Radical Love

n ew h aven a n d lon d on
Translated and Edited by Omid Safi


Radical
Love
Teachings from
the Islamic
Mystical
Tradition
 Copyright © 2018 by Omid Safi. All rights reserved. This book may
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To my beloved Corina
belonged for all eternities

who makes Eshq

real
to me
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 Contents

Introduction: Islam’s Path of Radical Love  xix

G od of Love

Whichever Way You Turn  Qur’an  3

One Love  Qur’an  4
Not This, Not That. Both This and That  Ahmad Ghazali  5
The Opening  Qur’an  6
Love and Justice  Qur’an  8
A God Closer Than . . .  Qur’an  9
God Intervenes  Qur’an  10
Signs of God  Qur’an  11
Enter Inside My Servants  Qur’an  12
Remembrance of God  Qur’an  13
Never Give Up Hope  Qur’an  14
Face of God  Qur’an  15
Wherever  Qur’an  16
Where Is God?  Hadith  17
Muhammad as Mercy  Qur’an  18
Perfect Our Light  Qur’an  19
God’s Mercy  Hadith Qudsi  20
Hidden Treasure  Hadith Qudsi  21
God, Love, and Beauty  Hadith  22
Show Mercy  Hadith  23
For the Sake of Muhammad  Hadith Qudsi  24
A Heart to Contain God  Hadith Qudsi  25
Uninterrupted Lightning  ‘Amr ibn ‘Uthman al-Makki  26
A Moment  Hadith  27
Know Thyself  Hadith Qudsi  28
God Sees Your Hearts  Hadith  29
Lord of the Ka‘ba  Farid al-Din ‘Attar  30
Removing Dirt from the Path  Abu Sa‘id-e Abi ’l-Khayr  31
Divine Qualities  Hadith Qudsi  33
Beloved So Close to Me  Sa‘di  34
Be at Ease  Sahl al-Tostari  35
The Heart of Your Friend  Khwaja ‘Abdullah Ansari  36
Something Else  Sabri Brothers  37
Saying “I”  Abu Bakr Kharraz  38
Forgiveness  Hafez  39
You Are Greater  Abu ‘Abd al-Rahman Muhammad ibn
al-Husayn al-Sulami  40
God in Search of Humanity  Hadith Qudsi  41
A Single Breath  ‘Attar  42

viii
It’s All Him!  ‘Attar  43
Muhammad, the Maternal Prophet  ‘Attar  45
At Last  Hazrat Inayat Khan  46
Heart, Lord  Abu ’l-Husayn al-Nuri  47
No Way to Treat a Friend  Rabi‘a  48
Forgive Freely!  Ansari  49
God’s Path  Fakhr al-Din ‘Iraqi  50
Love, Harmony, and Beauty  Hazrat Inayat Khan  51
Prayer of Rabi‘a  Rabi‘a  53
This and That  ‘Iraqi  54
Lord of the Path  Abu Sa‘id  55
No Heaven, No Hell  Abu ’l-Hasan Kharaqani  56
But I Know  ‘Attar  57
Seeing Nothing Other than God  Sa‘di  59
God’s Not Lost  ‘Attar  60
My Only Shame  Qa’ani  61
Door Never Closed  Rabi‘a  62
A Deal with God  Kharaqani  63
Where Do You See God?  Kharaqani  64
My Only Need  Rayhana “the Enraptured”  65
Seeing God  Kharaqani  67

ix
God’s Lap  Shebli  68
Everywhere You Look  Kharaqani  69
Finding God  Kharaqani  70

Path of Love

Say Nothing  Jalal al-Din Balkhi (Rumi)  73

Muhammad on Perfume, Women, and Prayer  Hadith  76
Water Takes on the Color of the Cup  ‘Iraqi  77
Many Paths to the Ka‘ba  Rumi  78
Pain  Rumi  79
Looking for God in Hearts  Hadith Qudsi/Rumi  80
A Love Beyond Time  Rumi  82
Accept Whatever Comes from God  Rumi  83
Everything Sings  Abu Sa‘id  84
An Awake Heart  Hadith  85
Martyr of Love  Hadith  86
Mi‘raj (Heavenly Ascension)  Rumi  87
I Want Not to Want  Sa‘di  88
Nothing Owns You  Abu Nasr al-Sarraj  89
Joy Inside the Heart  Rumi  90
Ocean of Sorrow  Rumi  91

x
A Blazing Lightning  Shebli  92
Leaping Heavenward  Rumi  93
A Secret  Rumi  94
Wordless Secrets  Rumi  95
Endless Beloved  Zol Nun  96
Sound of One-Handed Clapping  Rumi  97
Power of the Words of Love  Sumnun  99
What Can Express Love?  Sumnun  100
If You Have Lost Heart . . .  Rumi  101
Come, Come Again!  Abu Sa‘id or Baba Afzal Kashani,
commonly attributed to Rumi  102
Heaven  Rumi  104
By Any Means Necessary  ‘Ayn al-Qozat Hamadani  105
Don’t Be Meek in This Love  Kharaqani  106
God’s Loving Glances  Rumi  107
This, Too . . .  ‘Attar  108
A Short Journey  Kharaqani  109
This Is Love!  Rumi  110
Dance in the Light of God  Rumi  112
God-seer  Rumi  113
Not Every Eye  Rumi  114
Become Whole  ‘Attar  116

xi
Conforming to God  Lubaba the Worshiper  117
For the Love of Humanity  ‘Ayn al-Qozat  118
Love as Ascension  Ruzbehan Baqli  119
A Heart No Longer Mine  ‘Ayn al-Qozat  120
A Garden Among the Flames  Ibn ‘Arabi  121
Such Wonders  ‘Iraqi  122
A Cut Diamond  Hazrat Inayat Khan  123
Words of Love  Hafez  124
Ka‘ba and Synagogue  ‘Iraqi  125
God as Love  Rumi  126
Friends and Enemies  al-Sulami  127
Love Is the GPS  Rumi  128
Each of Us Has a Jesus Inside  Rumi  129
Every Desire Is a Desire for God  Rumi  131
You Are That  Rumi  132
Many Roads to the Ka‘ba  Rumi  133
Old Skin  Kharaqani  135
Frenzied Ocean of Love  ‘Attar  136
Love Tips the Scale Over  Rumi  137
A Treasure in Ruins  ‘Attar  138
What’s All This?  ‘Attar  139
God Breathed with Her  ‘Attar  140

xii
Secret of Your Heart  ‘Attar  141
Unafraid  ‘Attar  142
Waking Up Intoxicated  Rabi‘a  144
Heart Awakens  ‘Attar  145
What Am I?  ‘Attar  146
A Treasure in Every Ruin  Rumi  147
Your Nothingness  Kharaqani  148
The Heart’s Light  Rumi  149

Lover and B eloved

As It Shall Be Then  Rumi  153

Beloved in Embrace, Wine at Hand  Hafez  154
Sleepless  Sa‘di  157
My Beloved  Abu Nu‘aym Isfahani  158
Mingling  Rumi  159
Love Seeds  Rumi  161
Breeze  Amir Khosrow Dehlavi  162
Finding You  Abu Nu‘aym Isfahani  163
Hundred Ways of Prayer  Rumi  164
Mine . . . Yours  Oral tradition, contemporary Sufis  165
Abode of Demons  ‘Iraqi  166

xiii
My Beloved’s Face  Abu Sa‘id  167
A New Love  Rumi  168
How Can I?  Sa‘di  169
You Are What You Seek  Rumi  170
Same Love  Abu Sa‘id  171
You and I  Rumi  172
Such a Beloved  Hallaj  174
I Fear God . . .  Rumi  175
Love Beyond Death  Rumi  177
Realm of Love  Rumi  178
Who’s Seen Such a Love?  Rumi  181
I Need to Go Back  Rumi  182
I’m Yours  ‘Attar  183
Tired of Beasts and Demons  Rumi  185
Pretending to Whisper  ‘Ayn al-Qozat  188
I Am Layla  ‘Iraqi  189
Be My Layla  Nezami  190
Hiding Inside My Poems  Amareh  191
Surrender  Hazrat Inayat Khan  192
Heart Thief  Sa‘di  193
I Wonder  ‘Iraqi  194
A Jealous Divine Beloved  ‘Iraqi  195

xiv
In You  ‘Iraqi  196
Without You  ‘Iraqi  197
I Wish  al-Sulami  198
Everything Is Forbidden  Rumi  199
Revelation to My Heart  Kharaqani  200
Give Me Back My Heart, Or . . .  ‘Attar  201
Together with a Partner in Paradise  Ruzbehan Baqli  202
Her Love Slays Me  ‘Attar  203
I Seek Her Wherever I Am  ‘Attar  206
Losing Two  ‘Attar  208
She Hushed Me  ‘Ayn al-Qozat  209

