27 Wednesday Apr 2011
Posted in Abdur Rahman's Poetry
Peace, one and all…
We stand here
in the circle of lovers,
seeking the light of Your face,
listening:
‘heal your problems with love’
We rise and we fall,
turning, always turning
before Your radiant Throne,
singing:
‘heal your problems with love’
This world of night and day
tears and heals
in a single moment of wonder:
Eyvallah, Beloved, eyvallah.
Heal our problems with love
Abdur Rahman, 20th April 2011
27 Wednesday Apr 2011
Posted in Abdur Rahman's Poetry
Peace, one and all…
May my heart always live
within Your blessed light,
and may every step
bring me closer to Your door.
May every choice
arise in goodness,
and may every mistake
return me to Your overflowing mercy.
Beloved, You are
and no other is with You.
Where then can I go, except
into Your life-giving embrace?
27 Wednesday Apr 2011
Peace, one and all…
I wanted to share a beautiful Turkish Sufi song with you all. It is entitled Zahmi Sinemden, or ‘the Wound of my Chest’. Enjoy and may Allah bless all who pass by.
‘My body and soul come together to seek You,
it is You that I live and die for.
I am here but a fortnight and then,
a handful of dust.
You are here to see this Love through’
Hazret Abu Sa`id ibn Abi al-Khayr
Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman
27 Wednesday Apr 2011
Posted in Abdur Rahman's Poetry
Peace, one and all…
Beloved, pour out Your wine
of miraculous oneness.
Give life to every heart
with Your breath of tender mercy.
When Your glance falls upon me,
all that I am opens out
into the blessed sunlight
of Your life-giving countenance.
Whenever You pass by
my spirit dances for joy,
naked and unashamed
and separation does not exist.
Yet, there is no praise for me,
in this or in that,
for all praise is Yours,
in everything I do and am and become.
Beloved, pour out the wine
of Your ancient oneness
and resolve this passing cloud of me
with Your tender breath of mercy.
Abdur Rahman, 25th June 2011
17 Sunday Apr 2011
Posted in Abdur Rahman's Poetry
Peace, one and all…
Love heals
and makes us whole,
sending us forth
and returning us home.
Love is a mother’s breast,
the very nourishment of life.
Through love we reach forth
and are reached for.
Love is a blessed master
and a wonderful teacher,
a smile hidden behind the face
of each new moment.
Beloved, if I have learned one thing,
it is this:
love heals
and makes us whole.
Abdur Rahman, 17th April 2011
11 Monday Apr 2011
Peace, one and all…
‘Every moment you are being filled and emptied:
know then, that you are in the hand of His working’
(Masnavi 6.3340)
With each new breath, we are emptied and poured out, as in that moment all that we are is returned to the Source. And then, with each in-breath, we are filled – with new breath, with new life, with new energies. These breaths of ours generate a charge, and so our lives are enlivened.
As I read these beautiful words of Mevlana, I’m reminded forcefully of zikr and its use of the breath, in that moment by moment process. It is said that zikr can reach a place where all falls away except the remembrance of the Beloved itself, so we might know that we are indeed ‘in the hand of His working’.
I am also reminded that behind this process stands the Source. Allah is the Source of All – of filling and emptying, of nearness and distance, of night and day, of me and you. Beyond all such dualities stands the One (al-Wahid), the Unique (al-Ahad). And whatever ‘I’ am, I am His, in both my outer and my inner, in both process and essence.
With God’s mercy, this constant turning will reveal that Oneness, so that:
‘On the day when the blindfold falls from the eye,
how madly will the work be enamoured of the Maker!’
(Masnavi 6.3341)
Jazzgriot: Allah Only
Wa akhiru da`wana an il hamdu lillahi rabbil alameen.
Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman
08 Friday Apr 2011
Peace, one and all…
‘A servant is dismissed for bad behaviour:
if You behave oppressively, what’s different?
The harm You do in anger and in strife
is sweeter than an ecstasy of harp strings.
Your cruelty is better than a victory,
Your scolding’s more desired than life itself.
This is Your fire – what does Your light look like?
This is the funeral – what’s Your wedding like?
As for the sweetness which violence holds,
and for Your subtlety, none plumb Your depths.
I weep and then I fear He will believe me,
and then from kindness moderate His violence.
I love so much His violence and His grace -
how wonderful, I love these two extremes!
If I forsake this thorn-bush for the garden,
I’ll sing for sadness like the nightingale.
How wonderful, this nightingale, who lifts
his beak to eat the thorns among the rosebeds.
What kind of nightingale is this? A dragon!
In love all bitter things are sweet to him.
He’s lover of the whole; He is the whole.
He’s lover of Himself; He seeks His love’
(Mevlana, Masnavi 1. 1574-1584)
08 Friday Apr 2011
Peace, one and all…
Here are some examples of music from Islamic Spain. Enjoy and may Allah bless all who pass by.
Ya maliha l lama wa hula t tathanni
Ya sakinan bi fu`adi
Li habibun maqamuhu fawqa ra`si
In love young and old are the same.
In love loss and gain are the same.
In love the worlds are the same.
In love autumn and spring are the same.
Its down is up and up is down.
The earth and the heavens are the same.
The place of love is a circle,
Each spot is equal to the other.
If the Beloved scorns you or welcomes you,
it’s all the same.
In the tradition of love, to die
is the same as gaining eternal life.
(Farid al-Din Attar, trans M. Jamal)
Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman
