{"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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 flowed like blood
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 beneath skin, through veins
\nemptied me of my self
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 filled me
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 with the Beloved
\ntill every limb
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 every organ was seized
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 and occupied
\ntill only
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 my name remains.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 the rest is It.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a> \u2014 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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 flowed like blood
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 beneath skin, through veins
\n<\/i>
\nIt\u2019s 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\u2019t talking about vague and all-too-fleeting emotional states. When we are truly flooded by that foundational love \u2014 let\u2019s capitalize it and call it Love \u2014 there is something very tangible that is experienced. It is physical. The whole body at every level, \u201cevery limb \/ every organ\u201d, 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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 my name remains.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 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\u2019t left bare. Instead, we are filled up with something immense and all-embracing \u2014 a sense of identity too open to be called \u201cme.\u201d 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

\u2013<\/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\u2019s 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 \u2013 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\u2019s 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\u2019s 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 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 flowed like blood \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 beneath skin, through veins emptied me of my self \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 filled me \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 with the Beloved till every limb \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 every organ was seized \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 and occupied till only \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 my name remains. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 […]<\/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}]}}