Beloved Com m u nit y

Humanity and Suffering  Sa‘di  213

Mirrors  Hadith  214
All of the Path  Qushayri  215
Togetherness  Hadith  216
Laughing, Crying  Abu Sa‘id  217
On Saying Farewell to Friends  Yazid al-Muhallabi  218
Wherever You Are  Rumi  219
Heart Closed to Humanity  Hazrat Inayat Khan  220

xv
The Wound Is Where the Light Enters You  Rumi  221
The Broken-Hearted  Hadith Qudsi  223
Love Someone  Sa‘di  224
God Is Manifest  Rumi  225
Lord and Servant Leave  Sa‘di  226
A Single Soul  Hadith  227
Send Thy Peace  Hazrat Inayat Khan  228
Perfection of Love, Harmony, and Beauty  Hazrat Inayat
Khan  230
Bless All That We Receive  Hazrat Inayat Khan  231
Do Not Run After  al-Sulami  232
Digging a Hole  Hadith  233
Forget All the Good  al-Sulami  234
As Above, So Below  Hadith  235
Never Leave Your Friends  al-Sulami  236
Let Us Reconcile!  Rumi  237
Response to Love  al-Sulami  239
Soft as Soil  Rumi  240
As Long As  al-Sulami  241
Living Away from Loved Ones  al-Sulami  242
The Real Ka‘ba  Rumi  243
Serve Your Mother  Kharaqani  244

xvi
These Do Not Matter  Rumi  246
Judge Not  ‘Attar  247
Accept Without Blame  Mu‘adha Umm al-Aswad  248
Idol Maker  ‘Attar  249
Loving the Artist  ‘Aisha, the daughter of Abu ‘Uthman  250
A Raging Hellfire  ‘Attar  251
Give It Away  ‘Attar  252
Every Breath Is a Jewel  ‘Attar  253
Idols Inside  Rumi  254
What’s Your Puddle of Piss?  Rumi  255
Our Brokenness  Rumi  256
Remove the Ka‘ba  Shams-e Tabrizi  257
Don’t Blame the Night  Rumi  259
God Remains  ‘Iraqi  260
 
Sources  263
Index of Authors and Sources  283

xvii
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 Introduction: Islam’s Path of Radical Love

The great mystic poet Farid al-Din ‘Attar tells a moving story
about a saint who had a vision of God in his dreams. In this
vision, the whole of humanity, all who have ever been and shall
ever be, are gathered before God. God presents them with a
series of rewards that they can choose from. In the first offer,
God asks them, “Who here wishes to have the totality of
worldly desires?” Nine out of ten of those gathered choose these
worldly pleasures. God says to them, “It is granted onto you,”
and they depart.
Of those who remain, God asks: “Who here wishes to be
spared hellfire?” Again, nine out of ten raise their hands. God
again says: “It is granted onto you,” and they depart. Next,
God asks the remaining minority who wishes to have a taste
of heaven. Nine out of those who remain raise their hand, and
God says to them: “It is granted onto you,” and they depart.
At long last, there is but a handful of devoted lovers of God,
not enchanted by worldly desires, unafraid of the torment of
hellfire, and not seduced by the promise of paradise. This time
the voice of God comes at them, thundering: “I offered you
redemption from hellfire, you chose it not. I offered you my
loftiest paradise, you chose it not. What, then, are you here for?”

xix
 They lowered their heads in humility and said:
“You. You yourself know Who we desire.”
 
The mystics who seek God as a Beloved before all else, above
heaven and hell, above salvation, spoke to God in intimate
whispers and prayers overflowing with radical love called
Monajat. This collection before you contains the love whispers
of these select few who desire God above all else, and have
found a way to God here and now through a love that ema-
nates from God and is unleashed upon creation. All of us are
told that we will meet God face to face in the Hereafter. These
mystics are boldly impatient. They want to see the face of God
Here and Now. The collection before you charts the poems and
teachings of a path of radical love, Eshq, journeyed by Muslim
sages, poets, dreamers, and lovers. It is this fierce love, a love
divine mingling with humanity, that has been a means of
spiritual ascension for these seekers who yearn to behold God
here and now.
Here is a light-filled spark arising from the very heart of
Muslim imagination, a poetic voice that looks to God through
a bold love that is at once transformative and redemptive,

xx
human and divine. This mystical path, one called Mazhab-e
eshq (Arabic: madhhab al-‘ishq), is often translated as the “Path
of Love,” but that seems timid and insufficient. The word love,
that most divine of qualities, has become flat, ubiquitous, and,
ironically, cheap. No, the Eshq (in Persian: ‘Eshq, simplified
here as Eshq; Arabic: ‘Ishq) that the Muslim mystics speak of
is something more fiery, fierce, and alchemical. It is a love that
by their own reckoning constantly spills over again and again,
overflowing whatever cup seeks to contain it. It is for that
reason that here I have rendered it as the path of radical love.
The path of Eshq is the path of love that spills over again and
again, and in a nod to the great jazz genius John Coltrane, we
can call it the Path of Love Supreme. Like many jazz musicians,
Coltrane had a deep fascination with Islam. Indeed many,
myself included, have heard his masterpiece A Love Supreme
as being also a chant of “Allah Supreme.”
These love mystics have talked about the path (Mazhab/
madhhab) of radical love as being nothing less than God’s
own path, mazhab-e khoda. Hallaj (d. 922) and ‘Ayn al-Qozat
(d. 1131), both masters of this path of radical love, make this
point explicitly. This path of radical love is the path that leads

xxi
to God, as well as the path that God walks. Schools of Islamic
law are named after the great scholars who consolidated their
methodology; thus the Shafi‘i madhhab is named after Imam
al-Shafi‘i, the Hanafi madhhab after Imam Abu Hanifa, the
Ja‘fari madhhab after Imam Ja‘far Sadiq, and so on. But the
path of radical love, the Mazhab-e Eshq, is not named after a
mystic or a scholar, but is simply called God’s own path. Here
radical love and God are used interchangeably to denote love
as the very essence of the divine.
The more precious something is, the more likely it is to be
cheapened and abased. We have reduced love, this cosmic
divine force, to a small sliver of its full potency. Nowadays
when we speak about love, we almost exclusively refer to
romantic love. But for the mystics, love is light. Love comes
unabashedly, radiantly, in a thousand different shades and
colors that still blend into One. There is love of the friend, the
neighbor, the child, of the parent, the lover, the stranger, of
God and the prophets, of saints and sinners, love of the self,
love of the enemy, of nature, of realms seen and unseen. And
more. For these mystics, love is fire. It is a purifying fire that
burns away selfishness, greed, anger, ego, and leaves behind
nothing but God.

xxii
 For these love mystics, in order to know our own selves,
we have to know God. To know God, we have to learn the
mysteries of our own selves. And love is the key to unlocking
these mysteries. The very mystery of existence is explained
through divine love in a first-person saying attributed to the
Prophet Muhammad. This genre that is referred to as Sacred
Hadith, Hadith Qudsi, stands at the very heart of the mystical
path, and has God revealed as a Hidden Treasure:

I was a Hidden treasure

and I loved to be intimately known
So I created the heavens and the earth
that you may know Me
Intimately.

Here love is spoken of not as an emotion, not as a feeling

or sentiment (though it fills up each of them and overflows).
Rather, love is seen as nothing short of the very unleashing
of God onto this realm of being. It is through love that God
brings the cosmos into being, it is through love that we are
sustained, and it is by merging with the cosmic current of love
that we are led back Home.
In this saying God speaks in that intimate voice, the “I”

xxiii
voice—not the transcendent “He,” not the royal “We,” but the
deeply personal “I”:

I was a Hidden treasure

and the phrase above translated as “I loved to be intimately

known” is read as expressing a host of divine desires:

I loved,
I yearned,
I desired to be known intimately.

The root of the word for love here, God’s yearning and desire to
be known, ahbabtu, is said by some mystics to come from the
word for bubbles, hubab. It is as if the love desire bubbled up
inside God’s own heart, turning and churning until even God
could not restrain that desire anymore. This love rises up inside
of God until it bursts forth as creation, a mighty big bang of
love in the form of a desire to be known. There are many words
in Arabic for knowledge, and the one used in this hadith, u’rifa,
is to know intimately. God doesn’t want to be known discur-
sively, merely rationally, in the cool and distant intellect. God
wants to be tasted and known in our bones. God is whispering

xxiv
to humanity: “I yearn to be tasted.” The knowledge spoken
of here is something more intimate, more immediate, more
primal. It is a knowledge that mingles in our heart of hearts,
uniting and uplifting all that makes us human.
In the first few centuries of Islam, the mystics attempted to
divide love into two realms. They spoke of a Eshq-e Haqiqi,
“real love,” which was saved for God alone, and Eshq-e Majazi,
“metaphorical love,” which was the love that we as humans
share with one another. According to these early mystics,
human love was, in comparison with love for God, but a meta-
phor. It was as if we had to master the alphabet of human love
before we would compose the great sonnet of divine love. That
all changed with the eruption of the passionate path of radical
love mystics, sages, poets, and seekers. These were the luminous
souls who knew that there is, ultimately, One Love.
The mingling of this one love is what is reflected in the title
of this collection: Radical Love. This radical love is reflected in
a beautiful poem in which Rumi talks about this overflowing,
spilling-over love as one that mingles between God and human-
ity, humanity and humanity, this world and that world, here
and there, now and forever:

xxv
 Look:
love mingles with Lovers
 
See:
spirit mingling with body
 
How long will you see life
as “this”
and “that”?
 
“Good”
and “bad”?

