In veils of anger all the light inside.
THE FIERCEST BEAST
Leave the nightingale, who is pure sound,
Ignore the peacock stamping on the ground
In ecstasy. His colours will waylay
Your mind. Become the tiger stalking prey
Or like the sun, the eagle from the East,
Imitate the planet’s fiercest beast.
BLUSHES
Silent blushes came to my cheek
Till you taught me to sing,
Taught me to speak.
In shyness I would decline
The offer of life’s liquor
Now you ply me with wine
In forbidding solemnity I would pray
Now children make faces
And mock me in their play.
THE COURT
There is the age-old custom among kings
That like the eagle, he should spread his wings
With every feather on his left, a knight,
And scribes and scholars, the feathers on the right.
The Sufi masters have to stand before
Him—mirrors of their souls, the open door
Which lets in light to show kings who they are
O king and courtiers, gaze upon that star!
POWER OF A PRAYER
Do not misuse the power of a prayer
Out of bitter envy, defeat or despair
God will not answer destructive whims
He’ll either ignore it or punish you—beware!
SUFI’S WISDOM
To seek a sufi’s wisdom do not go
To books or ink or pages, rather know
That all his wisdom can be found within
A human heart that is as white as snow.
WOMAN
A woman is of God’s radiance a ray
Not just a thing with which man has his way
When God created Eve, she was to be
The source of all creative interplay.
LIFE
We came from Him, the one who is unseen
From out the garden which is evergreen
And hence to him my friend we must return
This life is but a moment in between.
TONGUE
O tongue, you are the fount of countless gems
The artisan of complex diadems
You are also the spring of all disease
The plague that withers roses on their stems.
LIGHT ON RUBBISH
Behold the light that falls on rubbish heaps
Illuminating filth, and yet it keeps
Its purity. So heaven’s radiance shines
On humanity, which below it creeps.
WISEST SCHOLAR
O wisest Mullah that has ever been
With the longest beard the world has seen
Look in the mirror of the world and time
Behold the timeless barber shaves you clean!
FIND THE ONE
If the touchstone of your heart and head
Can differentiate the gold from lead,
Then lead the way and spread the light
But if it can’t—find one who can instead!
THE FISH-HOOKED LINE
The actions of your body should define
If to the good or bad you do incline
The body is a reel that must obey
The mind that pulls it like a fish-hooked line.
DAVID’S MUSIC
The melodies of David’s lyre could
Melt the hearts of those who understood
But to the faithless and the faithless ear
They were but twanging of strings on wood.
ENMITY OF THE WISE
The Sufi says the enmity of wise
Men is preferable to the honeyed lies
Of the fool, who professes all his love
And pleads his earnestness with vacant sighs.
THE ASS
The ass will through his stubbornness
Run into the wild
His master seeks to bring him back
Like a prodigal child
Not simply because he can get
More labour from the beast
But to prevent him in the wild,
Becoming a tiger’s feast.
CONTRARY
There are those so contrary
They sicken from the cure
So save your stories, Rumi,
For seekers of the pure.
THE BEYOND
Sufi, seek not to understand
The mind or will of he who planned
This universe before which our
Whole world is but a speck of sand.
THE HEART SINGS
So bear my body to the grave, my friends,
But hear my heart whose singing never ends
No time now for your wailing or your tears
My death is not at all what it appears.
The grave is not the sum of life complete
It is the veil of lovers, their retreat
Beyond the compass of logic and mind
Leaving the chain of separateness behind.
You saw the dust settling, now see it rise
Think of me with Him and shut your eyes
Locked beneath the earth my soul is free
To be with Him for all eternity.
SEED
A seed in fertile soil can always grow
A human caught in the eternal flow
Of water, springing from the only source
Believes that life and death will take their course
But this is an illusory belief
The mind has stolen truth, it is a thief
A sinking sun is rising elsewhere too
My grave is but the last door to the new
World which is His abode, it is the place
Beyond the flood where we are face to face.
THE EVIL PLANTER
He who spreads evil
Is one who plants weeds
Don’t waste your words
Don’t sell him rose seeds.
BEAUTY
Whatever comes to beauty
Is beauty’s reward
For a good woman, the good man
For the empty scabbard, a sword.
Children of the light are born
To help us see the way
And they attract each other
Emanating the ray
Of that eternal fire.
The passion of the world
Will only leave some ashes
Weightless, crumbling, curled.
SURROUNDINGS
Beyond Eden’s gate
The horrors lie in wait
Surrounding hell’s fire
Are the things we desire.
THE LOAD
My friend, assist your neighbour with his load
Easing his burden puts you on the road
To heaven’s rest. Biting the bitter skin
Of sugarcane lets out the sweet within.
This world will put you to the test of pain
This is the way of all spiritual gain.
DISGUISE
A veil of madness can disguise a saint
What seems real could be canvas and paint
True sight is not in the eyes but in the heart
Beware of deceptions of both man and art.
MOSES IN THE REEDS
The Mother of Moses fervently feeds
The child she will abandon to the reeds
She puts a future prophet to the test
And tears the crying infant from her breast
She bends over and lets the cradle go
This infant will eventually know
Who he is, the secret of his birth
As we recall the heavens from this earth.
ENVY
Envy is a poison
An illogical distress
The fact your neighbor has more
Doesn’t mean that you have less.
GRAVITY
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God is like gravity
All things fall
Towards him. Homing
To the stall
The scattered pigeons
Will return.
He who can
In a rock discern
The face or form
That it conceals,
He has the skill
Of the sculptor
He reveals
A shape and can hone
The figure from the stone
He has
The gift, of God alone.
ALEPPO
“Does this road lead to Aleppo?”
