One of my favorite recordings of Andausian Sufi music—the beauty of the music is only matched by the beauty of the poetry: Translation: Soft were its sides and soft its breeze, and the clouds were flashing and thundering, And the raindrops were descending from the crevices of the clouds like…
Who am I?
Bulleh Shah Translation: Bulleh, what do I know about who I am? I am not a believer in the mosques, nor do I follow the rites of unbelief. I am not among the pure or polluted. I am neither Moses nor Pharoah. I am not in the Vedas or in the scriptures; I…
Two loves become one
Ḥallāj Translation: My heart had various longings, but since seeing you, they’ve all become one My envied mine envier became, and I became the Lord of mankind, since my lord you became I left everyone to their world and their religion busy with my love for you, oh my world and my religion…
Water, Air, Fire, Earth
Ibn al-Fāriḍ Translation: Purity but not water, Subtlety but not air Light but not fire, spirit but not body Original: صفاءٌ، ولا ماءٌ، ولُطْفٌ، ولاهَواً، ونورٌ ولا نارٌ وروحٌ ولا جسمُ Dattatreya Translation: Neither space nor air is the Reality; Neither earth nor fire is the Reality. If there’s only the…
The Beauty in the Black Veil
This sublime fragment of a longer qasidah (ode) about a saint who falls madly in love with a beautiful maiden in a black veil (recalling the story of Shaykh San’an ) is sublimely performed in Mauritanian style by Dimi Mint Abba: Translation: Tell the beauty in the black veil What have you done to the…
Those who believe are more intense in love…
Quran 2:165 وَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَن يَتَّخِذُ مِن دُونِ اللَّهِ أَندَادًا يُحِبُّونَهُمْ كَحُبِّ اللَّهِ ۖ وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَشَدُّ حُبًّا لِّلَّهِ ۗ وَلَوْ يَرَى الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا إِذْ يَرَوْنَ الْعَذَابَ أَنَّ الْقُوَّةَ لِلَّهِ جَمِيعًا وَأَنَّ اللَّهَ شَدِيدُ الْعَذَابِ “Translation”: Among the people are some who take peers apart from God, loving them as if loving God….
How many nights…
Translation: By God, how many nights I have spent in the sweetness of life, apart from the watchman Drinking my wine with the beloved as my companion as the glasses of love’s joys go ’round I reached by goal, beyond whatever I had hoped Longing, though it be perfect, for this pleasure to stay…
Fire on the mountain
Ibn al-Fāriḍ Translation: Don’t consider me to be a pretender in love my affection for you is natural, without affectation Even if my spirit were in my hands, I would hand it over to the one who announces your arrival, and it’d still be a bargain You are my duties and my voluntary prayers…
You left, but stayed in my heart
Amir Khusro My heart left me, but longing for you won’t leave my heart My heart broke apart, but the pain of you won’t lessen The moon at night rises opposite your face but the day will never come when the moon can oppose it My face is pale gold, and I grind it with…
It is love, so surrender
Ibn al-Fāriḍ Translation: It is love, so surrender your body—passion is not easy One stricken by it would not choose it, had he reason So live without it, for love’s ease is hard it’s beginning is sickness, and its end is death But for me, dying in love longingly for the one I love, is…