The souls of infatuates are sick for desire
& the lover's condition doesn’t alter;

the tears of the lover, upon seeing his love,
rush down his cheek -- one after the other:

who's kin to love isn’t freed by a glance,
but, every day, he's scolded or seeks more.

Grieved, distracted, starved, & enfeebled,
he can’t navigate a way, or get a lick of slumber.

Qays ibn al-Mulawwah

 ***

انفس العاشقون مرضى
بلاء المحب لا يتفضى

عبرات المحب كيف تراها
بعضها يستحث في الخد بعضا

ليس يخلو اخو الهوى ان تراه
كل يوم يلام او يترضى

باكيا ساهىا نحيلا ذليلا
ليس يهدا و ليس يطعم غمضا

قيس بن الملوح

She is wine in beauty, like her spit is wine;
her delicacy, too, is tinged by wine: 

three wines are joined in her, but from one
a drunkard exceeds drunkenness.

Qays ibn al-Mulawwah


هي الخمر في حسن و كالخمر ريقها
و رقة ذاك اللون في رقة الخمر

و قد جمعت منها خمور ثلالثة
و في واحد سكر يزيد السكر

قيس بن الملوح

Mawqif of Choice

He stopped me at Choice & said: “All of them are sick.”

“Behold, the doctor enters upon them day & night. I address them with the doctor’s tongue & they know that it's I who speaks to them, but they promise diet for the doctor, not for me.”

“They were in my hand, so I turned them to my hand & didn’t restore them to the hand in which they were."

“When you see fire, fall in it & don’t flee: if you fall in it, it will be slaked; if you flee from it, it will seek you out & scorch you.”

“I light the fire with my second hand.”

“You must break habit. But when you break habit, you lose manners.”

“Your prayer belongs to that which stops you or propels you. Your intention belongs to that which talks to you or you talk to.”

“There’s no door or way to me.”

 “When I speak, speak. When I’m silent, silence.”

“Go to the barren wilderness & sit solitary, until I see you.  For when I do, I’ll ascend from earth to heaven with you. I won’t conceal myself from you.”

“If the call of my people doesn’t accompany you through all this, you’ve erred.”

“If you’re everything I want, weep to yourself & call out to me; I’ll protect you from the companion’s evil.”

“If you're only something I want, you straddle danger, & even a pupil’s movement will harm you.”

“I’ve created all of you. What do you wish?”
I saw the barricade encircle me & saw Him laughing from it.

He said: "This is the station of my people & none laughs in it but me.”

“I’ve made as many doors as creations, in the barricade & planted a tree & a cool spring at each door. I made you thirst. If you depart, I won’t restore you to the station or let you drink its water.”

“Sleep to see me & you will see; wake to see yourself & you won’t see me.”

“When you find me with the liar, don’t remember him with me. When you find me with the sincere, remember him with me.”

“I must make myself known to you & this making known is a trial; I don’t stop. I’m the source of the trial. I love it in you. I manifested it for you. I loathe it in you. Gnosis of the trial is trial. Ignorance of the trial is trial.”

“Remember me as a child does; call out to me as a woman would.”

“You’re no slave of mine if you tell men of yourself or yours. But when you come to me, it’s as if everything that happened didn't.”

al Niffari

***

موقف الاختيار

أوقفني في الاختيار وقال لي كلهم مرضى

وقال لي هو ذا يدخل الطب عليهم بالغداة والعشي وأخاطبهم أنا على ألسنة الطب ويعلمون أنني أنا أكلمهم ويعدون الطب بالحمية ولا يعدوني

وقال لي كانوا في يدي فقلبتهم إلى يدي وليس أردهم إلى اليد التي كانوا فيها

وقال لي إذا رأيت النار فقع فيها ولا تهرب فإنك إن وقعت فيها أنطقت وإن هربت منها طلبتك وأحرقتك

وقال لي أنا أوقد النار باليد الثانية

وقال لي لابد أن تتحرك عادة فإذا تحركت عادة فما لك أدب

وقال لي صلوتك لما يوقفك أو يعجلك وقصدك لما يحادثك أو تحادثه

وقال لي ما لي باب ولا طريق

وقال لي إذا تكلمت فتكلم وإذا صمت فاصمت

وقال لي اخرج إلى البرية الفارغة واقعد وحدك حتى أراك فإني إذا رأيتك عرجت بك من الأرض إلى السماء ولم أحتجب عنك

وقال لي إن لم تصحبك في هذا كله دعوة عامي تهت

وقال لي إذا كنت كما أريد في كل شيء فابك على نفسك ونادني أعوذ بك من سوء القرين

وقال لي إذا كنت لي كما أريد في بعض الشيء فقد ركبت الخطر وإن تحرك بؤبؤ عينك ضرك

وقال لي كلك خلق فماذا تروم، فرأيت السد قد أحاط بي ورأيته في السد يضحك، وقال هذا منزل أهلي ولا أضحك إلا فيه

وقال لي قد جعلت لك في السد أبواباً بعدد ما خلقت وغرست على كل باب شجرة وعين ماء باردة وأظمأتك وعزتي لئن خرجت لا رددتك إلى منزل أهلي ولا سقيتك من الماء

وقال لي نم لتراني فإنك تراني، واستيقظ لتراك فإنك لن تراني

وقال لي إذا وجدتني عند الكذاب فلا تذكره بي، وإذا وجدتني عند المخلص فذكره بي

وقال لي لا بد من أن أتعرف إليك وتعرفي إليك بلاء، أنا لا أزول أنا أصل البلاء أحببت فيك البلاء أظهرت لك البلاء كرهت منك البلاء معرفتك بالبلاء بلاء إنكارك للبلاء بلاء

وقال لي اذكرني كما يذكرني الطفل وادعني كما تدعوني المرأة

وقال لي لا تكون لي عبداً وأنت تخبر الناس بم أو بما منك فإذا جئت إلى فكأن الذي جرى كله لم يكن.

النفري

Mawqif of Who Are You & Who Am I

He stopped me & said: “Who are you & who am I?” I saw the sun, the moon, the stars, & all the lights.

He said: “No light remains in my sea’s current but what you’ve seen.” Everything approached me until there was nothing; & kissed me between the eyes, & greeted me, & stopped in shadow.

He said: “You know me, but I don’t know you.” I saw His all cleaved to my garb & not to me.” He said: “This is my worship.” My garb bent down & I did not; & when it bent, He said “who am I?” Then sun & moon darkened, & stars fell, & lights extinguished, & all was wrapped in dark but Him.

My eyes didn’t see. My ears didn’t hear. My sense was nullified. Everything uttered, & said Allahu akbar. Everything approached me carrying a sword. He said: “Flee” & I said “where?” He said “Fall into the dark.” So I fell, & beheld myself. He said: “You’ll behold none other than yourself forever &, never leave the dark. When I oust you from it, I’ll see you for myself & you’ll see me. When you finally see me, you’ll be further from me than all that is far.”

al Niffari

***

موقف من أنت ومن أنا

أوقفني وقال لي من أنت ومن أنا، فرأيت الشمس والقمر والنجوم وجميع الأنوار.

وقال لي ما بقي نور في مجري بحري إلا وقد رأيته، وجاءني كل شيء حتى لم يبق شيء فقبل بين عيني وسلم علي ووقف في الظل.

وقال لي تعرفني ولا أعرفك، فرأيته كله يتعلق بثوبي ولا يتعلق بي، وقال هذه عبادتي، ومال ثوبي وما ملت فلما مال ثوبي قال لي من أنا، فكسفت الشمس والقمر وسقطت النجوم وخمدت الأنوار وغشيت الظلمة كل شيء سواه ولم تر عيني ولم تسمع أذني وبطل حسي، ونطق كل شيء فقال الله أكبر، وجاءني كل شيء وفي يده حربة، فقال لي اهرب، فقلت إلى أين، فقال قع في الظلمة، فوقعت في الظلمة فأبصرت نفسي، فقال لي لا تبصر غيرك أبداً ولا تخرج من الظلمة أبداً فإذا أخرجتك منها أريتك نفسي فرأيتني وإذا رأيتني فأنت أبعد الأبعدين.

