For you, the City of Prayer, I pray

For you, the Most Splendid of Homes, the Flower of All Cities,

O Quds! O Quds! O Quds, O City of Prayer, I pray [1]

Our eyes travel to you every day, (they travel every day,)

rounding the colonnades of the temples,

embracing the ancient churches,

and wiping off the sadness from the mosques

O night of the Isrā’, [2] O passageway of those who ascended to heaven, [3]

Our eyes travel to you every day, and I pray

The child is in the cave with his mother Maryam, two faces crying, they cry [4]

for those who were driven away!

For the children without homes!

For those who resisted and were martyred in their doorways!

As peace was martyred in the homeland of peace

and justice fell in doorways!

When the Holy City toppled,

love retreated, and war took the hearts of the world for its home

The child is in the cave with his mother Maryam, two faces crying, and I pray

Shining fury is coming, and I have every faith

Shining fury is coming, I will pass through the grief

From every direction, coming! With terrible steeds, coming!

Like the face of God the Omnipresent, coming, coming, coming!

The gate to our city will not be closed, for I am going there to pray

I will knock on the gates, and I will open the gates,

and you will wash, O River Jordan, my face with holy waters

and you will erase, O River Jordan, the barbaric footprints

Shining fury is coming with terrible steeds, coming,

and it will defeat the oppressor

It’s our house, and the Quds is ours!

And by our hands we will restore the splendor of the Quds!

By our hands peace is coming to the Quds!

Peace for the Quds! Coming!

[1] The Quds (lit. “The Holy”) is the name of Jerusalem in Arabic

[2] The Isrā’ is the Prophet Muhammad’s night journey before the Miʿrāj

[3] This references the Miʿrāj, when Muhammad ascended into heaven and met seven prophets and God; one reason why this event is important is that God agreed to lower the number of required ritual prayers from fifty to five (each of which God will reward tenfold)

[4] Maryam is Mary’s name in Arabic