Look at how this

and that
are mingled

A love mingled and mingling. These mystics—referred to as

Sufis—saw themselves as reaching for the same mingled and
mingling radical love and luminous mercy that pours out
through the Qur’an. After all, does not every chapter of the
Qur’an (except for one) start with a reminder of how God’s
mercy, compassion, and tenderness enfold the universe the way
that a mother contains an unborn child? While their path of a

xxvi
radical love is certainly one that is universally resonant, it also
has an unmistakable fragrance of the ascension of Muhammad.
All Muslims aspire to emulate Muhammad’s actions. These
mystics yearned for more. As Muhammad rose to see God face
to face, they too seek to ascend to see God face to face. All
humanity will encounter God in the hereafter. These mystics
want to see the Face of God here and now.
The path of radical love got its most clear articulation in a
short meditative prose text called Sawanih, which reads like the
love child of Platonic dialogues and Shakespearean sonnets in a
Persian garden. The author is Ahmad Ghazali, the younger and
much bolder brother of the famed Abu Hamid Muhammad
Ghazali, often referred to as the most important Muslim theo-
logian ever. The older brother is often considered on a par with
Augustine and Aquinas, but it is the younger brother Ahmad
who is the passionate and ecstatic love mystic who stands at a
pinnacle of Islam’s path of radical love. When the older Ghazali
had his well-documented spiritual crisis and left for a few years
of prayer and meditation in Jerusalem, the younger Ahmad
took over the most distinguished professorship in the pres­
tigious Nezamiyya madrasa, at the time perhaps the most

xxvii
esteemed institution of higher learning in the world. Ahmad
was a superb preacher, mystic, and writer, patronized by the
king and caliph alike. In our own age of vicious polemics
against Islam and defensive apologetics it might seem hard to
believe this, but at a zenith of Islamic civilization’s political
power it was a fiery passionate mystic whose sensual poetry
was preached from the pulpit and university in Baghdad.
Ahmad Ghazali composed a short book called the Sawanih
(Persian: Savaneh), which is a masterpiece of the path of radical
love. Ahmad begins this book offering praise to God and the
Prophet, and then immediately moves to discussing the mys-
teries of radical love, Eshq. He states that the reality of love
cannot be captured in words. Undaunted, he conceives of his
task through a beautiful and erotic metaphor. For him, writing
about love is akin to creating a private wedding chamber in
which the “men of words” can have union—with all of the
sensual and spiritual connotations of the word—with the
“virgin ideas” of radical love. For Ghazali, the inner reality of
this supreme and overflowing love has remained untouched
until then, but there would be union. In order for Ghazali to
create this union, he has one condition for the reader. Ghazali
will talk about the inner secrets of supreme love, provided that

xxviii
we not bifurcate love into a duality of human love and divine
love. For Ghazali and the mystics of the path of love supreme,
there would be One Love.
Later in the slim volume, Ghazali is even more specific about
the connection between human love and divine love: He goes
back to his favorite Qur’anic verse (with which he opens the
very first chapter of Sawanih):

God loves them;

They love God.

Qur’a n 5:54

In Arabic, the word used here for love, hubb, looks like this:

There is a dot under the letter B in Arabic and Persian. Ahmad

Ghazali goes back to the Qur’anic verse of “God loves them;
they love God,” and posits that the dot under the B in “God
loves them” is planted in the “them” of humanity. It is the seed
of love in this fertile heart’s soil that leads to the flower of love
in humanity. He concludes: this love is of the same color,
ham-rang, the same essence, as that divine love. The seed has

xxix
the same nature as the fruit, the fruit the same nature as the
seed.
In a metaphor that changes how we think about love and
spirit, Ghazali talks about the Spirit crossing over from the
realm of nonexistence toward the realm of existence. When it
gets to the very threshold of existence, love is already there
awaiting the Spirit. In other words, love is preexisting, pre­
eternal. This is consistent with the teachings of many mystics
who see love not as merely another divine quality, but the divine
quality par excellence, even perhaps equal to the being of God.
This love, a love that mingles between humanity and
divinity, is not an emotion but a doing, a being, a becoming. It
is a fire that cooks and burns, as Rumi is reported to have said:

The whole of my life

summed up in three phrases:

I was raw

then
I was burnt

Now,
I am on fire

xxx
 Perhaps a different way of putting it is to see love as alchemy.
Our modern word chemistry comes from the Arabic for al-
chemy, which is not a pseudoscience or primitive science but
rather a recognition that all of the cosmos shares in the same
ultimate substance. Alchemists knew that each of us have
something in us that is base like lead; yet everything in us that
is cheap and base can be illuminated and become “gold”-like.
Alchemy was ultimately the art of illumination and transforma-
tion. As Rumi says, it is through this radical love that the bitter
becomes sweet, the thorn turns into a rose, the pain contains
healing, and the dead come to life.
Ultimately, this radical love is channeled through humanity.
It has to be lived and embodied, shared and refined not in the
heavens but right here and now, in the messiness of earthly life.
The path to God goes through that most difficult of beings,
the human being. God is easy. We as human beings are hard.
Rumi’s biography tells the story beautifully. He had a
devotee who was born as a Christian named Seryanus, and took
the name Aladdin (‘Ala al-Din) as a Muslim. Seryanus, pulled
by the magnetic flame of love that burns through Rumi, had
converted to Islam and attempted to learn Rumi’s language,
Persian. Yet like so many of us who have attempted to express

xxxi
our deepest yearning and highest aspiration in a second and
third language, he kept using the wrong words in Persian. Like
Victorian English that distinguished between calling a human
being “lord” and calling God “Lord,” Persian had words that
could refer to the lord of a village or Lord of the cosmos. The
poor simpleton Seryanus kept referring to Rumi as “Lord.”
Some fanatical people in town dragged him before a judge,
putting him through an inquisition, wondering why he was
calling Rumi—a mere mortal—by the exalted title “Lord.”
Seryanus, flustered, retorted: “I always do this. I am so sorry, I
didn’t mean to call him Lord.” The judge, momentarily satis-
fied, held off and said: “What did you mean to call him?”
Seryanus confidently answered: khodaa-saaz, “God-maker”!
Justified in the accusers’ belief that Seryanus was in fact a
heretic, the judge was willing to sign off on having the new
convert put to death. Seryanus said again:

I always do this. I am so sorry.

I call him God-maker, because he makes God . . .
He makes God real to me.
Before I met him, God was a name that I called upon
by blindly following others.

xxxii
 Now
I know that God is real.

The history of Islam, like the histories of all religious

traditions, is filled with these human beings who make God
real, make love real, and let love shine. This collection of the
teachings of the path of supreme love, radical love, one love,
consists of four units. The first unit, “God of Love,” looks at
the ultimate teachings that locate the source of radical love not
just in God, but as God. The second, “Path of Radical Love,”
looks at the meditations on this overflowing fiery supreme and
radical love. The third, “Lover and Beloved,” looks at the dance
of love, this being and becoming. The last, “Beloved Commu-
nity,” looks at the path of love not merely as one toward God,
but also one of forming a beautiful community, a loving com-
munity, a beloved community here and now.
For the mystics of the path of love, this locating of God in
the very midst of humanity is reflected in how they read the
Qur’an. One example will suffice here. The Arabic language of
the Qur’an did not use commas and periods. There are many
places in the Qur’an where pausing after one word instead of
another can radically change the meaning of the whole verse.

xxxiii
One of the clear examples is in the verse that is often employed
upon hearing of a death. The verse addresses the “souls at
peace,” who are pleased with God as God is pleased with them.
The most obvious way of reading the verse is:

Enter inside,
O My servants,
and you have entered My garden.

But many mystics, including Rumi, read the same verse

differently. In reading it, as it were, without a comma, they
arrive at a radically different, and more powerful, reading:

Enter inside My servants,

and you have entered My garden.

In this reading, God’s supreme reward, the garden of para-

dise, is found when we enter inside the heart of one of God’s
beloveds, those who are pleased with God and with whom God
is pleased. In this mystical reading, the garden is not a physical
destination but a spiritual state that we discover here and now.

O soul at peace
return to your Lord

xxxiv
 You pleased with God
God pleased with you

Enter inside My servants,

you have entered My garden.

Qur’an 89: 27–30

This too is part of the path of love, where God’s supreme plea-
sure, the highest paradise, is attainable here and now, inside the
hearts of God’s loving devotees.
Love is not merely an emotion, but the very unleashing of
God on Earth. It is one that shapes our individual soaring to
God as much as it shapes what it means to live in harmony
with one another in a beloved community. To live in a beloved
community takes harmony, and a commitment to sharing finite
resources in a way that guarantees the dignity of all, meeting the
needs of everyone. That harmony we call justice. Many tradi-
tions link together the dimensions of love and social justice.
In Islam the realm of spirituality, Ihsan, rendered in the verse
below as “love,” literally means to bring into reality what is
good and beautiful. Ihsan, the dimension of love, harmony,
and beauty, is a commitment to realize and actualize love here

xxxv
and now. To be spiritually awake, we have to make goodness and
beauty real.
In a popular Prophetic tradition, Ihsan stands for the aspect
of the path to God that is higher than “whole-hearted surren-
der to God” (Islam) and “faith” (Iman). In the Qur’anic verse
below, the divine command links together this dimension of
love, mercy, and beauty (Ihsan) with that of social justice, in a
way that is reminiscent of the American civil rights tradition:
when love enters the public square, we call it justice.

This is God’s command:

love and justice.

Qur’an 16:90

In this Qur’anic verse, God commands humanity to both Ihsan

(rendered here as “love”) and justice. Love and justice are seen
as being intrinsically connected. This radical love is one that
moves inward and shows up as tenderness, and pours outward
and shines as justice. To be a mystic of the path of radical love
necessitates tenderness in our intimate dealings, and a fierce
commitment to social justice in the community we live in,
both local and global.

xxxvi
 On Translation
Translations of Sufi material have tended to suffer from two
tendencies. One genre has been that of literal, word-for-word
translations from Victorian scholars such as R. A. Nicholson
and A. J. Arberry, who boasted that their works have been “as
literal as possible, with a minimal concession to readability.” On
the other hand, we have the “versions” of contemporary trans-
lators who are working not from the original Persian/Arabic but
rather from the literal Victorian translations. In many cases,
they have sought to minimize the Islamic context and cast these
poems into a generic, universal model of spirituality. In a few
cases, such as almost all the material attributed to Rumi and
Hafez online, there is no earthly historical connection between
these materials and anything the mystic poets of history ever
uttered. This is particularly the case for the material attributed
to Hafez.
In all the material in this collection, I have referred back
to the original sources, and sought to provide a new English
translation that is evocative, fresh, accurate, and poetic. It
has to read as poetry in the new host language, and convey
something of the fire and spirit of the original, while preserv-
ing the symbols and references. In some cases I have decided

xxxvii
that a whole ghazal (a sonnet) may not work in English,
but a shorter selection from the poem does. The section for
sources at the end of this volume will enable those with
access to the original languages to trace them back to the
primary sources.