النفري

Crooked for you for the straightest
way leaves my sun lacked I lay

blind for my eyes won't let their lids
close upon your face growing

dark and everywhere as one
lunatic said to another lunatic

Dhikr

Put your mouth on this inch
of wool while I vanish, for the word

is brief, and leaves
nothing but an itch behind.

Find your free hand to that part
of throat that beats and repeat

after me: the heart is a bass
and the blood a hook that pulls

it out; la la. We feel homesick
in our skin; repulsed, as if

there stood some direction towards
which we could go instead.  Al qalb

yaqlab. Dear Lord, we itch, like well
tailored animals, for an inner

cilia, and vomit wool
-strokedly and ecstatic. 

As al Khidr said to Musa: cough it up. 

As a Sufi said to a poet: unlearn your thirst, for it doesn't lead to water.

As an Akhmed said to an Ahmed: understand your tongue is mine.

As the inspect said to the suspect: unclothe your rhetoric & let the sorest parts of our language touch. 

As the Hallaj said the executioner: one demand -- moths.

As the flame said to Allah: wondrous that something you wrote could find itself on someone's skin.

As Allah said to himself: unify. Thus all was all & wahid was wahid.

Sufi proof:

If you let your Anglish play sequences of syllables, it will land upon something unutterable. There, the names of Godallah are endlessly repeated and profaned without protest; since these words are anglicized, they can't say anything. In the meekness of these stupid words, the Lord is gratified and good. But within the length of this sentence lies the obscene spell that can make Him show himself. Recitation of the script is limited to one who doesn't choke: a lungless, throatless body some say is a Sufi and others say a fish.

Iblis didn't bend an inch for that
which wasn't his One; he said uh uh,

so his Love gave him what he brought
upon himself, standing up.

Hallaj:
If you disfigure the outer Sufi, the inner one is freed; a shattered mirror's image severed from the body it reflects.

Adhem:
What a shattered mirror reflects is violence; the body severed from itself. Ya akhi, the surface shatters depth like an air. 

Hallaj:
When you lost depth, you were left with surface. When you lost surface, you were left with sound. God concentrates himself upon all particles, until they play; the Sufi's ear is filled with singing.

Adhem:
Do you hear me?

Hallaj:
I hear the fire that you carry like a rhyme. It speaks on your behalf.

Adhem:
I've marred my outside & become a mirror. I've burned myself in the name of an out, now what?

Hallaj:
Concentrate upon fire until the ghosts of flames dance on your skin. Explode, like a compressed atom of God.

Adhem:
Ahem.

The strangeness this poem exhibits is its music: watch it break to pieces as it shoots towards somewhere like a body spiraling through atmosphere. Or, more grounded: the poem is an air that dangles over earth as if it resided there -- a voice saying "look more like what I speak, " while the earth drifts, stubbornly, by.

Ya Musa, I want to hit you where your blood hasn't reached; a river pain, a rock pain. Strike you so your blood springs towards things like another heart; you who're stranger to my word.

***

Al Khidr says nothing. It's Musa who believes his lesson music. 

He saw no grounding in his lesson, so he called it unfounded. 

He found his lesson unfounded, so he dubbed it music.  

There's a piece of us in words; we bury it in them like the lung we hope will wgrow, will wblow again.

Tawasin of Clarity

The truth is particular; its paths are narrow. In it, howling fires burn; beside it, deep deserts span -- the stranger travels them & tells others of the forty stations (maqamat) he meets along the way. Such as:

manners (adab), awe (rahab), fatigue (nasab), search (talab), wonder (‘ajab), ruin (‘atab), rapture (tarab), ravenousness (sharah), pureness (nazah), clarity (safa’), sincerity (sidq), company (rifq), emancipation (litq), embarking (taswih), rest (tarwih), providing, (tamani), witnessing (shuhud), existence (wujud), enumeration (‘add), labor (kada), restoration (rada), extension (imtidad), self-reliance (‘itadad), isolation (infirad), obedience (inqiyad), attraction (murad), reflection (tadabbur), presence (hudur), exercise (riyada), circumspection (hiyata), study (iftiqad), resistence (istilad), consideration (tadabbur), perplexity (tahayyur), contemplation (tafakkur), patience (tasabbur), interpretion (ta’abbur), refusal (rafd), criticism (naqd), care (ri’aya), guidance (hidaya), beginning (bidaya) In beginning is the station for the people of clarity (safa) & mysticism (sufwaya). For each station there’s a principle -- known and unknown.

He entered the desert, then conquered it, & passed though it. He didn’t belong to the lagging people of the mountains & the plains. “When Musa fulfilled the term” (28:29), he left his people to become a kin to truth. But he was satisfied with tales deprived of vision. There was a cleft (farqan) between him from the best of humankind; he said: “perhaps I’ll bring you some word” (28:29). If the guided one was satisfied with tales, how is the seeker not with the sign? At the Burning Bush, he didn’t hear the bush, or what appeared before his eyes. My form is like that Bush; these are His words, so they are the truth -- the truth is a creation. Reject the created world, so you may be Him or He you, regarding the truth. “I” is the modifier, & the modifier is modified; the modifier is with truth, so how is it modified? The True says to him: “You guide towards the proof, not the proven; I am the proof’s proof.”

The True conveyed me to the truth;
there is my secret & this is the way.

My secret is witness without my;
there is my secret & this is the way.

[The True spoke unto my heart; with knowledge of my tongue. He drew me in through distance & made me a Chosen One.]

- al Hallaj

***

الحقيقة دقيقة، طرقها مضيقة، فيها نيران شهيقة ودونها مفاوز، عميقة، الغريب سلكها يخبر عن قطع مقامات الأربعين مثل :
مقام الأدب، والرهب، والسبب والطلب، والعجب، والعطب، والطرب، والشره، والنزه، والصفاء، والصدق، والرفق، والعتق، والتسويح، والترويح، والتماني، والشهود، والوجود، والعد، والكد، والرد، والامتداد، والاعتداد، والانفراد، والانقياد، والمراد، والشهود، والحضور، والرياضة، والحياطة، والافتقاد، والاصطلاد، والتدبر، والتحير، والتفكر، والتصبر، والتغير، والرفض، والنقض، والرعاية، والهداية، والبداية، فهي مقام أهل الصفاء والصفوية.
ولكل مقام معلوم مفهوم وغير مفهوم
ثم دخل على المفازة وحازها، ثم جازها، فما لأهل المهل، مر الجبل والسهل (فلما  قضى موسى الأجل)  ترك الأهل حين صار للحقيقة أهلاً ومع ذلك كله رضي بالخبر دون النظر ليكون فرقاً بينه وبين خير البشر،  فقال: لعلي آتيكم منها بخبر، فإذا رضي المهتدي بالخبر، فكيف لا يكون المقتدي على الأثر ؟ من الشجرة  من جانب الطور ما سمع من شجرة، ما سمع من برزه، ومثلي مثل تلك الشجرة، هذا كلامه، فالحقيقة والحقيقة خليقة، دع الخليقة، لتكون أنت هو، أو هو أنت من حيث الحقيقة، لأني واصف، والموصوف واصف، والواصف بالحقيقة فكيف الموصوف، فقال له الحق (أنت تهدي إلى الدليل لا إلى المدلول، وأنا دليل الدليل). [من مخلع البسيط]
صيرني  الحق بالحقيقة
        هناك سري وذي الطريقه
شاهد سري بلا ضميري
        هناك سري وذي الطريقه
[قال الحق: وحدثني عن قلبي، ومن علم بلساني، وقربني له بعد بعدي وجعلني من الخواص واصطفاني]

الحلاج

Hallaj:

As the moth once told his sect: "I've got nothing in me but" body; fire for the it I'm not satisfied by. An air resides, therein -- pursued by light like a mirror. To the moth, the space between himself & the flame is a sea of distances, carrying him back to nowhere --

Adhem:

Our Lords trade like for like,
over oceans; in New

England, for example,
where the scent of fire

gives body to the autumn air, one'll
also finds places to disappear

insha' Allah. Praise be to Him who started all
creation, & then repeated it; like someone

on a podium once said: he "who
holds you over a pit," as if upon

a thread, "keeps you from"
terror; fire; ire; err.  O, O.

