Umar Ibn al-Farid: If not for me (from The Poem of the Sufi Way)

If not for me
     existence and witness would not exist,
          and covenants of protection
               would have gone unpledged.

No one lives
     unless his life is from mine;
          obedient to my will
               is every aspiring soul.

No one speaks
     unless his speech is from mine;
          no one sees
               but by the gaze of my eye.

No one listens
     unless listening by my ear;
          no one grasps
               but by my might and strength.

No one
     is speaking, seeing, hearing
          in all of creation
               but me!

In the composite world,
     I appeared deep within
          every shape and form
               adorning them with beauty.

While in every subtle sense
     not revealed by my visible guise,
          I was conceived and formed
               but without a body's shape.

Yet in what the spirit sees
     clairvoyantly,
          I was rarified,
               concealed from this subtle sense confined.

In the mercy of expansion,
     all of me is a wish
          expanding wide
               the hopes of humanity,

While in the dread of contraction
     all of me is awe;
          wherever I cast my eye,
               I am honored.

In joining both attributes
     all of me is proximity;
          come, draw near
               my inner beauty.

For in the end-place of "in,"
     I still found with me
          my majesty of witness
               arising from my perfect nature,

And where there is no "in,"
     I still witnessed within me
          the beauty of my existence
               without an eye to see.

Poetry Chaikhana
Sacred Poetry from Around the World

About Umar Ibn al-Farid

Poetry Chaikhana Sacred Poetry from Around the World

About Umar Ibn al-Farid

Poetry Chaikhana
Sacred Poetry from Around the World