~I sought her from myself~
By~Umar Ibn al-Farid
~◆~
I sought her from myself,
she was there all along;
how strange that I
had concealed her from me.
I kept going back and forth
with her, within myself --
my senses drunk,
her beauties, my wine --
Setting out
from certain knowledge
to its source and truth,
reality my quest,
Calling to myself from me
to guide me by my voice
to that part of me
lost in my search.
Me begging me
to raise the screen
by lifting up the veil,
for I was my only means to me.
I was gazing
into the mirror of my beauty
to see the perfection of my being
in my contemplation of my face,
And mouthing my name, I listened
and leaned toward me,
looking to one who could make me hear
mention of me in my voice,
Placing my hands
upon my heart,
hoping to hold me
there in my embrace,
Rising toward my breaths
pleading they would pass by me
that I might find
me there.
Until a flash appeared
from me to my eye;
the break of my dawn shone clear,
my dark sky disappeared.
There, where reason recoils,
I arrived,
and my bond and union
reached to me from myself.
Then I glowed in joy,
as I attained to me
with a certainty that spared me
from my journey's hard ride.
I led myself to me
after I called me back;
my soul my means,
my guide to me.
When I pulled away
the curtains of sensuous disguise
brought down
by the mysteries of wisdom,
I raised the screen from my soul
by lifting up the veil,
and so it answered
my question.
I had rubbed the rust of my attributes
from the mirror of my being,
and it was encircled
with my beaming rays,
And I summoned me to witness me
since no other existed
in my witness
to rival me.
My mentioning my name
made me hear it in my recollection
as my soul, negating sense,
said my name and listened.
I hugged myself --
but not by wrapping arms around my ribs --
that I might embrace
my identity.
I inhaled my spirit,
while the air of my breath
perfumed scattered ambergris
with fragrance,
All of me free
from the dual quality of sensation,
my freedom within,
(from The Poem of the Sufi Way)English version by
~Th. Emil Homerin~
(By~Umar Ibn al-Farid in
Original Language Arabic)
(`Umar ibn `Alī ibn al-Fārid ) (22 March 1181 – 1234) was an Arab poet,
His poetry is entirely
Sufic , and he was esteemed the greatest mystic poet of the Arabs. Some of his poems are said to have been written in ecstasies. The poetry of Shaykh Umar Ibn al-Farid is considered by many to be the pinnacle of Arabic mystical
verse, though surprisingly he is not widely known in the West. ( Rumi , probably the best known in the West of the great Sufi poets, wrote primarily in Persian, not Arabic.) Ibn al-Farid's two masterpieces are The Wine Ode , a beautiful meditation on the “wine” of divine bliss, and “ The Poem of the Sufi Way ”, a profound exploration of spiritual experience along the Sufi Path and perhaps the longest mystical poem composed in Arabic. Both poems have inspired in-depth spiritual commentaries throughout the centuries, and they are still reverently memorized by Sufis and other devout Muslims today.
Ecstasies
During the later part of his life, Ibn al-farid was known to enter into spiritual raptures known as jadhabat in Arabic, a common occurrence in sufism .
Normally described as being handsome, his son wrote that when a mystical state overcame him, his face would increase in beauty and brightness. Sweat would pour from his body and collect at the ground beneath his feet, which was a result of jumping and dancing. He would also take forty-day fasts, during which he would neither eat, drink nor sleep.
During one particular ecstasy, the Shaykh screamed out and danced in the middle of the market
bazaar . Others in the market began to join in and dance with them, causing a commotion with some of them falling on the ground. Ibn al-Farid threw off all of his clothes, an act which members of the crowd repeated. The crowd carried the Shaykh in his underwear to the Azhar mosque where he remained in this state for some days afterward.
Ibn al-Farid claimed to see many things happen that could be considered to be out of this world. He wrote of a lion kneeling down to him and asking him to ride. He also wrote of seeing a man descending a mountain, floating without using his feet. He claimed that a “great green bird” came down at the funeral of the greengrocer and “gobbled up his corpse”. He also claimed to have conversed with Mohammad in a dream.
Ibn al-Farid’s son Kamal al-Din Muhammad described his ecstasies or trances as sometimes lasting ten consecutive days without eating, drinking, moving, speaking or hearing outside noises. He would alternately stand, sit, lie on his side and “throw himself down on his side.” When he came to, his first words would be a dictation of the verse God had given him.
(Information from wikipedia)
English version by
~Th. Emil Homerin~
(By~Umar Ibn al-Farid in
Original Language Arabic)