Mystical writing

Adhem: 

Reality parts before the mystic. In the instant of truth, no characteristic asserts itself more strongly than the artificiality of the experience. For if this experience reveals anything worth while to the mystic, it requires a sense of its own making in order to distinguish itself from the mundane. While the former testifies to the particular aspects of its own made-ness (whether it be pieced together by God or generated by the mystic himself), the latter does not contain any sense of sequence; only accident. The former explains why mystic writers spend so much attention on elaborate systems of signs and letters; these are divine sequences stripped down to the particles of signification. To bow down before an order that has no conceivable truth outside that which the Creator holds secret – this is the first task of the mystic. The second is to do the impossible work of translation; he shares the burden of proof with God. Hallaj differentiates the man who can tell of his experience, with one who is consumed by it. He wrote his book on burning parchment to reveal the difference between the duration of fire and the duration of God. He said to his companions: "Look not to me, but to fire; this body is the shadow of what glows & is destroyed there."

The Lord began creation, then repeated it.

Naked

after Burroughs

The mouth is parted from the sphincter in name; but to the illiterate, the body is only an extension of either. Mouthly, a man is as good as his word: sphincterly, a tear where're he sits. A man is put together & torn apart each moment.

Sphinx-like, one man bows down before the throne he earned; the other takes his place on it. It is difficult to tell which is led by the mouth, & which by the sphincter.

Tawasin of the Prophetic Lamp

From the Light of the Unseen arose a lamp. It appeared & returned – reigning; its light outgleamed all other lamps -- a moon among moons beaming, a star whose sign was housed within Empyrean. The True named him “Illiterate,” for the aim of his intention & “Forbidden,” for the greatness of his gift & “Situated [makkan],” for the nearness of his home to Him.

He bared his heart & raised his power – he imposed his rule and manifested his moon. His lamp showed light from Magnanimity’s mouth.

He related nothing but that which his eye had seen into the heart of. He paved no path, but that which was plain for truth. He was present (before the True), so he conveyed His Presence.  He saw, so spoke. He was sent as guide, so he set limits.

No one could discern the depth of his achievement, save the sincere, who makes himself agreeable with him & cleaves to him, so between them there would no longer be a rift.

No Gnostic knows this, save he who is ignorant of His Attribute: “Those to whom We have given the Book, who recognize their sons, even though a part of them knowingly conceals the truth.”

Prophetic lights sprouted from his light, their lights, from his lights, manifested; there is no light more light, more bare, & more aged than age, than the light alighted by the Lord of Generosity.

His intention preceded all intentions, His existence preexisted Nothingness, His name was word before the Pen;

Since he preceded nations, there was never anyone on, beyond, below horizon, more graceful, nobler, wiser, more just & kinder, more Godly fearing & more sympathetic than the holder of his rank. He is the Master of Creation & that his name (the most praised, AHMD): his quality is singular, his command is certainty, his essence is excellence, his attribute is glory, his aspiration is unmatchable. .

O wonder! How manifest, how visible, how great, how famous, how brilliant, how powerful, how penetrating another there is naught. He was and is & known before beginnings, before beings. He was and is & there before Before and after After – before substances and qualities. His substance is clear, his speech prophetic. His knowledge is exalted, his tongue is Arabic. His tribe is “neither East nor West”: his lineage is patriarchal, his mission is conciliation. His title is Illiterate. He brought vision through his signs to seeing eyes – through him the mysteries were recognized.  .

The True made him speak and the Proof substantiated him. The True sent him forth as the Proven and the Proof.

It's him who cleared the rust from the shackled heart.

It’s him who carried forth the ancient word, unconditioned & unuttered & unfettered but united indivisibly to Him. It's him who announced the end of The Ends, and the ends of The End.

He lifted the cloud and pointed to the Sacred House, perfect & gallant. It’s him who was brought out to break the idols & was sent against the slander and the sin of man.

Above him flashed a cloud & below him a bolt – announcing light & rain & growth. The bulk of knowledge is nothing but a volume in His sea. The whole of wisdom is no greater than a handful from His stream. The ages are an hour to His time.

The True is with him & with him is the truth. He's the first link & the last among the prophets, inward he bears truth & outward gnosis.

No learned man has ever reached his knowledge & no wise man ever proved his understanding.

The True did not submit His truth to His creation; because he's him & he is he & him is him.

Nothing escaped the eM of MHMD (Muhammad) & no one entered the Ha -- his second eM. The first eM is his Dee. His Dee is his duration. His eM is his mark. His Ha is his habitual state, which is his second M.

The True manifested his speech & deepened his sign & revealed his proof. He sent the furqan down to him & attuned his tongue, making that which dwells deep in him glow, hindering all others from imitation. He caused clarity & magnified his glory.

If you shun his law, what direction will you follow, O afflicted? No guide is here: the wisdom of wise men to his wisdom is a sliding heap of sand.

- al Hallaj

Tawasin of Understanding

The understanding of creation doesn’t depend on truth; the truth doesn’t depend on creation. Thoughts are dependencies; the dependencies of creation doesn’t relate to truths. Meeting with the knowledge of truth is difficult; so what’s to be done with the truth of truth? The True is behind the truth, which is below the True.

The moth flutters, till daybreak, ‘round the flame, & then returns to friends; he tells them, tenderly, of his state -- reveling in the details with his hunger for more. 

The light of the flame is the knowledge of truth; its heat is the truth of the truth; the meeting with it is the True of truth. The moth wasn’t satisfied with light & heat; he meets the flame with his whole body. His friends, meanwhile, knowing him unsatisfied with tales, expect him to return with a vision. But at that time, he’s utterly consumed --dwindled down & torn apart; devoid of form or body -- name or mark. In what form can he return to them, after what he has become?

In his meeting with vision, he dispensed with tales: whoever meets his eye’s object dispenses with sight.

These meanings do not vindicate the languid, or the transient, or the sinful, or he who seeks security. “As if I’m” is “as if I’m” & it’s as if I’m him or he is me; & you would not long for me, if you were me.

O you uncertain, don’t relate “I’m” with Me; now, or later, or then. Don’t think that I’m Me or that I am or, that I was; though I’m Gnostic & knowing is my state – it’s blemished. Though I’m his, I’m not him.

If you have understood thus, then understand: these meanings were not true to anyone but AHMD, because “Muhammad was a father to no one” save the prophets. He disappeared from men and jinn & closed his eyes to Where until there was no trace of ornament. There was a distance of two bows when he reached the desert of truth’s knowledge; he related from his heart. When he arrived at the truth of the True, his desire fled, so he gave himself to Generousness. After meeting with The True, he returned & said “the outer heart believes, while the hidden heart prostrates.” When he reached the limit’s Limit he said: “I can never praise you as you should be praised.” When he reached the truth of the truth he said: “You are the only that can praise yourself.” He renounced his desire and followed his vocation; “the heart did not fib what it saw” by the Lotus Tree. He did not turn right towards the truth & did not turn left towards the truth of the truth. “His eye strayed not, nor overstepped.”

- al Hallaj

Mawqif of Light

He stopped me in the light & said: “I don’t constrict it or expand it; I don’t fold it or unravel it; I don’t hide it or reveal it.”

He said: “O light: be constricted & expanded, be enfolded & unraveled, be hidden & revealed,” so it did. I saw the realities of “I don’t constrict” & “O light: be constricted.”

