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Poetry
Chaikhana
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About Fakhruddin IraqiTimeline (? - 1289) |
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English version by Original Language |
The world but seems to be
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The world but seems to be
yet is nothing more than a line drawn between light and shadow. Decipher the message of this dream-script and learn to distinguish time from Eternity.
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There is actually quite a bit being said in this brief poem that gets into both the mystical experience of reality and also certain aspects of Muslim theology.
First, consider the picture Iraqi has drawn for us: We have light and shadow -- together making a whole or a circle -- and a line drawn between them. The line divides the circle, the wholeness, into two semi-circles. Those semi-circles each have the shape of a bow... two bows.
The image of two bows is important in Islam. In the Quran, the Prophet Mohammed is said to have ascended to heaven where he drew near to God, "two bow's length away." The significance of the distance of two bows has been endlessly debated and contemplated in the Muslim world.
So here, Iraqi is expanding on the mystical explanation given by the Sufi philosopher Ibn Arabi that the two bows represent the two aspects of reality: light and shadow, the Bow of Necessary Being and the Bow of Possible-Existence. When the two bows are joined, reality is seen in its wholeness, and one can draw near to the face of God.
This image also suggests that the world itself is not a stable, fixed reality. It does not truly exist in its own sense. It is simply a meeting point between the light and the dark. Just as the present moment is the meeting point between the past and the future. But, if you steady your mind and expand your vision, you can truly discern that line of meeting -- and then it no longer divides the two halves; it joins them. It is then that the whole vision comes upon you and you "learn to distinguish time [the separated pieces] / from Eternity [the wholeness]."
In the text of his "Divine Flashes," Iraqi follows this poem with a note and another brief poem:
Break the code of this line and know beyond all doubt that
All is nothing,
nothing.
All is He,
all is HE.
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Ivan
M. Granger's original poetry, stories and commentaries are Copyright ©
2002 - 2008 by Ivan M. Granger.
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