This Collection
The mystics of Islam see themselves as being rooted unam-
biguously in the word of God (the Qur’an) and the very being
of the Prophet. If I may be permitted a neologism, their poems
and stories are “Qur’an-ful,” filled with both direct and indirect
references to scripture. Mawlana Jalal al-Din Balkhi (known in
the West as Rumi), the luminous sage of radical love whose
poetry graces this collection more than any other writer’s, speaks
of his own work the Masnavi as being one that repeatedly and
emphatically unveils the beauty of the Qur’an. This unveiling is
both sensual and intellectual. The metaphor is quite literally
one of unveiling a bride at the night of union before achieving
oneness. It is a dis-covering, an uncovering, of the literal mean-
ing of scripture to yield the infinite layers of inner meaning
filled with pleasure, wonder, and beauties. The very act of

xxxviii
reading scripture, and reading one’s own heart, becomes a
pursuit of pleasure and discovery. Without these mystical
guides the bride of scripture remains veiled, her beauty unseen,
unknown, and untasted.
The mystics also have a direct relationship with the Prophet
Muhammad. All Muslims claim to follow the Prophet’s exam-
ple, Sunna. The mystics also claim a connection with the very
being of the Prophet, the light of the Prophet. Even in his own
lifetime, Rumi was referred to as the “offspring of the Soul of
Muhammad.” There have been Sunni Sufis and Shi‘i Sufis,
and collectively they have sought to bring unity to humanity
by transcending sectarianism. Whereas all Muslims, including
mystically inclined Muslims, emulate the actions of the Prophet,
it is the mystics who want the experience of the Prophet in
seeing God face to face. All of us will have to encounter God in
the hereafter; the mystics are merely more impatient. The pur-
pose of Muhammad’s ascension, Mi‘raj, was to behold the face
of God. These radical love mystics, the inheritors of the light of
Muhammad, also want to encounter God here and now.
Some Qur’anic verses posit Muhammad as a being of cosmic
significance. Key among them is the following verse, which

xxxix
states that Muhammad was sent as a mercy not only to this
universe but to all the universes, all the cosmos, all the realms
seen and unseen:

We sent you
Muhammad
as a mercy
To all the universes

Qur’an 21:107

The texts that identify these cosmic qualities of Muhammad are

recorded not only in the customary collections that all Muslims
(Sunni and Shi‘a) honor, but particularly through a special sub-
set of prophetic statements known as Hadith Qudsi or Sacred
Hadith. These are purported to be private communications
between Muhammad and God that convey the inner mysteries
of the path of radical love. In one such Hadith Qudsi, God
reveals to Muhammad how Divine love for Muhammad is the
very secret of creation. It is not merely that God is the “Hidden
Treasure” that yearns, loves, and desires to be known. Muham-
mad himself is named as the cause of all creation in the famed
lawlak (If not for you . . .):

xl
 If not for you, O Muhammad,
I would not have created the Heavens.

Ha di th Qudsi

Every tradition is a flowing stream. No tradition is static.

Truth is continuously and perpetually revealed, and there have
been thousands of women and men over the centuries whose
yearning for God bears the fragrance of the path of Muham-
mad. This collection also includes many of these intimate
friends of God, the awliya’. Here are some of their most
prominent members who stand out in this collection.

The Mystics
Mawlana Jalal al-Din Balkhi (d. 1273), known as Rumi
in the West. He is the masterful poet and saint who has left an
immense spiritual impact on Persia, South Asia, Central Asia,
and Turkey. He was born in the region where present-day
Afghanistan and Central Asia meet, journeyed through Persia,
and lived the rest of his days in Konya (present-day Turkey).
His masterpiece, the Masnavi, has had such an unrivaled
impact on Muslims’ imagination that it came to be called
the “Qur’an in Persian.” His lyrical collection of love poems,

xli
dedicated to his theophanic spiritual mentor, Shams-e Tabrizi,
is called the Divan-e Kabir or Divan-e Shams, and has been a
favorite of Sufi musicians for centuries. The Sufi community
that traces itself to him—known as the Mevlevis, or Whirling
Dervishes—is particularly well known in the West, due to its
iconic whirling, meditative dance. With one foot remaining
stationary and one in motion, the dervish connects together
the Earth and Heaven, reminding the audience of the need to
balance motion and stillness.
Abu ‘Abd al-Rahman Muhammad ibn al-Husayn al-Sulami.
Al-Sulami, who died in 1021, was a key figure in identifying the
adab (compassionate, selfless behavior) that has been seen as
much more than merely a component of the Path: it has been
equated with the whole of the Sufi path. His Tabaqat al-Sufiyya
is considered one of the most important collections of stories
about the lives of early Muslim mystics. He compiled a lovely
little book, Kitab al-Futuwwa (translated as The Way of Sufi
Chivalry) which identifies the etiquette of being in a Sufi com-
munity. Here chivalry has nothing to do with wearing armor or
being a knight, but rather with the ideals of compassion, gener-
osity, selflessness, and kindness. Another work by al-Sulami,
Dhikr al-muta‘abbidat al-sufiyyat, has been translated by Rkia E.

xlii
Cornell as Early Sufi Women. This work provides us with evi-
dence that contrary to earlier assumptions, there was much
more to the participation of women in the Sufi path than the
brief anecdotes of the noted female saint Rabi‘a.
Abu ’l-Hasan Kharaqani (d. 1033), a bold mystic from the
town of Kharaqan (present-day Iran), is one of the gentlest
lovers on the path of radical love. It was Kharaqani who wrote:
“Whoever falls in love passionately, a radical love that spills
over, finds God.” And the tale from Kharaqani in this collec-
tion, “A Deal with God,” gives an indication of his loving,
tender, friendly relationship with God. Kharaqani is the very
embodiment of the definition of the path of love as being “at
ease with God.”
Abu Sa‘id-e Abi ’l-Khayr (d. 1037) is yet another of the tower-
ing mystics from the region of Khorasan. He spent much of his
life around the region of Nishapur (in Khorasan, present-­day
Iran), and is often credited with establishing much of the com-
munal life of mystics in the form of the Sufi lodge, khanaqah.
The fact that the term for the Sufi communal gathering is said
to share a root with the word khana, meaning “home,” gives a
sense of the “homey” feeling a Sufi community should have.
Abu Sa‘id famously said that a real saint is not one who flies in

xliii
the air or walks on water, but simply one who continues to be
fully present with God in every breath even in the midst of
work and family.
Ahmad Ghazali (d. 1126) spent his life moving from the
region of Khorasan to Baghdad and Qazvin, covering modern-
day Iran and ‘Iraq. The younger brother of the more famed
Imam Abu Hamid Muhammad Ghazali (d. 1111), Ahmad, is
the author of the first book in Persian on radical love, called
Sawanih (Savaneh). It is in the Sawanih, as we have seen, that
Ahmad makes a bold claim: there is but One Love. Ghazali
promises to write a book of love provided there is no distinc-
tion made between divine love and human love. Whereas
previous Sufis talked about a distinction between real love (love
of God) and metaphorical love (love among humanity), Ahmad
Ghazali posits One Love, a divine love that preceded creation,
overflows to bring us here, sustains us here, and will deliver us
back home.
‘Ayn al-Qudat Hamadhani, or ‘Ayn al-Qozat Hamadani
(d. 1131), was a student and disciple of Ahmad Ghazali. The
brilliant and fiery ‘Ayn al-Qozat fleshes out the path of radical
love by making explicit much of what had been implicit before.
Whereas Ahmad Ghazali wrote in pithy poetic maxims, ‘Ayn

xliv
al-Qozat provided the subtle connections to verses of the
Qur’an and the teachings of the Prophet, earlier Sufi poetry,
and his own genius interpretation. While ‘Ayn al-Qozat lived
in western Iran, his writings on the path of radical love were
studied by Rumi and his circle in Turkey, in India, and else-
where. In particular, ‘Ayn al-Qozat’s masterpiece, the Tamhidat,
is one of the supreme gems of the path of radical love. ‘Ayn
al-Qozat, who was called the Sultan of Radical Love by later
Sufis, was martyred at the age of thirty-three for his bold polit-
ical critique of unjust rulers. Despite the brevity of his life, he
stands out as one of the most original giants of love mysticism
in Islam.
Mosleh al-Din Sa‘di (d. 1291 or 1292) was from Shiraz, in
Iran. The Rose Garden (Golestan) of Sa‘di epitomized what it
has meant to be a refined soul in the eastern part of the Muslim
majority world for the better part of the last millennium. The
text’s anecdotes and proverbs perfume the soul of Persian-­
speaking Muslims, and have become the very model of elegant
prose impregnated by beautiful poetry. While Sa‘di is usually
relegated to the realm of “humanism” or “ethics,” he also has
much to say about mystics and the path of love. As is worthy
of a sophisticated thinker, he recognizes that there are saints

