Introduced to the original text of the Qaseedat-ul-Burdah by Imam El-Buseiri, the initial suggestion was to have it translated from Arabic into English prose by me and then Ayaz Muhammad Khan was to transform it into poetry. Thinking it was an effortless task, I opened a new document, placed the text in front of me, and read the first line. All attempts to try to explain the meaning of the line were aborted, and the new document remained blank with nothing saved on it. Defeated by the text, I announced my irreversible decision of withdrawing from the project. However, Ayaz enticed me into reading it together step by step and giving it a last chance. It was then, that I was initiated into a treasured spiritual and intellectual journey.

For two years, Ayaz and I spent days and days explaining, thinking, searching, and arguing about the endless possibilities that the text is displaying. Most of the time, Ayaz was fatigued after a long day of work, but once I asked him, "Are we translating today?" his face always brightened up in anticipation of something very enjoyable for him. Indeed, it was for both of us. Faced with a seemingly immovable mental block in the beginning of each translation session, one line sometimes took us an hour to translate. Refusing to give in to a painless rendering of meanings into plain English, I repeatedly saw Ayaz struggling with words until he perfected the line in both meaning and form.

Participating in this project was a highly inspiring experience for me. As a translator, Ayaz surprised me with his care for accuracy, avoidance of unnecessary adorned and pretentious phrases despite the temptations of the genre of the poem (eulogy) to do so, and the innate sense of a translator that only comes naturally. Ayaz was translating this challenging text with a spirit of an expert. In no time, he developed this affinity to the text that is delightfully familiar to translators of literary texts. And, having tasted such a delight, I am certain that Ayaz will be intrigued by more and more texts in the future. God bless him.