If They Only Knew
by Mansur al- HallajEnglish version by Michael A. Sells
Original Language Arabic
What earth is this
so in want of you
they rise up on high
to seek you in heaven?
Look at them staring
at you
right before their eyes,
unseeing, unseeing, blind.
. . .
I was patient,
but can the heart
be patient of
its heart?
My spirit and yours
blend together
whether we are near one another
or far away.
I am you,
you,
my being,
end of my desire,
The most intimate of secret thoughts
enveloped
and fixed along the horizon
in folds of light.
How? The "how" is known
along the outside,
while the interior of beyond
to and for the heart of being.
Creatures perish
in the darkened
blind of quest,
knowing intimations.
Guessing and dreaming
they pursue the real,
faces turned toward the sky
whispering secrets to the heavens.
While the lord remains among them
in every turn of time
abiding in their every condition
every instant.
Never without him, they,
not for the blink of an eye --
if only they knew!
nor he for a moment without them.
-- from Early Islamic Mysticism: Sufi, Quran, Miraj, Poetic and Theological Writings (Classics of Western Spirituality), by Michael A. Sells |
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View All Poems by Mansur al- Hallaj
This is a great poem by the Sufi mystic and martyr, al-Hallaj.
A reminder to us all that, wherever we look, we are always staring at the face of God, "right before [our] eyes." Everyone, knowingly or unknowingly, is always searching for the Eternal, but too easily we become lost in our search. The idea of a search is already to be lost -- "a blind quest." We imagine that the Goal will be found elsewhere, somewhere that we are not, and so we rush about looking, looking. "Guessing and dreaming," looking for God in some distant heaven instead of beneath our feet and between the span of our arms, we blindly have our "faces turned toward the sky." But doing that, we never recognize that "the lord remains among [us]" in our "every condition / every instant." We are never without the Divine Presence, "not for the blink of an eye!"
Hallaj says it very simply, speaking to God as the Beloved who is everywhere and, at the same time, the heart of the heart:
My spirit and yours
blend together
whether we are near one another
or far away.
I am you,
you,
my being,
end of my desire.
And his conclusion:
Never without him, they,
not for the blink of an eye --
if only they knew!
nor he for a moment without them.
Recommended Books: Mansur al- Hallaj