He said: “I give no more to you than this expression.” I turned away & saw to seek his affirmation was a disobedience.

He said: “Obey me. None obey me. When you obey me, you no longer do.” I saw his true oneness & his true ordinance.

He said: “Cast your gaze from all of this & upon yourself. When you gaze upon yourself, I don’t affirm it; I pardon it & am indifferent.”

al Niffari

***

موقف نور

  أوقفني في نور وقال لي لا أقبضه ولا أبسطه ولا أطويه ولا أنشره ولا أخفيه ولا أظهره، وقال يا نور انقبض وانبسط وانطو وانتشر وأخف وأظهر، فانقبض وأنبسط وانطوى وانتشر وخفى وظهر و رأيت حقيقة لا أقبض وحقيقة يا نور انقبض

وقال لي ليس اعطيك أكثر من هذه العبارة، فانصرف فرأيت طلب رضاه معصيته فقال لي أطعني فإذا أطعتني فما أطعتني ولا أطاعني أحد، فرأيت الوحدانية الحقيقية والقدرة الحقيقية، فقال غض عن هذا كله وانظر إليك وإذا نظرت إليك لم أرض وأنا أغفر ولا أبالي.

النفري

Diwan

The purpose of this song is to be placed in a file. It has to be -- to be sound. The contents of this song have been made unavailable. Words find their way into its cipher, & leave as names -- no men. To be sound as names, they may be questioned & remembered again.

I speak not of any -glish, but a Day. A day in which the names among you shall gather, like an itch upon your throats. All clots & glots a-sing.

I speak of an Eng. Pardon, an End; time's rhyme with the Begin--

I speak of Angels, men, & the unbecoming way they, who speak solely in names, address us, the purposed nothing.

Mawqif of My Moment’s Come

He stopped me & said: “if you don’t see me, you’re not with me.”

“If you see other than me, you don’t see me.”

“My signal blots the substance of a thing’s substance out; it confirms the thing to be from Him, & not in itself.”

“In you lies that which isn’t changed and doesn’t change.”

“Silence the silent in you, for me; speak the spoken, necessarily.”

“The result of my gaze is found in all things. You transform it, if you address it with your tongue.”

“Set my memory behind your back, or you’ll go back to other than me; there lies no barrier between you & me.”

“My moment’s come; the time for me to bare my face & show my splendor; to join my light with courtyards & what remains behind them; to bend the eyes and hearts towards me. You'll see my rivals love me, & my closest rule; I'll raise thrones for them. I'll release fire, so it won't return; I'll fix my ruined houses, so they’re adorned with true adornment. You'll see my lot surpass all others. I'll gather humankind in joy, so they’re no longer split or shamed. Bring out my Treasure & realize what I’ve made you of my word, my providence, & my height’s nearness. I shall emerge, & the stars will gather 'round me; I’ll bring sun & moon together; I’ll enter every house & when they wish me peace, I’ll wish peace unto them. All of this is from my will, & on my watch, the hour strikes. I am Great & Merciful.”

al Niffari

***

موقف قد جاء وقتي


أوقفني وقال إن لم ترني لم تكن بي.

وقال لي أن رأيت غيري لم ترني.

وقال لي أشارتي في الشيء تمحو معنى المعنى فيه وتثبته منه لا به.

وقال لي فيك ما لا ينصرف ولا يصرف.

وقال لي أصمت لي الصامت منك ينطق الناطق ضرورة.

وقال لي أثر نظري في كل شيء فأن خاطبته على لسانك قلبته.

وقال لي أجعل ذكري وراء ظهرك وإلا رجعت إلى سواي لا حائل بينك وبينه.

وقال لي قد جاء وقتي وأن لي أن أكشف عن وجهي وأظهر سبحاتي ويتصل نوري بالأفنية وما وراءها وتطلع على العيون والقلوب، وترى عدوي يحبني وترى أوليائي يحكمون، فأرفع لهم العروش ويرسلون النار قلا ترجع، وأعمر بيوت الخراب وتتزين بالزينة الحق، وترى فسطي كيف ينفى ما سواه، وأجمع الناس على اليسر فلا يفترقون ولا يذلون، فأستخرج كنزي وتحقق ما أحققتك به من خبري وعدتي وقرب طلوعي، فأني سوف أطلع وتجتمع حولي النجوم، وأجمع بين الشمس والقمر، وأدخل في كل بيت ويسلمون علي وأسلم عليهم، بذلك بأن لي المشيئة وبأذني تقوم الساعة، وأنا العزيز الرحيم.

The story shouldn't be recounted.

In the Qur’an, he’s not given a name – this teacher who allegedly schooled Musa in Patience is simply He Who Dwells Where the Fish Disappears and Waters Meet; a nowhere of intersections & circumstances. Elsewhere, he’s called Al-Khidr, the Green, as if his appearance flashed no longer than the time requisite to observe a single attribute, or as if this greenness swallowed the whole of his appearance. Does such color gain its total appearance from Divine Purity; once touched down upon the Earth, does it just as easily swallow the background with the foreground?

This Green exhibits all the attributes of a stern father or an unsatisfiable teacher – one who asks for unwavering obedience from his student, even while encouraging recklessness. When Musa meets him, Al Khidr already expects impatience from his pupil. He warns him against behaving in the way that’s already been attributed to him. Thus Musa dwells at another intersection – between what he knows and what he’s capable of. The two begin a shadowplay of education, with Musa lagging irrecoverably behind at the start of each practice (each lesson more unexpected than the next). Our Musa’s forced between possession and imitation, and the Khidr between teacher of an unteachable knowledge & the time by which that knowledge comes to reveal itself.

Where the waters meet, he murders me,
this is the first lesson, recorded & to be read again,

We’ve given you lungs unable
to sing, now give us grammar.

We’ve given you violence that you may part
water, now give us sequence.

I left my book behind. Now I am an idiot.
My pen exploded with my name. Now I am a violent man.

Paranoia wants an end it cannot find in any sensible form. Pain for it must be constant, all-encompassing, or else it is the shadow of pain.

Just as fire consumes a person before it puts him to sleep, now that I know I'm not human, I can finally rest.

Mawqif of Do Not Blink

He stopped me & said:

“I manifested everything, then warded off from it, & warded off, by it, from Me."

“When you behold Me establishing everything, I’ve allowed you to meet Me."

“Everything contains a mark, by which it’s part & which it's parted by."

“If you dwell with the establisher, the established won’t stand equal to you."

“When you see an end to Me, the traverse is voided."

“There's no end to Me, until you see Me behind everything."

“My establishment effaces naught; through it or Me. Truly, I’m the arbiter of the knowledge I founded."

“Behold Me & do not blink; that’s the first part of your war for Me."

“Raise your concern on fear; I’ll establish it through attention. Don’t raise it on hope; I’ll raze it when the work’s done."

“When I drive you from names, I announce you My authority.”

al Niffari

***

موقف لا تطرف

أوقفني وقال لي أظهرت كل شيء وأدرأت عنه وأدرأت به عني.

وقال لي إذا نظرت إلي أثبت كل شيء فقد آذنتك بمواصلتي.

وقال لي كل له علامة ينقسم بها وتنقسم به.

وقال لي كن بالمثبت لا يقوم لك الثبت.

وقال لي إذا كان إلي المنتهى سقط المعترض.

وقال لي لا يكون إلي المنتهى حتى تراني من وراء كل شيء.

وقال لي إثباتي لا يمتحي به ولا بي، إني أنا الحكيم المتقن على علم ما وضعت.

وقال لي انظر إلي ولا تطرف يكن ذلك أول جهادك في.

وقال لي ابن أمرك على الخوف أثبته بالهم ولا تبن أمرك على الرجاء أهدمه إذا تكامل العمل.

النفري

Sawf

God wool, spun inward, gathers
what it broke off from; unwearable

monochrome where this green
heart flags as if sailed too far out.