xlv
and charlatans among those claiming to be Sufis. After all, is it
not the case that the more precious a subject, the more likely
there are to be forgeries and imitations? There are fake gold
coins, but no fake pennies. It is also Sa‘di who most directly
connects the message of kindness and tenderness to a broad
humanism. Every Persian speaker knows by heart his maxim
“Humanity is like members of one body, created out of the
same essence.” Far fewer know that Sa‘di was merely translating
and paraphrasing the humanistic wisdom of the Prophet
Muhammad, who expressed the same truth in a hadith. Sa‘di
is also the master of sublime love sonnets, several of which are
translated here.
Fakhr al-Din ‘Iraqi was another of the giants of the path of
radical love. He hailed from Hamadan in western Iran, and
died in 1289. More or less a contemporary of Rumi, he marked
the trend that consisted of blending together the love mysti-
cism of the path of radical love with the lofty metaphysics of
the Andalusian mystic Ibn ‘Arabi. It was ‘Iraqi’s Lama‘at (trans-
lated as Divine Flashes) which became a much beloved and
commented upon masterpiece everywhere in the Persian world.
His sensual writings spoke of a beloved in the most tender

xlvi
terms: “You are my life and soul. Without you, I don’t breathe
well.” He theorized how the Divine Beloved would be mani-
fested in the form of human lovers and beloveds. Significantly
for gender purposes, ‘Iraqi understood that God is revealed in
both male and female forms, both “Adam” and “Eve.” ‘Iraqi
boldly proclaims God as being none other than radical love
(Eshq), and even expressed a distinctly mystical notion of the
“Trinity,” in which love, lover, and beloved are all seen as One,
as none other than God.
By some accounts, the poetry collection of Khwaja Shams
al-Din Muhammad Hafez of Shiraz (d. 1390) known as the
Divan-e Hafez is among the most widely circulated texts in
the history of Islam. Hafez is the great master of ambiguity,
sensuality, and spiritual intoxication. His honorific “Hafez”
indicates one who has committed the whole of the Qur’an
to heart, yet another reminder of the intimate relationship
between love mystics and scripture. No other poet is as intent
on locating passionate ecstatic love here and now, in this very
realm, as much as in the eternities to come. Hafez loathes
spiritual hypocrisy, and mocks those who perform acts of
piety to impress the gullible. But he is a seeker after God’s

xlvii
own heart, one who sees the divine in the form of his earthly
beloveds:

A roselike beauty
in my embrace

Wine
at hand

Beloved,
pleased

Next to me
the sultan of the whole world
would be a servant

Hafez recognizes that love is the divine keepsake. It is simulta-

neously the unleashing of God onto this realm, and a reminder
of that divine origin:

I’ve heard
nothing lovelier
than the melody of love

a keepsake
lingering

xlviii
 in this whirling
azure dome

Farid al-Din ‘Attar (d. 1221) too arises from that rich region
of Khorasan, present-day Iran, home to so many giants in the
realm of the spirit. Perhaps no other early figure has done as
much to weave together poetry and Sufism in the path of
radical love. His Manteq al-tayr, (“Conference of the Birds”), is
a mystical allegory of the journey of a group of birds to behold
God. Like the journey of the birds—which in so many tradi-
tions symbolize spirits—the journey of mystics is not an indi-
vidual one but a collective one. When the birds arrive at the
zenith of their journey they find the Ultimate Beloved to be
but a reflection of their own selves. Indeed, as the Prophet said,
to know God we have to know ourselves.
Yet they act surprised, unsure, and perhaps even unworthy.
They complain that there is no clear path before them. And as
‘Attar says, it is when we take the first step on the path of love
that the path appears under our feet. Perhaps this is how it has
to be: we must begin.
As the birds of the spirit in ‘Attar’s tale soared together, I
invite you to join us on this journey of love. May you find in

xlix
these poems, in these luminous and fierce teachings of radical
love from the heart of the Islamic tradition a mirror—one to
reflect to you the beauty of your own soul.

Look!
This is love
­­—to soar toward the heavens

l
 G O D O F L OV E


For the mystics of the path of radical love, love (Eshq) is not
a sentiment or an emotion. It is the very overflowing of God
onto this realm. It is this radical love that erupts out of God,
bringing us into being. It is this love that sustains us, and it will
be this cosmic current that will carry us back home.
God may have a hundred names, but the qualities of love,
mercy, kindness, and tenderness are the very essence of God’s
own being.
God’s qualities of love and mercy flow through fully realized
human beings. The light of God shines in prophets and saintly
beings, particularly Muhammad, who has been sent as a mercy
to all the different universes.


This page intentionally left blank
 Whichever Way You Turn

To God belong
all that is in the East
and in the West
 
God’s is the place of sun rising
and the place of sun setting
 
So whichever way you turn
there is His face
there’s His core being
 
He wraps around you
He knows. . . .

Qur’an


 One Love

Soon God will bring forth a people

He will love them
they will love Him

Qur’an


 Not This, Not That
Both This and That

I will write you a book on Radical Love

provided you do not bifurcate it
into Divine Love
and Human Love

Ahma d Gha z a li


 The Opening

We begin in the Name of God

Everlasting Mercy, Infinite Compassion
 
Praise be to God
Loving Lord of all the worlds
 
Everlasting Mercy
Infinite Compassion
 
Eternal Strength of every living being,
Whose Majestic Power embraces us on the day of the great
return
 
Only You do we adore, and to You alone do we cry for help
 
Guide us, O God, on the path of Perfect Harmony,
the path of those whom You have blessed with the gifts of
Peace, Joy,
Serenity and Delight
 
the path of those who are not brought down by grief-stricken
rage,
 

the path of those who are not lost along the way
 
Amin!
So be it.

Qur’ an


 Love and Justice

This is God’s command:

love & justice

Qur’an


 A God Closer Than . . .

I created humanity
I know what whispers into your soul . . .
and I am closer to you
than the beating of your heart

Qur’a n


 God Intervenes

God intervenes between

a man
and his ever-changing heart

Qur’a n


 Signs of God

We shall show them our Signs

on the horizons
and inside their own souls
until it becomes clear to them
that He
is God;
 
God
is Truth

Qur’an


Enter Inside My Servants

O soul at peace
return to your Lord
 
You pleased with God
God pleased with you
 
Enter inside My servants,
you have entered My Garden

Qur’a n


Remembrance of God

The remembrance of God

brings serenity
to hearts

Qur’a n


 Never Give Up Hope

O My servants
who have sinned
against your own souls
Never give up hope
Of God’s mercy
He forgives sins
altogether
He is All-Forgiving,
Ever-Merciful

Qu r’a n


 Face of God

Everything on the Earth

is perpetually vanishing
 
But the face of your cherishing Lord
remains
 
Full of splendor
and grace

Qur’an


 Wherever

God is with you

wherever you are

Qur’a n


 Where Is God?

Muhammad was once asked:

“Where is God?”
 
He answered:
“In the hearts of His servants”

Hadi th


Muhammad as Mercy

We sent you
Muhammad
as a mercy
to all the universes

Qur’an


 Perfect Our Light

Our Lord!
Perfect our Light for us
and grant us forgiveness . . .

Qur’a n


 God’s Mercy

God has proscribed upon Himself:

 
“Indeed My mercy comes before,
goes after,
and takes over My wrath”

Ha di th Qudsi


 Hidden Treasure

I was a Hidden Treasure

and I yearned,
I loved
to be known
intimately
 
So I created the heavens and the Earth
so that they may know Me
intimately

Had ith Qudsi


God, Love, and Beauty

God is beautiful
and loves beauty

Ha di th


 Show Mercy

All-Merciful God
shows mercy
to those who are merciful
 
Show mercy to those on Earth
and the Heavens will show you mercy

Had ith


For the Sake of Muhammad

If not for you,

Muhammad,
I would not have created
the Heavens

Ha di th Qudsi


 A Heart to Contain God

My Heaven cannot contain Me

neither can My Earth
 
But the heart
of My faithful devotee
suffices Me

Hadi th Qudsi


 Uninterrupted Lightning

When the lights of Divine self-revelation

manifest to the heart
it is clear
and uninterrupted
Like
lightning
in the middle of a starless night
The night
turns into day

‘Am r i bn ‘Ut hman a l-Ma k k i


 A Moment

I have this eternal moment

this very Now
with God
a moment
so intimate
that there is no room for
any angel brought near
or any prophet sent down

Ha di th


 Know Thyself

To know God
intimately
 
intimately
know yourself
 
“He who knows his own soul
knows his Lord”

H adi th Qudsi


 God Sees Your Hearts

God does not look at your external form

and not your actions
 
God casts loving glances
toward your hearts

H ad it h


 Lord of the Ka‘ba

Rabi‘a was heading for pilgrimage toward Mecca.

 
In the middle of the desert,
she saw that the house of God,
the Ka‘ba itself,
had come to welcome her.
 
She said:
 
“I need the Lord of the House.
What am I to do with the Ka‘ba?”

Farid al - D i n ‘Atta r


 Removing Dirt from the Path

Master ‘Abd al-Karim, who used to serve Abu Sa‘id, said that
when he was a child, his father brought him to Abu Sa‘id. Abu
Sa‘id subtly looked over at a piece of trash that was in the Sufi
lodge, and pointed to it. ‘Abd al-Karim went over and picked
it up.
 
The Shaykh said: “Bring it over.”
He said: “What do you call this in your language?”
I said: “Trash.”
 
The Shaykh said: “Know that this world and the hereafter are
the trash on the path to the Beloved. Until you remove the
trash from the path, you cannot arrive at the goal.”
 
This is why the Leader of the World (Prophet Muhammad),
peace and blessings be upon him, said: “The lowest level of
faith is to remove the dirt from the path.”
 
Then he said:
“Whatever is not of God, is no-thing.
Whoever is not of God, is no-one.”
 


Wherever you are with your notion of “you,”
that’s hell.
Wherever you discard your notion of “you,”
that’s heaven.