Your answer can be “yes” or “no”
Your opinion doesn’t make it so
Consult a map before you go!
THE COMPASSIONATE EYE
Many a tear falls
From the compassionate eye
The time has now come for it
To see itself and cry.
CLEANSED
The bough is cleansed as the storm sweeps,
The candle brightens as its wax weeps.
ONENESS
Don’t try to separate
The stem from the root,
Is not the flautist’s breath
But a part of the flute?
HE LISTENS
There are no rules of worship
He will hear
The voice of every heart
That is sincere.
CHILD’S PLAY
Say, “Goo-goo” and “glug-glug”
Or sing a lullaby
To hell with your high intellect
The baby mustn’t cry
So does the Sufi
With no stain of condescension
Bring the essence of Him
To our frail attention.
WILD DOG
Stop the wild dog’s bite with a muzzle
Love is the solution to that eternal puzzle
What is your destiny? What is your duty?
Give way to love, give way to beauty
The trapper seeks the waterfowl in every stream
The form of your beloved, haunts your every dream
If you turn off your reason, switch off the light
Will she step out of your dream?
She might, she might!
TO EACH IS GIVEN
God never gave
His bigger beasts a sting
He gave it to the bee
With an invisible wing
And with the skill of storing
Sweetness in the hive.
The silkworm spins its gossamer
In order to survive
However large, the elephant
Has no such subtle skill
God gives to each his powers
His wonders to fulfill.
NAMES
God taught the earthly Adam
To name all things although
He taught the angels only
What he wanted them to know
PEARLS
You aren’t a single jewel
You’re an ocean of pearls
You can be a planet
Which in its orbit whirls
Around the sun. Or you shall be
An angel and sprout wings
And then come face to face
With the maker of all things.
THROUGH A GLASS
He who looks at wine
Through colored glass
Knows not the color of the wine.
Reflected light must pass
Through the filter of the cup
And yet the wine
Remains what it is.
God’s design
Cannot be filtered
Through the mind
Or through your reason strained,
Through patience and
Surrender only
Can it be attained.
PAINTERS
Greeks from the West and Chinese from the East
Were invited to the Sultan’s great feast
The Sultan being a man of many parts
Was interested in Sport and in the Arts
The rival painters from the East and West
Began to argue about who could best
Do justice to the senses. Who could paint
The truthful artefact that would acquaint
The beholder with Wonder. Painting should
Seduce and teach if it were any good.
“So leave behind your rivalry and start,”
The Sultan said, “to demonstrate your Art.”
He assigned to each group a studio
And challenged each of them in time to show
The skills they boasted. The Chinese asked the king
For a thousand colors. The Greeks asked nothing
But stuff they said they’d use to clean the rust.
Then from their studio out came clouds of dust
Each day. The studios were contiguous and
Were separated by a heavy, bland
Gray curtain. The Sultan did then assign
To both the delegations a deadline.
And finally arrived the judgment day:
The king ordered in turn they should display
What they had done, and so first the Chinese
Unveiled their work; exquisite expertise
Was portrayed on the walls for all to see
The Sultan was impressed and publicly
Rewarded these artists who could portray
The earth, the sky and even winds at play
The painting was an obvious delight
That silenced speech and mesmerized the sight
Of all who gazed upon it. Now the team
Of Greeks were called even though it did seem
That nothing could outclass that Chinese art
The king ordered the curtain drawn apart
And it was done. There was no paint upon
The walls but they were polished and they shone
Like mirrors made of silver, shiny, pale
Reflecting the painting in each detail
Perfectly. The Sultan could see this art
Was like an installation of the heart
Because the pure heart in reflection can
Display the works of God and not of man.
IN HIS WORKS
In his myriad works
Does the maker exist
If you had no fingers
You couldn’t form a fist.
THE MAN WHO CRIED
The man who cried, “O Allah”
Each day in his prayer
Was persuaded by Evil
That God wasn’t really there.
The proof was that every day
He prayed to the Supreme One
And each day didn’t he notice,
That answer came there none?
Hearing this the pious man
Fell into deep despair
And complained to Ezekiel,
“God doesn’t hear my prayer.”
Then Ezekiel said, “Pious one
It’s not that he hasn’t heard
When you call him ‘Allah’
His answer is in that word.”
ROMANCE
It was stories that first gave me
The idea of romance
I kept my young eyes open
Waiting for the trance
That would fall on me, strike me,
Heavenly Cupid’s dart
Till I realized that you
Were already in my heart.
THE DIFFERENCE
Together as one with you I lie awake
Alone, I suffer this relentless ache
Ecstasy and pain, all lovers have seen them
Bless Him that we know the difference between them
THE CAP
A man gave me a cap
You the brain that reasons under it
A man made me a robe
And you the form on which it proudly rests
A man gave me g
old
And you, the sense and hand that counts it
A man gave me a horse
And you, the reins and skill to guide it
A man held up a lamp
Where did I get the eyes to see its light?
A man may bring me sweets
Where comes the devouring hunger and the taste?
Men can give me subsistence
But He alone gives me the life that needs it
Men gift me treasure
You bring true blessings
Men build a house
You, the earth on which it stands
And Yours is the house
In which all are nourished
You were the one who created the gold
You the provider of gifts untold
Yours was the hand that made men generous
Teaching them the gift of giving
Yours is the hand that kneaded clay
And turned it into the world of the living
And then from nothing
The eternal sky
And spread the
Carpet of the earth
You fashioned the
Torches of the stars
And in your image
Gave us birth
So man is a shimmer
Of exaltation
Reasons and Spirit
Are his signs
As over and in
The passing water
The moon reflected
Nightly shines.
WHEN IT IS REVEALED
When that which is now hidden is revealed
To you and beauty draws aside her veil