Fakhruddin 'Iraqi
Fakhr al-dīn Ibrahīm (10 June 1213 – 1289), usually known simply as 'Al-Irāqī or 'Araqi, was a Persian philosopher and mystic of the Islamic tradition. His works synthesize the theoretical and practical elements of Sufi teachings.
Quotes
[edit]
but a thousand thoughts
Now all is reduced to
"There is no God but God."
- Since we have quaffed
the beaker of Thy love, we yield our hearts
and make our Lives Thy ransom: since we come
again into Thy street, we turn our backs
on all that is, save Thee. Our souls are bound
to serve Thee, though in grief, and we have died
to selfhood! We are captives of Thy love
and have not strength to flee. Thy beauty's fever
has lit a flame: shall not our hearts be burned?- "We Yield Our Hearts" ~ Poetry for the Spirit: Poems of Universal Wisdom and Beauty (2002) Edited by Alan Jacobs
Lama’at (Divine Flashes)
[edit]- Before this there was one heart
but a thousand thoughts
Now all is reduced to
"There is no God but God."
- The Morning of Manifestation sighed,
the breeze of Grace breathed gently,
ripples stirred
upon the sea of Generosity.
The clouds of Abundance poured down the rain
upon the soil of preparedness;
so much rain that the earth shone with Light.
- Beloved, I sought you
here and there,
asked for news of you
from all I met;
then saw you through myself
and found we were identical.
Now I blush to think I ever
searched for signs of you.
- They look, they see, but do not comprehend.
They take no pleasure in the View,
For to enjoy it one must know
through the Truth of Certainty
What he is seeing,
through Whom, and why.
- Know yourself: a cloud
drifting before your sun.
Cut yourself off from your senses
and behold your sun of intimacy.
- By day I praised You
but never knew it;
by night slept with You
without realising;
fancying myself
to be myself;
but no, I was You
and never knew it.
- The Beloved's Loveliness owns
a hundred thousand faces;
gaze upon a different fair one
in every atom;
for She needs must show
to every separate thing
a different aspect
of Her beauty.
- Expressions are many
but Thy loveliness is one;
Each of us refers
to that single Beauty.
Fakhruddin Iraqi: Divine Flashes (1982)
[edit]- As translated by William Chittick, Peter Wilson and Seyyed Hossein Nasr
- It speaks to me in the silence of this one
then through the words of that one speaking;
it whispers to me through an eyebrow raised
and the message of an eye winking.
- I am Love: in heaven and earth I have no place;
I am the Wondrous Phoenix whose spoor cannot be traced.
- Like the sun I brighten each atom's cheek;
I cannot be pinpointed: I am too manifest.
I speak with every tongue, listen with all ears,
but marvel at this: My ears and tongue are erased.
Since in all the world only I exist
above and below, no likeness of me can be found.
- Love plays its lute behind the screen —
where is a lover to listen to its tune?
- The world has spilled Love's secret —
when could music ever hold its tongue?
Every atom babbles the mystery —
Listen yourself, for I'm no tattletale!
- Love the phoenix cannot be trapped
nor in heaven or earth can it be named;
no one has yet discovered its address:
its desert holds not a single footprint.
- The world but seems to be
yet is nothing more
than a line drawn
between light and shadow.
Decipher the message
of this dream-script
and learn to distinguish time
from Eternity.