Adhem: How does one have patience with a violent man?
 
Hallaj: You die, so you can be patient again.

Islamist parents see their progeny smitten
by CIA eyes that say that it was written

Particles, ya Musa, are indivisible. We breathe them as we sit here speaking of the True; we've a part in them & know not that we do.

They coat our tongues like a womb-left film; left by whom. Ya Musa, our language searches for a whom; O there. We sing the particles in the name of a smother; in the name of a moth air; in the name of ammo -- fire. Whatsoever we sing for aims there.

O, you of water, what can you know of mater; how the undivided open their mouths to say "I'm there."

Dhikr

What’s said’s said Sayedi
what’s aid to my Lord that

said What Is to unsaid what
till it said What Say You

what’s A to U but a vowel of
a love between a lif & a loof

Mawqif of the Unutterable

He stopped me at the unutterable & said: “Through the unutterable, you join in the utterable.

“If you didn’t witness the unutterable, you’d be left scattered by the utterable."

“The utterable turns you to utterableness; the utterableness is utterance; the utterance is letter; the letter is inflection. The unutterable makes you witness to My Self-Avowal in everything & its sites of gnosis."

“Expression is an inclination; when you witness that which doesn’t change, you don’t slant."

“Utterance turns to ecstasy; ecstasy, through utterance, turns to ecstasy for the uttered."

“Ecstasy for the uttered is disbelief, by definition."

“Don’t hearken to me in the letter & don’t get word of me from it."

“The letter can’t give word of itself, how can it speak of Me?"

“I'm the maker of the letter & the word of it.”

“I'm word of Myself, to whomever I give it.”

“My word shows sign through witnessing; it isn’t found in any other sign & doesn’t show itself through any other form."

“You’ll stay writing as long as you figure & stop when you figure no more."

“When you don’t figure or write, I’ll assign you a portion of illiteracy; for the illiterate prophet doesn’t write or figure."

“Don’t write or intend, don’t figure or examine."

“Intention writes true & false, examination figures taking & leaving."

“He is not of me or my line -- whoso writes the true & false, or figures taking & leaving."

"Every scribe recites his script, and every reciter figures his recitation.”

al Niffari

***

موقف ما لا ينقال

أوقفني في ما لا ينقال وقال لي به تجتمع فيما ينقال.

وقال لي إن لم تشهد ما لا ينقال تشتت بما ينقال.

وقال لي ما ينقال يصرفك إلى القولية والقولية قول والقول حرف والحرف تصريف، وما لا ينقال يشهدك في كل شيء تعرفي إليه ويشهدك من كل شيء مواضع معرفته.

وقال لي العبارة ميل فإذا شهدت ما لا يتغير لم تمل.

وقال لي القول يصرف إلى الوجد والتواجد بالقول يصرف إلى المواجيد بالمقولات.

وقال لي المواجيد بالمقولات كفر على حكم التعريف.

وقال لي لا تسمع في من الحرف ولا تأخذ خبري عن الحرف.

وقال لي الحرف يعجز أن يخبر عن نفسه فكيف يخبر عني.

وقال لي أنا جاعل الحرف والمخبر عنه.

وقال لي أنا المخبر عني لمن أشاء أن أخبره.

وقال لي لإخباري علامة بإشهاد لا توجد بسواه ولا يبدو إخباري إلا فيه.

وقال لي لا تزال تكتب ما دمت تحسب فإذا لم تحسب لم تكتب.

وقال لي إذا لم تحسب ولم تكتب ضربت لك بسهم في الأمية لأن النبي الأمي لا يكتب ولا يحسب.

وقال لي لا تكتب ولا تهم، ولا تحسب ولا تطالع.

وقال لي الهم يكتب الحق والباطل، والمطالعة تحسب الآخذ والترك.

وقال لي ليس مني ولا من نسبتي من كتب الحق والباطل وحسب الآخذ والترك.

وقال لي كل كاتب يقرأ كتابته وكل قارئ يحسب قراءته.

النفري

Upon the land, I stare, as if I stood
behind a glass; looking from Love's Waters,

my eyes occasionally drown from weeping, so I
go blind; sometimes they bare enough for me to see. 

Though no tears pour out from this eye,
it languishes and leaks just the same.

Qays ibn al-Mulawwah


نظرت كأني من وراء زجاجة
إلى الدار من ماء الصبابة أنظر

فعيناي طوراً تغرقان من البكا
فأمشي و طوراً تحسران فأبصر

و ليس الذي يجري من العين ماؤها
و لكنما نفسي تذوب فتقطر

قيس بن المللوح

A wave moved through his vertebrae
leaving an ape behind. The animal

blues got him down 'nough
to ponder on the Lord’s great work & wonder

What do fish worship? Being less
upright than him, do they love flotsam

like heavenly equivalent? Or are their thoughts
bent towards some unbreathable

bottom? Adhem's in it deep; can feel
the pressure of it, too; a bit of bone stuck,

like a fin, out his prostrating back, till
CRACK one day he’ll finally be free.

The only fragments are those that do to their creator what he intended for them. The visual equivalent to this is the self-photograph; with the reluctant look of its subject turned creature, before the lens & the laughter of the image, reveling in its resilience over its assembler.

Yet in the moment of the shot, who’s to say the scene isn’t invisibly touched by the hand of its master? A river wrinkled, a staff blurred mid-motion, a light refracted in the lens's eye; all seem signals of a hand that says, “If I’m no god, then let me hold this image up to one.” For this, too, will be remembered on the Day of Judgment.

"No" said the Sufi to his Love, because
he knew his way was long & lone;

I could once put more words to this
song, now all I've got's a moan, -oan:

noone follows Adhem & he follows none.
Strange. It's as if somewhere

the road went wrong, leaving his sole
Nobody farther than he could say.

God to Niffari: "we're strays for one another."
Let the starving animal among us nay.

Mawqif of That Which Appears

He stopped me at That Which Appears, but I didn’t see Him appear; he could appear concealed & not concealed. Substanceless, He could appear & there would be substance.

He said: “Stop at the inferno.” I saw that that with which He punishes is paradise & that with which He eases paradise is punishing.

He said: “One undivided & impenetrable, everlasting & merciful, is He."

He said: “Stop at the earth & sky.” I saw that which descends upon the earth to be a scheme & that which ascends it was a snare; that that which ascends includes that which descends -- the two summon themselves.

He said: “That which descends is your horse & that which ascends is your journey, so consider what you ride & where you go."

“You descend through distance & ascend through distance; a distance of a length of a length that doesn’t speak."

“How can you be with Me, if you’re caught between descending & ascending?"

“I haven’t brought out any matter from the earth that I assemble Myself though, or any matter from the sky. Only this: I’ve made all matter appear & divided Myself from it. I veiled Myself then I began, assembling Myself. These were the ways; the ways were a trajectory.”

He said: “Stop at paradise.” I saw His manifested objects all assembled there; looking just as they did on earth, behind the veil of matter. I saw that He made naught appear behind this matter, for 'Behind' contained a limit. I saw that He made naught appear so He could stay concealed, & make appear, so substanceless He would be what there was substance for.

He said: “If you dwell on the throne, you’ll remain in flight. If you dwell in recollection, you’ll remain veiled.”

“If any other than Me be your stray, vanquish him."

“If I’m your stray, you err from Me & are bewildered by anyone beside Me."

“Consider -- why haven’t I ever made you my stray, or turned to you?"

“You’re my stray & I’m yours; there's no one absent among us."

“All that shows itself & other than it, through itself, has wound you with itself & other; & it shakes you free from itself & other."

