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Each Way I Turned by Muhammad Shirin Maghribi (1349 - 1406) Timeline English version by Mahmood Jamal Muslim / Sufi 14th Century Each way I turned I turned to You; Each place I reached Was the path to You. Each place of worship I entered to pray, I saw the arch of Your brow In every arch and every doorway. I saw the face of worldly beauty But I saw it in the mirror of Your face. In the manifest and the hidden, In the ideal and the real, All have looked and only to You. Don't ask about Maghribi. He is by madness stuck -- By those dark lashes of Yours!     -- from Islamic Mystical Poetry: Sufi Verse from the Early Mystics to Rumi, Translated by Mahmood Jamal Amazon.com   / Photo by AlicePopkorn /	Recommended Books A Critical Edition of the Divan of Muhammad Shirin Maghribi, by Leonard Lewisohn Islamic Mystical Poetry: Sufi Verse from the Early Mystics to Rumi, Translated by Mahmood Jamal Love's Alchemy: Poems from the Sufi Tradition, Translated by David Fideler / Translated by Sabrineh Fideler
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Commentary by Ivan M. Granger

I really like this one... It is a work of profound devotion, without an ounce of dogma.

Each way I turned
I turned to You;
Each place I reached
Was the path to You.

Each place of worship
I entered to pray,
I saw the arch of Your brow
In every arch and every doorway.

It suggests a spiritual journey of great intensity and yearning, yet, at the same time, at rest with the constant recognition of the Beloved -- everywhere!

I saw the face of worldly beauty
But I saw it in the mirror of Your face.
In the manifest and the hidden,
In the ideal and the real,
All have looked and only to You.

We don't have to strain our eyes looking, looking, looking. Wherever we are, whichever path we are on, we just have to see.

Catching constant glimpses of the Eternal in the minute and mundane and manifest, as well as in the most elevated and most inward... everything in and out and all around becomes a window to the Divine. Who can then act sober and sane?

Don't ask about Maghribi.
He is by madness stuck --
By those dark lashes of Yours!

Ivan M. Granger's original poetry, stories and commentaries are Copyright © 2002 - 2011 by Ivan M. Granger.
All other material is copyrighted by the respective authors, translators and/or publishers.