Translation: You who took my heart from me, your love stole my senses You hid me from myself, and in myself, I don’t appear I’m hidden form my sight, as if I were invisible So I went out to look for me, maybe I’ll find myself… Love of the beautiful, o brother, is my art…
Andalusian Love songs: Shushtari and Camaron
The poems of the Andalusian Sufi, Abu’l-Hasan Shushtari (d. 1269) parallel and perhaps indirectly influenced some of my favorite Flamenco lyrics. Compare this pair of songs: Your love for me is not a fantasy However much they forbid that I love you, like a jib to the water I will resist. Only your tender love…
The name “Allah”
Translation: Alif before double lam and Ha-the delight of the eye Alif proclaims the name with two lams without body and Ha is the sign of the writing “Secret” is spelled with two letters. There is a name with no place. Read these letters together. You will see by them, the heart is satisfied and forgets its past trials…
Shushtari in Song
One of the most powerful recordings of Sufi music, this medley of Shustari’s poetry begins with the following poem: Translation: They are my sweetest moments when you are joined with my essence When you are with my essence The sun of intimacy dawns in me My poverty came to me naturally And existence…
Shakespeare, Shushtari, and the Sultan
Sonnet 29 When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes I all alone beweep my outcast state, And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries, And look upon myself, and curse my fate, Wishing me like to one more rich in hope, Featured like him, like him with friends possessed, Desiring this man’s art, and…
The wine was so fine…
The following was one of Ibn ‘Arabi’s favorite verses of poetry, oft-quoted by Sufi authors ranging from al-Ghazzali to Fakhr ad-din ‘Iraqi to Emir ‘abd al-Qadir to explain the mysterious relationship between God and the heart. The glass was so clear, and so was the wine they became so similar, that it became…
James Taylor and Sufism
James Taylor’s/Carole King’s “You’ve got a Friend” is one of the most Sufi-sounding songs I’ve ever heard… Lyrics: When you’re down and troubled and you need a helping hand and nothing, whoa, nothing is going right. Close your eyes and think of me and soon I will be there to brighten up even your…
The little shaykh from the land of Meknes
a little gem from Shushtari… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xf9v3gggmvA Translation: A little shaykh from the land of Meknes in the middle of the markets singing: What do I care about people What do they care about me? What do I care, my friend about the whole creation? Do good, be saved and follow the people of realities…
Love beyond words…
Ibn al-Fāriḍ In the art of describing his beauty, time itself expires and yet still there remains in him, what has not been described وعـلى تَـفَنّنِ واصِـفيهِ بِحُسْنِهِ يَـفنى الـزّمانُ وفيه ما لم يُوصف Anon. A robe woven from the cloth of 29 letters would still fall short of…
You seek Layla
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAYyniRPNC8 Translation: You seek Layla, but she reveals herself within you You think she’s other, but she’s not other than you And that’s a madness that is apparent to the cult of lovers So be careful, for otherness is the essence of being cut off Don’t you see how her beauty envelops you? She disappears only when…