“All that shows you that which is beside itself, & not itself , has schemed against you. All that shows you itself, & not what is beside itself -- you shall see all its luminousness alights."

al Niffari

***

موقف ما يبدو

أوقفني فيما يبدو فيخفي ولا يخفى فيبدو ولا معنى فيكون معنى، وقال لي قف في النار، فرأيته يعذب بها ورأيتها جنة ورأيت ما ينعم به في الجنة هو ما يعذب به في النار.
وقال لي أحد لا يفترق صمد لا ينقسم رحمن هو هو.
وقال لي قف في الأرض والسماء، فرأيت ما ينزل ما ينزل إلى الأرض مكراً وما يصعد منها شركاً ورأيت الذي يصعد هو عما ينزل ورأيت ما ينزل يدعو إلى نفسه ورأيت ما يصعد يدعو إلى نفسه.
وقال لي ينزل مطيتك وما يصعد مسيرك فأنظر ما تركب وأين تقصد.
وقال لي تنزل مسافة تصعد مسافة مسافة بعد بعد لا يحادث.
وقال لي كيف تكون عندي وأنت بين النزول والصعود.
وقال لي ما أخرجت من الأرض عينا جمعت بها علي ولا أنزلت من السماء عيناً جمعت بها علي إنما أبديت كل عين فقسمت بها عني وحجبت عني وحجبت ثم بدأت فجمعت بي وكانت هي الطرق وكانت الطرق جهة.
وقال لي قف في الجنة؛ فرأيته يجمع ما أظهر فيها من العيون كما جمع في الأرض ببدوه من وراء العيون فرأيته يبدو لا من وراء العيون فيكون الوراء ظرفاً ورأيته لا يبدو فيخفي ولا يخفى فيبدو ولا معنى فيكون معنى.
وقال لي إن أقمت في العرش فما بعده فابق فاراً، وإن أقمت في الذكر فما بعده فابق محجوباً.
وقال لي إن كان غيري ضالتك فأظفر بالحرب.
وقال لي إن كانت ضالتك تهت إلا عني وحرت إلا معي.
وقال لي انظر إلي لما جعلتك ضالتي ألم أقبل عليك.
وقال لي أنت ضالتي وأنا ضالتك وما منا من غاب.
وقال لي كلما أراك نفسه وأراك غيره به فقد ربطك به وبغيره ونفضك عنه وعن غيره.
وقال لي ما أراك سواه ولم يرك نفسه فقد مكربك، وما أراكه ولم يرك سواه رأيت كل شيء في نور نورتيه.

النفري
من كتاب المواقف

Mawqif of The Sea

He stopped me at the Sea, where ships sunk & planks floated, then sunk. He said:

“He who sails isn’t saved."
“He risk himself-- whoso throws his body in & doesn’t sail."
“He ruins, whoso sails & doesn’t risk himself."
“In risk there is a shred of rescue.”

Then came the wave, raising up what lay beneath & swelling on the shore.

He said: "The surface of the sea is an unreachable glow, its depth an impossible darkness; between the two are untrustworthy fishes."

“Don’t sail the sea; I veil you by the instrument. Don’t throw yourself in it; I veil you by the act."

“The sea contains edges; which one will harbor you?"

“When you give yourself to the sea, & drown, you’re a creature of it."

“I mislead you, if I lead you to any but Me."

“If you ruin in any other than me, you belong in your ruins."

“This world is for him I’ve turned from it & whom I’ve turned it from; the next one is for him I’ve turned it to & whom I’ve turned to Me.”

al Niffari

***

موقف البحر
أوقفني في البحر فرأيت المراكب تغرق والألواح تسلم، ثم غرقت الألواح، وقال لي لا يسلم من ركب.
وقال لي خاطر من ألقى نفسه ولم يركب.
وقال لي هلك من ركب وما خاطر.
وقال لي في المخاطرة جزء من النجاة، وجاء الموج ورفع ما تحته وساح على الساحل.
وقال لي ظاهر البحر ضوء لا يبلغ، وقعرة ظلمه لا تمكن، وبينهما حيتان لا تستأمن.
وقال لي لا تركب البحر فأحجبك بالآلة، ولا تلق نفسك فيه فأحجبك به.
وقال لي في البحر حدود أيها يقلك.
وقال لي إذا وهبت نفسك للبحر فغرقت فيه كنت كدابة من دوابه.
وقال لي غششتك إن دللتك على سواي.
وقال لي إن هلكت في سواي كنت لما هلكت فيه.
وقال لي الدنيا لمن صرفته عنها وصرفتها عنه، والآخرة لمن أقبلت بها إليه وأقبلت به علي.
النفري

Mawqif of His Reality

He stopped me at His reality & said to me:
"If I made my reality a sea, you’d cleave to the ship, and if, at my word, you left the ship, you’d cleave to the journey; if you surpassed the journey, you’d cleave to the shores; if you spurned the shores, you’d cleave to the designations: reality & sea. These designations call forth, but the ear gets lost in their terms. So, you couldn’t arrive at my reality or journey on the sea."

I saw, then, the shimmering as shade & the water as solid rock.

He said: "To him who doesn’t see this, my reality’s no duty; to him who does, my reality is. He whose bound to my reality -- if he speaks to any other than me – is an infidel. All limitation is a veil I don’t appear behind; there’s nothing in the vision of my reality, but reality."

I saw all that’s immutable. He granted me the wisdom of mutability, and I saw all created things.

He said: "What’s created doesn’t last, no exceptions." He divided the vision into parts: optic and mental, & said "Behold, the whole of creation, moving and speaking."

He said: "how did you see things before My reality?" I said "moving and speaking." He said: "Beware the difference, so as to not stray." Then he turned me from his reality, and I saw nothing. He said: "You saw everything and it all obeyed you. Your vision of everything is a trial, just as everything’s obedience to you." He turned me back from all of that & said:

"All of that I don’t regard & isn’t good to me."

al Niffari
from the Book of Mawaqifs

***

موقف حقه

أوقفني في حقه وقال لي لو جعلته بحراً تعلقت بالمركب فإن ذهبت عنه بإذهابي فبالسير فإن علوت عن السير فبالساحلين فإن طرحت الساحلين فبالتسمية حق وبحر وكل تسميتن تدعوان والسمع يتيه في لغتين فلا على حقي حصلت ولا على البحر سرت، فرأيت الشعاشع ظلمات والمياه حجراً صلداً.

وقال لي من لم ير هذا فما وجب عليه حقي ومن رآه فقد وجب عليه حقي ومن عليه فكلم سواي كفر والحد كله حجاب لا أظهر من ورائه وليس في رؤية حقي إلا رؤيته، فرأيت ما لا يتغير فأعطاني حكماً يتغير فرأيت كل شيء خلق.

وقال لي لا تستثن، فما هو بقي خلق وانقسمت الرؤية عينية وعلمية فإذا هو كله لا يتحرك ولا يتكلم.

وقال لي كيف رأيته من قبل رؤية حقي، فقلت يتحرك ويتكلم، فقال لي اعرف الفرق لئلا تتيه. وعرج بي عن حقه فلم أر شيئاً، فقال لي رأيت كل شيء وأطاعك كل شيء ورؤيتك كل شيء بلاء وطاعة كل شيء لك بلاء. وعرج بي عن ذلك كله.

وقال لي كله لا أنظر إليه ولا يصلح لي.

محمد بن عبد الجبار بن حسن النفري
من كتاب المواقف

Sintax

Where Babel's sentence once
asphyxiated, we place a comma
cautioning the followers who think
their lungs can outblow its.

A Sufi writes with hands cut off with
memory of a head gone like his says
This because it's all it can

Reality is something accidental & overdone. Like a long take of Adhem, ahem wheezing, after his speech, or Musa’s hunger, over by the river; it is an itch, exposed by godly Eye, that makes its objects say No more. What the blind man once committed on guitar.

Made a deal with the Devil
& the Devil come
said "Pay that fish no mind
let the river run"

Paid my mind to the Devil
let the trouble come
so a part of me is fishy
for the rest that run

The poet should break ribs between breaths.

The last look of these objects;
her unworn shoes & grocery lists,
is an executed man's insomnia.

