Ritha-ul-Andulus (Elegy of Andalus)

Everything declines after reaching perfection, therefore let no man be beguiled by the sweetness of a pleasant life.

These are the matters, as rising and falling empires have seen them: whomsoever a moment has satisfied, many moments have agonized.

And this is the abode that will show pity for no man, nor will any condition remain in its state for it.

It is the passing of the ages that ultimately erodes every link in the chainmail—even though swords and sabers do strike.

It is the ages that unsheathe and expose every sword raised to annihilation, even if the sword were in the hands of the greatest knight, and its sheath the most impenetrable fortress.

Where are the crowned kings of Yemen and where are their jewel-studded diadems and crowns?

Where are [the buildings] Shaddad raised in Iram and where is [the empire] the Sassanians ruled in Persia?

Where is the gold Qarun once possessed; where are `Ad and Shaddad and Qahtan( tribes of Arabia)?

Upon all befell the ultimate thing, to which there is no resistance: Death finished them, and it was as if they never were.

And those who were kings and those which were kingdoms became, like tales of ghosts, recounted by the lethargic and the delirious.

Fate turned against Darius as well as his slayer, and as for Khosro, no vaulted palace offered him protection.

It is as if no cause had ever made the hard easy to bear, and as if Solomon had never ruled the world.

The catastrophes of the age are varied and diverse, and time has its blessings and sorrows,

And to ease the pain of these events, there comes a consolation, but there is no solace for what has befallen Islam.

An irreconcilable event  has overtaken the peninsula; one such that Uhud has collapsed because of it and Thahlan has crumbled!

The evil eye has struck [the peninsula] in its Islam so that [the land] decreased until whole regions and districts were despoiled of [the faith].

Ask Valencia about the state of Murcia, ask what happened to Xàtiva or what happened to Jaén?

What happened to Cordoba, the home of knowledge, for how many a scholar whose rank was once lofty in it?

Where is Seville and the pleasures it contains, as well as its sweet river overflowing and brimming ful?

[They are] capitals which were the pillars of the land, yet when the pillars are gone, it may no longer endure!

The tap of the white ablution fountain weeps in despair, like a passionate lover weeping at the departure of the beloved,

Upon the homes is an abandoned emptiness devoid of Islam, now overrun by the heretics.

In which the mosques have become churches wherein only bells and crosses may be found.

Even the mihrabs weep though they are solid; even the pulpits mourn though they are wooden!

O you who remain heedless though you have a warning in Fate: if you are asleep, Fate is always awake!

And you who walk forth cheerfully while your homeland diverts you [from cares], can a homeland beguile any man after [the loss of] Seville?

This calamity has erased those before it from memory, Though it will not, even at the end of time, be forgotten.

Oh you riders of fine, noble horses, resembling eagles in the arena,

Oh you wielders of razor-sharp Indian blades which seem like fires in the darkness caused by the dust cloud [of war].

Oh you who indulge in luxury and comfort beyond the sea, you who have strength and power in your homelands,

Have you heard anything from the Andalusians? For messengers have set out with news from the people.

How often have the weak, who were being killed and captured while no man stirred, asked our help?

What means this severing of the bonds of Islam on your behalf, when you, 0 worshipers of God, are [our] brethren?

Are there no heroic souls with lofty ambitions; are there no helpers and defenders of righteousness?

0h, who will redress the humiliation of a people who were once powerful, a people whose condition injustice and tyrants have changed?

Yesterday, they were kings in their homes, And now they are slaves in the lands of the heathens.

If you could see them lost and confused, directionless, with no one to guide them, wearing the cloth of shame in its different shades

And were you to behold their weeping when they are sold, the matter would strike fear into your heart, and sorrow would seize you.

Lord have mercy—many a mother and child have been parted as souls and bodies are separated!

And girls, with the beauty  as the sun when it rises, as though she were rubies and pearls,

Are led off to abomination by a barbarian against her will, while their eye were in tears and hearts stunned.

The heart melts with sorrow at such [sights], if there is any Islam or belief in that heart!

The above lines are from "Ritha-ul-Andulus" (Elegy of  Andalus), a famous poem written by Abu Muhammad Salih b. Abi Sharif ar-Rundi. In the poem, the speaker eulogizes the fallen cities one by one, using religious symbols , the menacing threat of the Catholics' invasion. The speaker mentions the minbars and the mihrabs that "mourn" beside the bells and crucifixes in the mosques that were transformed into churches. 

Burhan Fayaz, nine years old Kashmiri boy, is seen crying at the funeral of his friend Amir Nazir, a civilian who was killed during an encounter in Pulwama.