Abu S a‘ id - e Abi ’l- Khayr


 Divine Qualities

Adorn yourself
With Divine Qualities

Ha di th Qudsi


 Beloved So Close to Me

The Beloved is closer to me

Than my own self
 
The problem is this:
I am far from Him
 
What am I to do?
Whom can I tell about this?
 
The Beloved is so close to me
and I
am far
far away

S a‘di


 Be at Ease

The Path is
 
To be at ease
with God

Sahl al-Tos tari


 The Heart of Your Friend

O God,
In this world I sinned,
which saddened your friend,
Muhammad,
and delighted your enemy,
Satan
 
If you punish me in the next world
it would yet again sadden your friend
Muhammad
and again delight your enemy
Satan
 
Do not sadden the heart of your friend
twice
 
Forgive

Kh waja ‘Ab dull a h Ansari


 Something Else

I’ve searched from horizon to horizon

Seeking the love of beautiful souls
Seen lots of good and beautiful ones
But you
Muhammad
You
are something else

S abri Brothers


 Saying “I”

Only God
has the right
to say “I”

Abu Bak r K harraz


 Forgiveness

A secret whisper came to me

from the Tavern’s corner
 
“Drink!
He forgives.”
 
God’s grace is bigger
than my sin

Hafe z


 You Are Greater

My sin is great,
but You are greater than my sin

Abu ‘Abd a l- Rahma n Muha mma d

ibn al- Husayn a l-Sul ami


God in Search of Humanity

He who seeks Me
finds Me
 
He who seeks other than Me
will never find me
 
Pious souls yearn to behold Me
I yearn more to behold them

Hadi th Qudsi


 A Single Breath

To take a single breath

in the presence of God
is greater than all the treasures on Earth
or in Heaven

‘Attar


 It’s All Him!

The throne is on the water

The whole world is up in the air
Forget water and air:
It’s all God!
 
The throne and the world
are nothing other than talismans
to conjure Him
 
He alone is,
other than Him
there is nothing but names.
 
Look carefully!
This world,
that world
are all Him!
 
There is nothing other than Him.
And if there was,
even that
is also Him!
 

It’s all one Essence
defined through His attributes
 
To be a man of God
you have to know your King
even if you see your King
in a hundred robes

‘Atta r


Muhammad, the Maternal Prophet

I am like that child

swirling around in water
anxious
I flail my arms around
 
Be generous!
right now
cast a compassionate glance
to us children of the path
who are drowning
 
Have mercy
on our anxious hearts
save us from this water
through your kindness and grace
 
Suckle us
from your breast of generosity
 
Don’t keep from us
this feast of grace

‘Atta r

 At Last

I searched and searched and searched

and I could not find Thee anywhere
 
I called Thee aloud, standing on the minaret
I rang the temple bell
with the rising and setting of the sun
 
I bathed in Ganges in vain
I came back from Ka‘ba disappointed
 
I looked for Thee in heaven
my Beloved, my Pearl
 
But at last I have found Thee
hidden in the shell of my heart.

Haz rat Inayat Kha n


 Heart, Lord

Finding my Lord
I lost my heart
 
Finding my heart
I lost my Lord

Abu ’l-Husayn a l-N uri


 No Way to Treat a Friend

Rabi‘a said:
 
O my God!
If tomorrow
you send me to hell
I’ll cry out:
“I loved you!
Is this how you treat your friends?”
 
The voice of God responded:
“O Rabi‘a!
Don’t think so poorly of Me!
 
I’ll raise you among My friends
so you and I can speak!”

R ab i‘a


 Forgive Freely!

My God!
You created freely
gave me sustenance freely
so forgive freely!
 
You are God
not an accountant

Ansa ri


 God’s Path

They asked Hallaj:

“Which path do you follow?”
 
He answered:
“God’s path”

Fak hr al-D i n ‘ Iraq i


 Love, Harmony, and Beauty

Praise be to Thee, Most Supreme God,

Omnipotent, Omnipresent, All-pervading,
the Only Being.
 
Take us in Thy Parental Arms,
raise us from the denseness of the earth,
 
Thy Beauty do we worship,
to Thee do we give willing surrender.
 
Most Merciful and Compassionate God,
the Idealized Lord of the whole humanity,
 
Thee only do we worship, and toward Thee Alone we aspire.
Open our hearts toward Thy Beauty
 
Illuminate our souls with Divine Light,
O Thou, the Perfection of Love, Harmony and Beauty,
All-powerful Creator, Sustainer,
Judge and Forgiver of our shortcomings,
Lord God of the East and of the West,


 of the worlds above and below,
and of the seen and unseen beings:
 
Pour upon us Thy Love and Thy Light,
give sustenance to our bodies, hearts and souls,
 
use us for the purpose that Thy Wisdom chooseth,
and guide us on the path of Thine Own Goodness.
 
Draw us closer to Thee every moment of our life,
until in us be reflected Thy Grace, Thy Glory,
Thy Wisdom, Thy Joy and Thy Peace.
Amen.

H azrat Inayat Kha n


 Prayer of Rabi‘a

O Lord,
 
If I worship you
for fear of hell
burn me in that hell
 
If I worship you
hoping for paradise,
make it forbidden for me
 
But if I worship you
only for your own sake
Do not withhold from me
your everlasting beauty

Rab i ‘a


 This and That

You are manifest

you are hidden
both
 
Not this
not that
 
Yet . . .
 
This,
and that.
 
How can you be manifest
when you’re always hidden?
 
How can you be hidden
when you’re eternally plain to see?

‘I raqi


 Lord of the Path

A man said to Shaykh Yahya ibn Mu‘adh al-Razi:

 
You know
so much about the spiritual path
 
yet are so ignorant
about the Lord of the Path

Abu S a‘ id


 No Heaven, No Hell

O my God
how good would it be
if there were no heaven
and no hell
 
So we’d see
who truly
worships you

Abu ’l-Hasan Kha raqani


 But I Know

‘Attar tells the story of how Gabriel heard God’s tender

response of “I am with you” coming from the highest realm of
Paradise. He wondered which servant of God would deserve
such a response. All that Gabriel knew was that it had to be one
of a high spiritual rank, one who had rid himself of his ego,
and had an awake heart. Gabriel looked all over the seven
heavens, in the sea, and in the oceans. Yet again he looked all
over the cosmos, and found no one to match that lofty rank. So
he asked God to guide him. God said to go to Byzantium, and
look in the monastery. Gabriel came there, and found one
person who was bowing down before an idol, weeping. He
returned to God, and said:
 
O you without need, unveil this mystery for me!
How can it be that this one is calling on an idol,
and you’re answering through your grace?
 
God Almighty said: His heart is not filled with light.
He doesn’t know.
Not knowing,
he’s gone astray.
 


He went wrong,
being ignorant.

But I know.
Since I know,
I’ll show him the way.
 
‘Attar ends with a reassuring line for the sinful reader:
 
If you have nothing to bring to this exalted court
fear not.
He doesn’t buy
every pious act of self-denial.
 
If you have nothing
He buys nothingness.

‘Attar


Seeing Nothing Other than God

Humanity can reach such a rank

that we see
nothing other than God
 
Look at how lofty
is the rank of humanity!

S a‘di


 God’s Not Lost

If you search for God

day and night
 
and can’t find Him
Your seeking
is lacking
 
He’s not lost

‘Atta r


 My Only Shame

My only shame
is this
 
On the Day of Judgment
I won’t have sinned
enough
to match
the enormity
of Your forgiveness

Qa’a ni


Door Never Closed

A man
not knowing
said to God:
 
“O God
at long last
open a door for me.”
 
Rabi‘a was there:
 
“You fool!
 
The door’s
never
been closed.”

Rab i ‘a


 A Deal with God

One night Abu ’l-Hasan Kharaqani was praying to God.

 
He heard a voice from beyond:
“O Abu ’l-Hasan!
Do you want Me to tell people
everything I know about you,
so that they stone you?”
 
Shaykh Kharaqani answered back to God:
“O my God!
Do you want me to tell them everything I know
about your loving mercy and forgiveness,
everything I see from your generosity?
If I do,
no one would ever bother with acts of worship,
no one would prostrate in prayer!”
 
The voice of God answered:
 
“You say nothing;
I say nothing”

Kh araqani

Where Do You See God?

They asked Kharaqani:

“Where do you see God?”
 
He said:
“Wherever I don’t see myself ”

Kharaqa ni


 My Only Need

Rayhana “the Enraptured,” an eighth-century female mystic,

had this poem inscribed inside her collar:

You are my intimate friend

my aspiration
my joy
 
My heart
refuses
to love
other than you
 
O my dear
my aspiration
all I desire . . .
 
My yearning for you
grows and grows
when can I see you?
 
I desire not
that Lofty Paradise
 

 All I desire
is to see your face

Ray hana “the Enraptured”


 Seeing God

This is what it means

to see God
 
That you see nothing
other than Him

Kharaqa ni


 God’s Lap

The mystics are

children
in God’s lap

Sh Eb li


Everywhere You Look

Everywhere you look

there is God
 
Look beneath:
God
 
Look above:
God
 
Look to the right:
God
 
Look to the left:
God
 
Look behind you:
God
 
Look in front of you:
God

Kha raqani


 Finding God

Whoever falls in love

passionately
 
a radical love
that spills over
 
finds God

Kharaqa ni


 P A T H O F L OV E


Whereas many religious traditions speak of God as the Lord,

the King, and the Master, the mystics call on God also as a
friend (doost), a lover, and a beloved.
Whereas many speak of the human quest for God, those
who walk on the path of love know that God is also seeking
humanity.
Rather than merely a vertical relationship of submission, the
path of love becomes a sensual and spiritual love affair of
seeking and yearning, being and becoming, among God and
humanity.