Musa & Co. moseyed, musing on a river path; if this water ever runs, which bubble do I dub my own? Picky Musa touched this water with his staff to see if his luck would strike twice.

Somewhere swimming in his part brain, did an image surface from when he fled; if the river, now, could speak, would it pipe up with the memory of his mother's hands in the water? Whose hand were these, that played along him, now? The bronze or golden? Which mother set this boy a-weeping? I was born by the river, in a little tent,/ & just like the river, I’ve been running ever since. Musa-Music places his hand on that stream, hoping the water remembers their repertoire. There is softness in this rush; as if the river murmured her. There is home in the river, for those who know the lullaby of water. A home running too far down the nerves to be anything less than pain. A pain that says It’s been a looooooong.

Musa struck home upon bedrock & there was water.

Adhem's song

My Gawd, give me distinction
like the devil once sung –

l-l-let what’s hollow float
heavenwards; what’s drowned,

go down. My throat, make it choke
with something sing’lar in you,

or drop thy hook. Give this
fish wings if its flopped, & if

one day it falls, a flood.

Adhem, ahem was an accident;
a name that broke out

from the air, the other end of the barrel
who sung I’m the chosen

one, & wondered how to make
the gun say Ah, men

Dhikr

Because I am allowed
to write this then I’m

allowed because it is
allowable to write this then

it’s law because it is allawable
then the rite is God’s wa

’allahi O Lawd
because you rite this then

there is no law but la'
a law who, ach, bar

because each law allows
me less & follows you

to where you’re all
there's been enough allot

Celanian

The room you shut your language in
was full. There, grew a word
too gasping to be sung;

no sun broke through it, only
blindness, & the shriek of feathered
things, circadianally sound.

A Sufi prayer: 

Lord, if I’ve crossed two lines
that can't, let this work kaboom

The surfaces of all things
startle, like the sea
that doesn’t drown; I will cover
these letters -- say O.

Give this fish wings, if it's flopped,
& if, one day it falls, a flood.

But this is love; the strain
of the adhan buzzing through
the house & the fact of this noise
never becoming music.

Some letters get lost in Amrica;
they keep a barbar like me damned,
but Sam, they drop the am.

Mr. Adhem, ahem, do you
right or left? Can you sing
our anthems? Stand

down. State your name.
Open wide. How long
have you had this cough?

We fed, that night, on wine, until the night
felt like the day; until day's stars

broke through the dark & night’s had
fled away; until night fell,

winning us the sweetest bliss, while we
remained untouched by care or fault.

If that night was longer, my joy may
have lingered on. But, O, these nights are few.

Ibn Zaydun


وليلٍ أدَمْنَا فيهِ شربَ مدامة
إلى أنْ بَدَا للصّبْحِ، في اللّيلِ، تأثيرُ

وجاءتْ نجومُ الصّبحِ تضربُ في الدّجى
فوَلّتْ نجومُ اللّيلِ، وَالّليلُ مَقهورُ

فحُزْنا مِنَ اللّذَاتِ أطْيَبَ طِيبِها،
ولَمْ يَعُرْنا هَمٌّ، وَلا عاقَ تَكْدِيرُ

خلا أنّهُ، لَوْ طالَ، دامتْ مسرّني،
ولَكِنْ ليالي الوَصْلِ، فِيهنّ تَقصِيرُ

ابن زيدون

A light got lodged inside my throat,
now I can only go
uh oh, uh oh, uh oh, uh oh.

Your house grows hollow as you grow;
a father’s deafness. Echo, echo.

O gently soaring bird, bring
word from me; don’t leave me wailing.

You take, with God your guide, a note
from me, to a land where I once

knew the way; to wilds Layla
may be found astray. On her, my heart

depends; & if this bird, one day, returned
to me from far away, I’d take my last bread.

Qays ibn al-Mulawwah


أيها الطير المحلق غادياً
تحمل سلامي لا تذرني مناديا

تَحَمَّلُ هّدَاكَ اللّه مِنِّي رِسَالة ً
إلى بلد إن كنت بالأرض هاديا

إلى قفرة من نحو ليلى مضلة
بها الْقَلْبُ مِنِّي مُوثَقٌ وفؤَادِيَا

ألاَ لَيْتَ يَوْمَاً حَلَّ بِي مِنْ فِرَاقِكُمْ
تَزَوَّدْتُ ذاك اليومَ آخِرَ زادِيَا

قيس بن الموح

Should you alight, O raven of severance,
in the land of Layla, ask to talk:

give my hello to her & my crushes,
but keep her far from others’ babble.

Qays ibn al-Mulawwah


ألا يا غراب البين إن كنت هابطاً
بِلاَداً لِلَيْلَى فَالْتَمِسْ أنْ تَكَلَّمَا

وَبَلِّغْ تَحِيَّاتِي إلَيْهَا وَصَبْوَتِي
وكن بعدها عن سائر الناس أعجما

قيس بن الموح

My leave of Leila’s naught between us
but a night to me, standing by.

Qays ibn al-Mulawwah


أَأَتْرُكُ لَيْلَى لَيْسَ بَيْني وَبَيْنَها
سِوَى لَيْلَة ٍ، إنِّي إذاً لَصَبُورُ

قيس بن الملوح

The world’s part with a fin’s
end, leaving all’s left
back to where it’s. A cleft

Musa moved sea & self
by saying Is, his stick
his only word.

He made the sea
search endlessly for a noun
among itself, so it split, &

left both sea & Musa
deeper for the it making
them bereft.

In the uh there was a ukh,
from the cough of the word,
came a calf: meat

we ate like it wasn’t golden,
& saw ourselves more godly by
till we ingested it. Then out

spilled the soft gold from our
gut, leaving our throats
gilded, & our god molded anew.

With a flake of god
in our gullets, we sung, to gold
resembling what was hung

inside us. O you, who turn up all
you eat, will find your food
insepr’ble from your song.

Tawasin of the Prophetic Lamp

(work in progress)

1 .From the Light of the Unseen arose a lamp. It appeared & returned – reigning, its light outgleamed all other lamps: a moon among moons beaming, a star whose sign was housed within Empyrean. The True named him “Unlettered,” for the aim of his intention & “Forbidden,” for the greatness of his gift & “Situated [Meccan],” for the nearness of his home to Him (The True).

2. He bared his heart & raised his power – he imposed his rule and manifested his moon. His lamp showed light from Magnanimity’s mouth.

3. He related nothing but that which his eye had seen into the heart of. He paved no path, but that which was plain for truth. He was present (before The True), so he conveyed His Presence. He saw, so spoke. He was sent as guide, so he set limits.

4. No one could discern the depth of his achievement, save the sincere, who makes himself agreeable with him & cleaves to him,

5. so between them there would no longer stretch a rift. No Gnostic knows this, save he who is ignorant of His Attribute:

6. “Those to whom We have given the Book, who recognize their sons, even though a part of them knowingly conceals the truth.”

7. Prophetic lights sprouted from his light, their lights, from his lights, manifested; there is no light more light, more bare, & older than age, than the light alighted by the Lord of Generosity. His intention preceded all intentions, His existence preexisted Nothingness, His name was word before the Pen;

8. Since he preceded nations, there was never anyone on, beyond, below horizon, more graceful, nobler, wiser, more just & kinder, more Godly fearing & more sympathetic than the holder of his rank. He is the Master of Creation & that his name (the most praised, ahmd): his quality is singular, his command is certainty, his essence is excellence, his attribute is glory, his aspiration is unmatchable.

9. O wonder! How manifest, how visible, how great, how famous, how brilliant, how powerful, how penetrating another there is naught. He was and is & known before beginnings, before beings. He was and is & there before Before and after After – before substances and qualities. His substance is clear, his speech prophetic.

10. His knowledge is exalted, his tongue is Arabic. His tribe is “neither East nor West”: his lineage is patriarchal, his mission is conciliation. His title is Unlettered. He brought vision through his signs to seeing eyes – through him the mysteries were recognized.

