Thursday, September 22, 2011

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

Sunday, September 18, 2011

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

Saturday, September 17, 2011

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.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

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.

Monday, September 05, 2011

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.

Saturday, September 03, 2011

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