Poem: The Balfour Declaration (November 2, 1917)

The usurpers stripped rights and sold them outright,

Letting the land of Al-A’la be lost and swept away.

The Prophet’s ascension, the purest of messengers, to the heavens—

Can depravity now ravage the justice of these sacred lands?!

Noble Palestine was the battlefield of Islam,

Where its revered heritage endures.

Today, it lies prostrate in its pain,

In a trial where sorrow is widespread.

Colonizers “donated” our lands,

As if they were their sealed and owned property.

Why did they not purify the soil of their own country

From the grasping usurpers? Their way is forgery.

A conspiracy revealed its deceitful cunning

In the unjust plan of partition.

With malice and forgery, their deception took hold,

And through terror, villages and homes were lost.

They are like snakes in their vile deeds,

Biting and poisoning wherever they go.

They control others with their oppression.

Woe! Indeed, the abode of the wrongdoers is the Fire.

Oh, the baseness, cowardice, and filth!

They possess nothing, nor do they have any authority.

With the guarantee of an unjust, arbitrary promise,

Its issuance harbors malice and evil.

Palestine, the victim, was plundered by force,

With a stab dividing its very core.

The land has been a waqf since the era of a Caliph

Who fulfilled his covenants, and his covenant was honored.

From then on, the Jews gained a foothold

In a state whose charter is destruction.

The noble people were scattered, and their bodies torn apart,

As arrogance dominated them.

The enemies gained control over its foundations,

But wait for the day when falsehood is erased.

For the land is the land of Muslims, and no other

Has any right to its pure soil.

May God bless the Chosen Prophet,

And may fragrance bloom upon His blessings.

The Most Merciful took Him to the Farthest Mosque,

For Him are the sublime miracles and the light.

Poem by: Nada Al-Sayed Yousef Al-Rifai