verses 22-46 of a 131-verse invective poem (meter: ṭawīl)
by Muhammad Mahmud al-Turkuzi al-Shinqiti,
dated 1307 A.H. (1889-90 CE)
With thanks to Zekeria Ahmed Salem