This page intentionally left blank
 Say Nothing

I serve
that moonlike beauty
say nothing to me
unless it’s about her
 
Speak nothing of sorrow
speak nothing other than sorrow
 
Last night I became
love-crazed
 
Love saw me
and said:
I’ve come
don’t shout
say nothing
 
I said:
Love,
I’m afraid of something else
 


Love said:
There is nothing else
Say nothing!
 
Let me whisper secrets
in your ear
Say nothing!
 
I said:
What a beauty!
Are you
an angel
or a human?
 
Love said:
Not an angel
not a human
Say nothing!
 
I said:
What is this?
Say it!
 

Love said:
Stay like this
Say nothing!
 
I said:
My heart
Isn’t this
God’s quality?
 
Love said:
Yes, my child,
But hush!
 
Say nothing

J al al a l-D i n Ba lk hi (Rumi )


Muhammad on Perfume, Women, and Prayer

I was made to love

Three things from this world of yours:
 
Perfume,
women,
but that which delights my soul
is prayer

Had ith


Water Takes on the Color of the Cup

She who knows her own self

knows her Lord
 
This is why Junayd said:
Water takes on the color of the cup

‘I raqi


Many Paths to the Ka‘ba

The paths
are many
The destination
is one
 
Do you not see?
There are many paths
to the Ka‘ba

Rumi


 Pain

How do you ever expect

for your heart to become polished
like a mirror
without putting up
with the pain
of polish?

Ru m i


Looking for God in Hearts

The Prophet tells us

what God has said
 
“I cannot fit
above
or below
 
My Earth
My Heaven
My Throne
contain Me not
 
Know this for sure
my dear . . .
what wonder!
 
The heart
of My faithful servant
suffices Me
 


If you seek Me
look for me inside
these hearts”

Ha di th Qudsi / Rumi


A Love Beyond Time

I swim inside
this love
on my inside
 
Love that was
before there was a time
 
Love that will be
after there will be a time

Rumi


Accept Whatever Comes from God

God is
like the soul
 
This world
like His body
 
Accept whatever comes
from the soul

Rumi


 Everything Sings

We have loved
passionately
 
A love that spills over
 
Everything we are
sings

Abu Sa‘i d


An Awake Heart

My eyes
sleep

My heart’s
awake

Ha di th


 Martyr of Love

Whoever loves passionately

and keeps that love chaste
and hides it
and dies in that love
has died the death of a martyr

Hadi th


Mi‘raj (Heavenly Ascension)

Radical Love
is an ascension
 
taking us to the roof
to rendezvous
with the Sultan of beauty
 
Read on a lover’s face
the tale of
this rising

Rumi


 I Want Not to Want

A long-suffering soul was asked:

“What does your heart want?”
 
He said:
“That my heart not desire anything”

S a‘d i


 Nothing Owns You

The Sufi path is this:

 
You own
nothing

Nothing
owns you

Abu Nasr al-Sa rra j


Joy Inside the Heart

What is the Sufi path?

 
“To find joy
inside the inner heart
when sadness
comes”

Rumi


 Ocean of Sorrow

In the midst
of an ocean of sorrow
 
Love
is sorrowless

Rumi


A Blazing Lightning

The path is:

a blazing lightning bolt
that burns up
everything

ShEb li


Leaping Heavenward

In every breath
comes love’s calling
from every way
 
I am leaping heavenward
Who wants to watch?
 
From the Heavens
I come
 
The King’s friend
I am
 
I wanna go back
to that place
that’s my home

Rumi


 A Secret

There is a secret
hidden
in the heart of God’s people
 
That secret
even Gabriel
cannot find
 
Seek it

Rumi


 Wordless Secrets

I hushed my mouth
closed door to speech
 
But tonight
it’s me
with no words
speaking secrets

Rumi


 Endless Beloved

The great mystic Zol Nun met a woman at the seashore.

He asked her: “What is the end of love?”
 
She answered:
“O simpleton, love has no end”
 
He asked: “Why?”
 
She answered:
“Because God
the Beloved
has no end”

Zo l Nu n


 Sound of One-Handed Clapping

No lover would seek union

If the beloved
were not seeking her . . .
 
When the lightning bolt of love for the friend
has shot into this heart
Know this:
 
There is also love
in that heart
 
When love for God doubles
in your heart
have no doubt!
God also
loves you
 
Have you ever heard
the sound of one-handed clapping?
 
A thirsty man moans:
“O previous water!”


Water also moans:
“Who wants to drink me?”

Ru m i


 Power of the Words of Love

The great Sumnun, known as “the lover,” went to Hijaz.

The people of Fayd asked him:
“Say some words for us.”
 
Sumnun went up on the pulpit,
but didn’t find anyone who was really able to truly hear what
he had to say.
 
So he faced the chandelier of the mosque, and addressed them:
“I will speak with you about love.”
 
The chandeliers
shattered.

S u mnu n


 What Can Express Love?

They asked Sumnun about love.

 
Sumnun said:
 
“One can speak of something
only through something
more subtle
and refined.
There is nothing subtler
than love.
So what
could ever express
love?”

S u m nu n


If You Have Lost Heart . . .

If you have lost heart

on the Path of Love
 
Flee to me
without delay
 
I am a fortress
invincible

Rumi


 Come, Come Again!

Come,
come back!
 
Repent and come back again
Come!
 
Come,
whoever you are
infidel
fire worshiper
idol worshiper
Come!
 
Be not hopeless
in our court
 
Even if you’ve broken your vows
a hundred times
 


Come,
come again!

Abu S a‘ id or Ba ba Af z al Ka sha ni,

co m m only att ri but ed to Rumi


 Heaven

Ever since your image

came to call my heart
home
 
wherever I sit
is
heaven

Rumi


 By Any Means Necessary

My precious one
 
The only obligation in religion
is to arrive at God
by any means necessary
 
Whatever delivers humanity to God
is an obligation
for the seekers
 
What delivers the servant to the Lord
is
this love supreme
 
So
it is love supreme
that is the obligation
of the path to God

‘Ay n a l-Qoz at Ha mada ni


 Don’t Be Meek in This Love

Don’t be meek in this love

 
Be kind to people,
receive the wisdom of the Prophet
 
but don’t be meek in this love
For God is bold
and likes those
who are bold in adoration . . .
 
This path is for the bold
the intoxicated
the love-crazed
 
With God
being love-crazed
intoxicated
and bold
works

Kharaqa ni


God’s Loving Glances

The heart
is nothing but
an ocean of light
 
The heart
is where
God casts
loving glances

Rumi


This, Too . . .

This
too
 
shall pass

‘Atta r


 A Short Journey

Choose wholehearted surrender to God

and your journey home
 
will be
short

Kh araqa ni


 This Is Love!

Look!
This is love
—to soar toward the heavens
 
To tear a hundred veils
in every breath
To tear a hundred veils
at the beginning
To travel in the end
without a foot
 
I said:
“O my heart
may it for you be blessed
To enter
in the circle of the lovers
To look from far beyond
upon
what the eye
cannot see
 


O soul,
from where comes
this new breath?
 
O heart,
from where comes
this heavy throbbing?
 
O bird,
speak now
the language of the birds.”

Rumi


Dance in the Light of God

Dance
in the light of God
 
It’s through God
that all from earth to heaven
is made lovely
 
Every bit of dust
dances
in ecstasy
 
Dance!

Rumi


 God-seer

Not every fragrance

brings the scent of a rose
 
Not every rock
splits open
gushing water
 
Not every palm
gives sweet date
 
Not every bird
finds a home
on the king’s arm
 
Not every heart
becomes a lover
 
Not every eye
can see God

Rumi


 Not Every Eye

Not every down

has an up
 
Not every eye
has a love-glance
 
Not every ocean
has a pearl
Not every plant
bears a fruit
 
Not every king
gives away jewels
Not every sigh
reaches its mark
 
Not every path
gets to the destination
 
Not every human
has a heart
 


Not every cloud
has rain
 
Wail,
my nightingale!
The lovers’ cry
changes the heart
of rocks and thorns
 
It does
 
Be like Shams
if you know something
about the heart
 
Your heart is ready
to journey
in the valley of bewilderment

Rumi


 Become Whole

If you are a whole human

See All
Seek All
Become All
Be All
Choose All

‘Atta r


 Conforming to God

The female Sufi saint Lubaba was asked about her

preoccupation with God.
She answered:
 
Intimate knowledge of God
Bequeaths love for God
 
Love for God
Bequeaths longing for God
 
Longing for God
Bequeaths intimacy with God
 
Intimacy with God
Bequeaths constancy in serving God
And conforming oneself to God

Lubaba the Worshi per


 For the Love of Humanity

Pay attention!
 
This radical love
is an obligation on the path
for everyone
 
Take heed:
If you can’t attain to the love of the Creator
strive for the love of humanity
so that you can see the worth of these words

‘Ay n al -Qoz at


 Love as Ascension

Love of a human being

is an ascension
toward love of God
the All-Merciful

Ruzb eha n Baq li


A Heart No Longer Mine

I lost my heart
somewhere on her face
between her cheek
and the beauty mark
 
My friends keep asking me
about that beauty
whom I’d worship like an idol
 
They keep asking
how my heart is doing
 
How would I know?
 
It’s no longer mine

‘Ayn a l-Qoz at


A Garden Among the Flames

What wonder is this . . .

a garden among the flames!
 
