This Prison of Answers

Peace, one and all…

Beloved, I don’t have any answers.

All I have are my questions,

all those unknown mysteries

of life and and love and longing.

What a joy it is to be released

from this prison of answers!

What a blessing it is to be freed

from the tyranny of ‘knowledge’.

May our living humanity be sanctified

 that thereby our love might increase.

As long as my questions

lead me always to Your door,

then all is well, Beloved,

all is well.

Become A Full Cup

Peace, one and all…

Beloved, resentment is a poison.
Why waste my life drinking poison?
Why not bless everything
that comes from Your hand,
and let that poison
become a full cup
from Your Ocean of Love?

Beyond All That We Have Done

Peace, one and all…

 

Beyond all that we have done,
beyond all that we think we are,
lies Your loving-kindness,
Your overflowing mercy.

Before A Bright Morning Sun

Peace, one and all…

 

Beloved, when I live from myself
doubt and uncertainty obscure my path,
but when I open myself in You
every shadow dissolves
like mist before a bright morning sun.

Bewildered and Amazed

Peace, one and all…

How strange that
You have hidden strength within weakness,
and weakness within strength.
I am turned round and round,
and wheresoever I am turned,
there is the light of Your face.
Bewildered and amazed,
Your love is intoxicating and yet,
in the very heart of intoxication,
lies the tranquil centre of sobriety,
a garden amidst the flames!

Abdur Rahman, 18th March 2012

You are the Moment

Peace, one and all…

You are the moment, within every moment,
and the Face behind every face.
Wherever we wander, we find You waiting,
and whenever we are still,
we find You at the quiet centre of all.
Beloved, these moments of ours give birth
to something sweet in the soul,
like a dawn-flower slowly opening,
or our first breath of air
on a night of love.

Abdur Rahman, 11th March 2012

Resentment is a Poison

Peace, one and all…

Resentment is a poison,
and You, Beloved, are the only cure.
How strange that You should hide
Your cure within the poison,
and health within sickness.
How wondrous it is that
all that comes forth from You is
a mercy within a mercy within a mercy!
Beloved!  You had me with Your first glance!

The Secret of Life

Peace, one and all…

You are the secret of life,
hidden within every thing and moment.
You are my beating heart,
and the very air in my lungs.
When I speak,
You are my power of movement,
and when I am silent,
You are the fullness slowly unfolding within.
Beloved, with a single glance,
You set the universe in motion,
and stole this tiny heart of mine.

Abdur Rahman, 10th March 2012

Wherever We Are Sent

Peace, one and all…

Wherever we are sent,
there do we go
and whatever we are given,
that do we use.

And from all these gifts
we strive to become
fully human beings,
love’s true offspring.

Beloved, You are the lodestone
and love of You the catalyst.
Wherever love sends us,
we shall always be well.

Abdur Rahman, November 15th 2011

Centre of the Circle

Peace, one and all…

The heart is the centre of the circle,
that still, silent point
upholder of all this circumference of me.
And within this heart
lies another heart,
and another and another:
heart upon heart,
light upon light;
A series of lenses
reflecting and refracting,
enabling vision,
that thereby we might see the way,
that thereby we might become the way.

Abdur Rahman, 31st January 2012

Love Is About Its Work

Peace, one and all…

Wherever we go,
whatever we do,
Love is about its work,
gently stealing hearts
and slowly dissolving
all that we thought
we were.

Whether we leap
into the sea,
or remain stubbornly
upon the shore,
slowly and subtly
our resistance is eroded
by the Tides of Love.

So, praise be to God!
The Heart of All Water
and the Ocean
within every drop.
Wherever we go
and whatever we do,
Love is about its work.

Abdur Rahman, 31st January 2012

Once More Around the Sun

Peace, one and all…

The command came,
and so once more
around the Sun
we danced,
scattering pearls,
as we too
were scattered.

Dawn came
and found us
resting in His embrace,
languid eyes
gazing up
into the rising
Sun of Morning

Beloved,
my heart lives
wherever You are;
in the sacred space
between each breath,
moves joy
unbounded.

Abdur Rahman, 31st January 2012

The Water of my Healing

Peace, one and all…

Your love is the water of my healing,
cleansing and restoring,
washing away
my every weary strain.

Your love is a fire in my heart,
a flame that burns
away all else
but Your bright Name.

Your love is a light in my eye,
by which a deeper eye
gazes out into
all the gardens of creation.

Abdur Rahman, December 18th 2011

Give us of Your Light

Peace, one and all…

 

O You who lead us out
from beneath our every shadow,
give us of Your light
that we might find our way.

O Spirit of My Spirit

Peace, one and all…

Tonight, hope emerges from despair
and the spirit of my spirit
dances freely,
calling out to You
from every mountain and valley.

Tonight, the clouds part
for the briefest of moments,
revealing the full moon
of some higher heaven,
in all its eldritch beauty.

Tonight, standing upon the shore
of this new moment,
a fleeting fragrance teases the wind,
the merest gasp of breath,
from the Source of All Mercy.

Tomorrow, the world shall turn once more
and some new thing
shall come to pass.
But, for now my Beloved,
may this night last a thousand years

Abdur Rahman, 20th October 2011

Whatever this Strange World is…

Peace, one and all…

So many words have been spoken.
So many voices, saying so many things:

‘This world is a prison,’ some say,
whilst others proclaim its every fleeting pleasure.

Whatever this strange world is,
it is surely His.

Its light and its shade, its night and its day
belong to that heart-stealing Love-thief.

Woman and man, spirit and flesh:
He is the resolution of every opposite.

The wine is His,
aye! and every wine glass too!

Why damage the vessels of one so generous?
Why live as such an ill-mannered guest?

Abdur Rahman, 14th July 2011

The Curtains Rise

Peace, one and all…

 

The curtains rise.
A hush falls over the audience,
as love’s great performance
begins anew once more.

We wear so many faces,
as we act out
the script of our lives
in this theatre of manifestation.

Each role we play
draws out some new quality,
coming to us through
the heart’s great portal of light.

The deeper truth beneath these acts of ours
begins to proclaim itself at last:
we ourselves are the theatre;
we are masks over the Beloved’s bright face.

Abdur Rahman, 3rd May 2011

After La Ilaha…

Peace, one and all…

 

What is fear,
if not of the hiding
of Your bright face;
and what is love,
if not of You,
in each new moment and place?

What is life,
if not lived
in Your shade;
and what is death,
if not in You,
and Your eternal embrace?

What joy, Beloved,
what wondrous release!
That after la ilaha
comes illa Allah:
Your hand over mine,
Your breath within my chest.

Abdur Rahman, 6th July 2011