11. The True made him speak and the Proof substantiated him. The True sent him forth as the Proven and the Proof.

12. It is him who cleared the rust from the shackled heart.

13. It is him who carried forth the ancient word, unconditioned & unuttered & unfettered but united indivisibly to Him. It is he who announced the end of The Ends, and the ends of The End.

14. He lifted the cloud and pointed to the Sacred House.

15. He is perfect & gallant. It is he who was brought out to break the idols & against the slander and the sin of men was sent.

16. Above him flashed a cloud & below him a bolt – announcing light & rain & growth. The bulk of knowledge is nothing but a volume in His sea. The whole of wisdom is no greater than a handful from His stream. The ages are an hour to His time.

17. The True is with him & with him is the truth.

18. He is the first link.

19. He is the last among the prophets. Inward he bears truth & outward gnosis.

20. No learned man has ever reached his knowledge & no wise man ever proved his understanding.

21. . The True did not submit His truth to His creation; because he is he & he is he & him is him.

22. Nothing escaped the eM of MHMD (Muhammad) & no one entered the Ha -- his second eM. The first eM is his Dee. His Dee is his duration. His eM is his mark. His Ha is his habitual state, which is his second M.

23. The True manifested his speech & deepened his sign & revealed his proof. He sent the furqan down to him & attuned his tongue, making that which dwells deep in him glow, hindering all others from imitation. He caused clarity & magnified his glory.

24. If you shun his law, what direction will you follow, O afflicted? No guide is here: the wisdom of wise men to his wisdom is a sliding heap of sand.

Mansur Al-Hallaj

Dark is the day before it’s seen; an adjective’s
untrue until it's verified by sight, & since

people flock till they no longer find a reason to,
no images of you exist for me, only sounds;

far off from the lot, I'd stand
witness to all my eye saw secondhand.

You raise, King Rumi, the glance of Day
with your forgiveness, which is a victory for it;

since you responded to its call, it shines, still,
proudly upon all your lands.

Their necks were saved from swords,
while the lot stayed looking, you substituted

swords for people, so that you could
gain more heads, more crowds & power over them.

Your generousness is like a morning rain,
itself a generosity from you, enjoyed by rain;

the sun, too, earns its light from you
as the moon earns its light from the sun.

Al-Mutanabbi


ظُلمٌ لذا اليَوْمِ وَصْفٌ قبلَ رُؤيَتِه
لا يصْدُقُ الوَصْفُ حتى يَصْدُقَ النظرُ

تَزَاحَمَ الجَيشُ حتى لم يَجِدْ سَبَباً
إلى بِساطِكَ لي سَمْعٌ وَلا بَصَرُ

فكُنتُ أشهَدَ مُخْتَصٍّ وَأغْيَبَهُ
مُعَايِناً وَعِيَاني كُلُّهُ خَبَرُ

ألْيَوْمَ يَرْفَعُ مَلْكُ الرّومِ نَاظرَهُ
لأنّ عَفوَكَ عَنْهُ عندَهُ ظَفَرُ

وَإنْ أجَبْتَ بشَيْءٍ عَنْ رَسائِلِهِ
فَمَا يَزالُ على الأمْلاكِ يَفْتَخِرُ

قَدِ اسْتَرَاحَتْ إلى وَقْتٍ رِقابُهُمُ
منَ السّيوفِ وَباقي القَوْمِ يَنتَظِرُ

وَقَدْ تُبَدِّلُهَا بالقَوْمِ غَيْرَهُمُ
لكيْ تَجِمَّ رُؤوسُ القَوْمِ وَالقَصَرُ

تَشبيهُ جُودِكَ بالأمْطارِ غَادِيَةً
جُودٌ لكَفّكَ ثانٍ نَالَهُ المَطَرُ

تكَسَّبُ الشمْسُ منكَ النّورَ طالعَةً
كمَا تَكَسّبَ منها نُورَهُ القَمَرُ

من ديوان المتنبي

____


Mutanabbi’s panegyric dabbles in the very essence of praise – which is also the essence of language: that is, the question of what certifies the bond between language and objects. In this poem, the apparent “primary source” of language is sight, but the poet resists the seduction of vision to maintain the mysteriousness between the real and the imagined. A different kind of praise emerges; if the object of veneration is worthy of the veneration than it will verified by the world itself. Hence the religious monomania of the description; if the object of veneration is proven in the very shudder of the world around him, than he must stand at the center of all likeness. Greatness is not the particular skill of an individual to embody “great” qualities, but the generosity of allowing everything around you to verify the greatness of your qualities. But the real radical gesture of this poem is that the poet situates absence at the center of this greatness, so that truth remains inescapable from belief. What I have translated here as “verify” (يصدق) suggests a proof contingent upon feeling, or sincerity; not truth in the abstract sense (حق) which is truth embodied in itself – the one is the lot of men, the other is the lot of God. The poet imagines that the truth of Description lies in the ability of the great man to generate affinities.

We were letters -- lofty & unlipped, set
atop the apex's highest alp, where

I was you & we was you, you he & All
in he he; ask any who once passed through.

Ibn Arabi


كُنَّا حُروفاً عالياتٍ لمْ نُقلْ
مُتعلِّقاتٍ في ذُرَى أعلى القُلَلْ

أَنَا أَنْتَ فيهِ وَنَحنُ أَنْتَ وأَنْتَ هُوْ
والكلُّ في هو هُوْ فَسلْ عَمَّنْ وَصَلْ

ابن عربي

From your love, Layla

for M.H.

From your love, Layla, my name is known; so all
can tell the sake for which I suffer now;

& for what rabid, violent love I bend, when any,
from one pang of want, would bow.

What is she to a glance, but grief; a flicker
spurring a fire's dying breath to glow.

O Layla, you don’t smite with repulsion or disdain;
since sympathy & mercy's all you vow;

for you (O God) I’m follower & phile,
eaten up by love that doesn't show:

terrified a traitor, or a tattler, or a coveter, break
a word of what the people don’t already know.

Qays ibn al-Mulawwah
from Majnun and Layla

______

بحبك يا ليلى قد اصبحت شهرة

و كل بما القاه عندك يفهم

صريع من الحب المبرح و الجوى

و اي فتى من لوعة البين يسلم

و ما هي الا حسرة بعد نظرة

اثارت لهيبا في الحشاشة يضرم

فلا تقتليني بالصدود و بالقلى

و مثلك يا ليلى يرق و يرحم

فولله اني فيك عان و عاشق

اذوب غراما فيك و الحب اكتم

مخافة واش او رقيب و حاسد

يحدث ما لا كانت الناس تعلم

قيس بن الملوح

من ديوان مجنون و ليلى

A heart, a soul, a body,
subsist on four things:

the water, the garden,
the wine, the pretty face.

Abu Nuwas

اربعة يحيا بها
قبل و روح و بدن

الماء و البستان و ال
خمرة و الوجه الحسن

ابو نواس

I see the glass is true & see naught
in any else, but a fellow drunk's;

the axis Pleasure’s grinding-stone
once turned upon ages ago.

Abu Nuwas

ارى للكأس حقا لا اراه
لغير الكأس الا للنديم

هي القطب الذي دارت عليه
رحى الذات في الزمن القديم

ابو نواس

Mawqif of Station

He stopped me on my way & said to me:

"I know your station’s stopped before me now; I told you to come in, so come in. And when my Absence overwhelms you, come in."

"There’s no question of your station. It’s the house acquainting you with brethren of the heaven & the earth; the place through which they pass & converse with you."

He said "stop before me," so I stopped, but he, seeing how I sought him, didn’t act.

He said "I seek to act & for you to see me act: your station's in this vision, whereby you see ME act, like you see no one else. This place is the door to that place; this -- the place of your feebleness & that-- the place of your sustenance."

al Niffari