Poetry Chaikhana
Sacred Poetry from Around the World

Search the Poetry Chaikhana site:

This page has been updated.
View the new page here.

Muslim / Sufi

13th Century

Egypt
(Middle East)

Umar Ibn al-Farid

Timeline (1181 - 1235)

Poems by Umar Ibn al-Farid
Books

Daily Poem Email

Support
the Poetry Chaikhana

Donations to the Poetry Chaikhana in any amount are always welcome. Thank you!	Click here
Click here	A small amount each month makes a big difference. Become a voluntary Subscriber for just $5/mo.
Click here	Help the Poetry Chaikhana reach more people. Become a Supporter for just $10/mo.

The poetry of Shaykh Umar Ibn al-Farid is considered by many to be the pinnacle of Arabic mystical verse, though surprisingly he is not widely known in the West. (Rumi and Hafiz, probably the best known in the West among the great Sufi poets, both wrote primarily in Persian, not Arabic.) Ibn al-Farid's two masterpieces are The Wine Ode, a beautiful meditation on the "wine" of divine bliss, and The Poem of the Sufi Way, a profound exploration of spiritual experience along the Sufi Path and perhaps the longest mystical poem composed in Arabic. Both poems have inspired in-depth spiritual commentaries throughout the centuries, and they are still reverently memorized by Sufis and other devout Muslims today.

Ibn al-Farid's father was a judge and important government official in Cairo.

When he was a young man Ibn al-Farid would go on extended spiritual retreats among the oases outside of Cairo, but he eventually felt that he was not making deep enough spiritual progress. He abandoned his spiritual wanderings and entered law school.

One day Ibn al-Farid saw a greengrocer performing the ritual Muslim ablutions outside the door of the law school, but the man was doing them out of the prescribed order. When Ibn al-Farid tried to correct him, the man looked at him and said, "Umar! You will not be enlightened in Egypt. You will be enlightened only in Mecca..."

Umar Ibn al-Farid was stunned by this statement, seeing that this simple greengrocer was no ordinary man. But he argued that he couldn't possibly make the trip to Mecca right away. Then the man gave Ibn al-Farid a vision, in that very moment, of Mecca. Ibn al-Farid was so transfixed by this experience that he left immediately for Mecca and, in his own words, "Then as I entered it, enlightenment came to me wave after wave and never left."

Shaykh Umar Ibn al-Farid stayed many years in Mecca, but eventually returned to Cairo. He became a scholar of Muslim law, a teacher of the hadith (the traditions surrounding the sayings and life of the prophet Muhammed), and a teacher of poetry. Unlike many other respected poets of the age, Ibn al-Farid refused the patronage of wealthy governmental figures which would have required him to produce poetry for propaganda, preferring the relatively humble life of a teacher that allowed him to compose his poetry of enlightenment unhampered.

Poems by Umar Ibn al-Farid

	By her, I departed to her (from The Poem of the Sufi Way)
	Compared to my dawn (from The Poem of the Sufi Way)
	From his light (from The Poem of the Sufi Way)
	I sought her from myself (from The Poem of the Sufi Way)
	In truth, I led my prayer leader in prayer (from The Poem of the Sufi Way)
	No one speaks (from The Poem of the Sufi Way)
	Resist the calls of wrangling talk (from The Poem of the Sufi Way)
	Unveiling herself revealed (from The Poem of the Sufi Way)
	Whispering, then listening close (from The Poem of the Sufi Way)
	Yet never qualify me (from The Poem of the Sufi Way)
	Be drunk from it (from The Wine Ode (al-Khamriyah))
	In memory of the beloved (from The Wine Ode (al-Khamriyah))
	They say to me: "Do describe it (from The Wine Ode (al-Khamriyah))

Recommended Books

	From Arab Poet to Muslim Saint: Ibn Al-Farid, His Verse, and His Shrine, by Th. Emil Homerin Amazon.com
	Sufi Poems: A Mediaeval Anthology, Translated by Martin Lings Amazon.com
	Umar Ibn al-Farid: Sufi Verses, Saintly Life, Translated by Th. Emil Homerin Amazon.com
	The Wine of Love and Life: Ibn Al-Farid's Al-Khamriyah and Al-Qaysari's Quest for Meaning, by Dawud Ibn Mahmud Qaysari Amazon.com

Please support the Poetry Chaikhana, as well as the authors and publishers of sacred poetry, by purchasing some of the recommended books through the links on this site. Thank you!

Poetry Chaikhana Sacred Poetry from Around the World

Umar Ibn al-Farid

Daily Poem Email

Support the Poetry Chaikhana

Poetry Chaikhana
Sacred Poetry from Around the World

Support
the Poetry Chaikhana