From Qurrah Al-Absar I

Someone asked me to translate a section from Qurrah Al-Absar, a poem about the Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam). After attempting to translate the lines as heroic couplets and then as blank verse, I finally gave up and decided to just translate them in no particular metre. The first selection is below:

(Yes, I realize that pasting an image for Arabic instead of typing it is so pre-2000, but there still isn't a wysiwyg, cross-browser-compatible way of typing up Arabic poetry and it's 2008. I wrote this in Word and did a screen shot. Sorry, OSS and WWW, your Arabic capabilities are pitiful.)

The approximate translation is as follows:

A clarification of his names
And a mention of some of his qualities and praise.

He was the comeliest of creation and most commensurate
In terms of form and character; rather, by my life, better!

You would be wrong to compare him to the full moon
In beauty or to say he is like the sea

In generosity, or to liken him to flowers
In luxury, or if you said he was like time

In resolve. But if you were to reverse the simile
It would be an error, or even nonsense.

From whence does the full moon have the radiance of his cheek?
From whence does time have his fidelity to his pledge?

From whence does the sea have the generosity of his palm?
From whence do flowers have the softness of his sympathy?

By Him Who gave him every beauty
He has no comparison in existence.