{"id":7203,"date":"2021-07-23T08:08:47","date_gmt":"2021-07-23T15:08:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/?p=7203"},"modified":"2021-07-23T08:08:47","modified_gmt":"2021-07-23T15:08:47","slug":"abu-said-abil-kheir-love-came","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/2021\/07\/23\/abu-said-abil-kheir-love-came\/","title":{"rendered":"Abu-Said Abil-Kheir – Love came"},"content":{"rendered":"

Love came
\nby Abu-Said Abil-Kheir<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

English version by Peter Lamborn Wilson and Nasrollah Pourjavady<\/font><\/p>\n

Love came
\n      flowed like blood
\n      beneath skin, through veins
\nemptied me of my self
\n      filled me
\n      with the Beloved
\ntill every limb
\n      every organ was seized
\n      and occupied
\ntill only
\n      my name remains.
\n      the rest is It.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a> — from The Drunken Universe: An Anthology of Persian Sufi Poetry<\/a>, Translated by Peter Lamborn Wilson \/ Translated by Nasrollah Pourjavady<\/font><\/p>\n


\/ Image by Fabrice Nerfin<\/a> \/<\/em><\/font><\/p>\n

I really like the visceral start to this poem.
\n
\nLove came
\n      flowed like blood
\n      beneath skin, through veins
\n<\/i>
\nIt’s so physical, even slightly disturbing. Sheikh Abu-Said Abil-Kheir wants to literally get under our skin with those opening lines.<\/p>\n

But what is it that has taken over the very blood and organs of our body? Love.<\/p>\n

When deep mystics speak of love, they aren’t talking about vague and all-too-fleeting emotional states. When we are truly flooded by that foundational love — let’s capitalize it and call it Love — there is something very tangible that is experienced. It is physical. The whole body at every level, “every limb \/ every organ”, every cell, in fact, suddenly feels alive in a way previously unknown. There is a powerful sense of alignment, as if each cell is an iron filing exposed to a powerful magnet, all lining up harmoniously along hidden lines of force. Something alchemical is happening in the body.
\n
\ntill only
\n      my name remains.
\n      the rest is It.
\n<\/i>
\nAnd the small self, what we might call the ego, seems to fade away. Although we are emptied, that isolated sense of self having vanished, we aren’t left bare. Instead, we are filled up with something immense and all-embracing — a sense of identity too open to be called “me.” People may see the same face, use the same name, but those relate to the small self, when in truth only that vast loving presence remains, contentedly witnessing the world through our eyes.<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

To my many Muslim friends, Eid Mubarak!<\/p>\n


\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a>Recommended Books: Abu-Said Abil-Kheir<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n

\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
The Longing in Between: Sacred Poetry from Around the World (A Poetry Chaikhana Anthology)<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nThis Dance of Bliss: Ecstatic Poetry from Around the World<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nThe Drunken Universe: An Anthology of Persian Sufi Poetry<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nNobody, Son of Nobody: Poems of Shaikh Abu-Saeed Abil-Kheir<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nLove’s Alchemy: Poems from the Sufi Tradition<\/a><\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
More Books >><\/a><\/i><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

<\/center>
\n<\/p>\n\n\n
\n<\/td>\n\nAbu-Said Abil-Kheir<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Turkmenistan (967 – 1049) Timeline<\/a>
\nMuslim \/ Sufi<\/a><\/a>
\n<\/a><\/a><\/em>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

<\/p>\n

Sheikh Abu-Said Abil-Kheir was one of the earlier Sufi poets. He lived more than two centuries before Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi, yet, like Rumi, much of his mysticism follows a similar path of annihilation in divine Love.<\/p>\n

Abu-Said’s poetry ranges from the ecstatic and celestial, to struggles with abandonment. His poetry has an immediacy and even a sort of devoutly wry petulance that can draw comparisons with the great Bengali poet, Ramprasad.<\/p>\n

Abu Said referred to himself as \u201cNobody, Son of Nobody,\u201d to convey the mystic’s sense of having completely merged or disappeared into the Divine, leaving no trace of the ego behind.<\/p>\n

He lived in Mayhana in what is modern day Turkmenistan, just north of Iran and Afghanistan in Central Asia.<\/p>\n

More poetry by Abu-Said Abil-Kheir<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Love came by Abu-Said Abil-Kheir English version by Peter Lamborn Wilson and Nasrollah Pourjavady Love came       flowed like blood       beneath skin, through veins emptied me of my self       filled me       with the Beloved till every limb       every organ was seized       and occupied till only       my name remains.       […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[109,503,2275,2432,415,193,2338,19],"class_list":["post-7203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","tag-abu-said-abil-kheir","tag-ego","tag-eid","tag-eid-mubarak","tag-love","tag-muslim-poetry","tag-name","tag-sufi-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7203"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7204,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7203\/revisions\/7204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}