My heart takes on every form
a pasture for gazelles,
a cloister for monks,
the idols’ temple
 
A Ka‘ba for the circling pilgrim,
the Torah’s tables
and the Qur’an’s pages
 
I follow the religion of Love:
Whichever way this caravan turns,
I turn
 
This love
is my religion,
This,
my faith

Ib n ‘Arabi


 Such Wonders

In this love
spilling over and over
there are
such wonders

‘Iraq i


 A Cut Diamond

A diamond must be cut

before
its light
can shine out

Ha zrat Inayat Khan


 Words of Love

I’ve heard
nothing lovelier
than the melody of love
 
a keepsake
lingering
in this whirling
azure dome

Haf e z


Ka‘ba and Synagogue

The Ka‘ba and synagogue

are the same
to nonbeing
 
For the shade
heaven and hell
the same
 
Light cannot burn light
 
I’m here:
 
No morning
no night
 
No fear
no hope
 
No rank
no station

‘ Iraq i


God as Love

Radical love
is love
infinite
 
This is why
it is
a Divine God

Rumi


Friends and Enemies

A thousand friends
are too few
 
a single enemy
too many

a l-Sul ami


 Love Is the GPS

There is no ailment
like the ailment of the heart

Love is the astrolabe

of God’s heart secrets

Whether the love you feel

is human
or Divine
ultimately Love
will lead us to God

Rumi


 Each of Us Has a Jesus Inside

Every task has a guide that leads humanity onward.

 
There is a pain, a yearning, a suffering, a love for it that has to
be aroused inside the human, so that we set out to accomplish
it. Without this longing pain for it, no task is accomplished—
whether it is regarding the world, the next world, trade,
imperial rule, knowledge, stars, or whatever else.
 
Until the birth pangs showed up inside Mary, she didn’t aim for
the blessed tree that’s mentioned in the Qur’anic verse “The
birth pangs drove her to cling to the trunk of the palm tree.” It
was that pain and yearning that led Mary to the tree. A barren
tree became filled with fruit.
 
Our body is like Mary.
Each of us has a Jesus inside.
If a pain and yearning shows up inside us,
the Jesus of our soul is born.
If there is no pain, no yearning,
the Jesus of our soul will return to its origin from the
same secret passageway that he came from . . .
 


If there is no pain, no yearning,
we will remain deprived,
not benefiting from that Jesus of the soul.

Ru mi


Every Desire Is a Desire for God

Every hope and desire

affection
love
and tenderness
that humanity has
 
for father
and mother
for brother
and friend
for heaven
and earth
for gardens
and pavilions
for knowledge
and action
for food
and drink
 
these are all hopes and desires
for God

Rumi

 You Are That

You are:
a copy of God’s scripture
 
You are:
mirror of that Regal beauty
 
Whatever is in the world
is not beyond you
 
Seek it
inside you
 
Whatever you seek
you are that

Rumi


 Many Roads to the Ka‘ba

When people hear these words

words that describe God
recalling Him
everyone becomes agitated
they experience God
and yearn for Him
 
These words carry
the fragrance of the Beloved, the One they seek
 
There are many paths
The destination is one
 
Do you not see this?
There are many paths to the Ka‘ba
Some come from Byzantium
some from Syria
some from Persia
some from China
some from the sea
some from India and Yemen
 


If you look at the paths, there is an immense, measureless
difference among them
 
But if you look at the destination, everyone comes together.
They are united
inwardly, they have a connection
a love
a great inclination to the Ka‘ba
that leaves no room for differences
 
That attachment is beyond faith and infidelity
That attachment has no connection to the different paths
 
When they arrived at the Ka‘ba
all of their disputation, fighting
and difference of opinion
is laid aside

Ru m i


 Old Skin

I shed my ego
as a snake discards
its old skin

Kharaqa ni


Frenzied Ocean of Love

The ocean’s commotion

is because
of yearning
for God
 
It is the fire of love
that whips
water
into frenzied wave

‘Atta r


 Love Tips the Scale Over

On Resurrection Day,
all of one’s deeds will be weighed
on the cosmic scale:
Prayers
Fasting
Charity
 
Then love will be brought forth
Love doesn’t fit
even in that scale

Ru mi


A Treasure in Ruins

I make my home
in ruins
 
How often
the ruin hides
a treasure

‘Atta r


 What’s All This?

Reason?
gone
 
Patience?
gone
 
Beloved?
gone
 
What is this burning love?
What suffering is this?
 
What’s all this?

‘Atta r


God Breathed with Her

One of God’s devotees

had attained to felicity
 
Hidden from people
she whispered secrets
behind the veil
with God
God was her companion
 
When she breathed
God breathed
 
God suffices as a companion
 
If she were not
and breath were not
God would be enough

‘Atta r


Secret of Your Heart

You’ve lost
yourself
 
Seek the secret
of your heart
 
Before your soul
departs
seek the secret
of your heart

‘Atta r


 Unafraid

My lips
parched
though I drown
in the ocean
 
I ask my soul
for the secret
of the Beloved
 
My only desire
to know the Secret
 
monsters seek to kill me
I am unafraid
 
Infidelity and faith both show up
at my heart’s door
hand in hand
 
I open the door
“Welcome!”
“Come inside”
 

I am unafraid
I know
If God opens the door
Here on the inside
There’s neither
infidelity
nor faith

‘Atta r


 Waking Up Intoxicated

Rabi‘a was staggering one morning, like one who’s drunk.

She was asked:
“What makes you stagger?”
 
She said:
“I got intoxicated
from the love of God last night.
His love is making me tipsy.”

Rabi‘a


 Heart Awakens

When you enter God’s presence

your heart awakens
 
When you taste love
you’ll find
the key
to all the worlds

‘Atta r


 What Am I?

I am a lover
I just don’t know
whom I love
 
I’m not a Muslim
not an infidel
 
What am I?
 
I am unaware
of this burning love
 
my heart is filled with it
and empty
all at once

‘Atta r


A Treasure in Every Ruin

Deep
in every ruin
there is a treasure
buried
 
The buried treasure
in the ruin
of my heart
is your love

Rumi


Your Nothingness

Give to God
your nothingness
 
He’ll give you
His being

Kharaqa ni


 The Heart’s Light

The light
inside the heart’s light
is
the light of God

Rumi


This page intentionally left blank
L OV E R A N D B E L OV E D


A beautiful and perplexing quality of the poetry of the path

of radical love is a delicious dance of ambiguity. The seekers of
the path of love begin with a realization that love is One, and
that love flows from God through humanity and back to God.
Therefore the poetry they compose also reflects this journey. In
reading mystical love poetry of this tradition, it is hard to
determine whether a particular poem is meant for a tender
young beloved, for the writer’s husband or wife, for a spiritual
teacher, for the Prophet Muhammad, or for God.
The truth of the matter is that it is typically written for all of
them, and all at once. This ambiguity is a trait of this mingled
and mingling radical love, one that unites and unifies the lover
and beloved, earth and heaven, male and female, the human
and the divine.


This page intentionally left blank
 As It Shall Be Then

Paradise will be exalted

they say
 
fine wine
a beautiful beloved
 
Here and now
we are
intoxicated
cuddling with my beloved
 
So it is now
as it shall be then

Rumi


Beloved in Embrace, Wine at Hand

A roselike beauty
in my embrace
 
Wine
at hand
 
Beloved,
pleased
 
Next to me
the sultan of the whole world
would be a servant
 
No need for a candle in this gathering
in our soiree
the beautiful face of my darling
is a full moon
 
No need for perfume in our banquet
The only fragrance I need
is the musk of your tresses
 


No need for sugar here
sweetness of your lips
suffices
 
In our religion wine is permitted
but tonight
it’d be forbidden
without your beautiful face
 
My ears?
tied to the sound of the flute
and the strumming of the harp
 
My eyes?
Caught up in your ruby lips
and the sharing of this goblet
 
Don’t talk with me of shame
I’ve become infamous from this “shame”
why do you speak with me of my name?
I’m ashamed
of whatever name I used to have
 

We are:
Drunk
head-whirling
rogue
love-glance playing
 
Who in this whole town isn’t like us
like this?
 
Hafez:
Don’t sit for a moment
without wine
and a beloved for the ages
 
These are the days for roses
and jasmines
 
Holy days

H afe z


 Sleepless

Majnun closed his eyes

to sleep
it was only Layla
he saw
 
I’d be lying if I said
he ever
fell asleep
 
Where did the morning go?
 
He tossed and turned all night
till the sun rose

S a‘di


 My Beloved

O God!
Publicly I call you
“My Lord”
 
but in solitude
I call you
“My Beloved”

Abu Nu‘aym I sfahani


 Mingling

Look:
love mingles with lovers
 
See:
spirit mingling with body
 
How long will you see life
as “this”
and “that”?
 
“Good”
and “bad”?
 
Look at how this
and that
are mingled
 
How long will you speak of
“this world”
and “that world”?
 


See this world
and that world
mingling

Rumi


 Love Seeds

We’ve got nothing to do

except for love
 
Let’s make a vow
you and I
 
Except for love
and more love
let’s plant no seeds
in the pure soil
of our heart

Rumi


 Breeze

Breeze:
 
You hail
from the alley
of that faithful lover
 
You come
mingled
with a scent
I know so well
 
The way
you come
caressing me
adding life
to my soul
 
tells me
all I need to know
about where
you’ve been

Ami r KhosroW D ehl avi


 Finding You

I have separated my heart

from this world and its pleasures
 
My heart and you
are not separate
 
And when slumber
closes my eyes
I find you
between the eye and the lid

Abu Nu‘aym Isfahani


 Hundred Ways of Prayer

Today, like every day

we are ruined
ruined
 
Don’t open the door to thought
Pick up a lute instead
 
For the one prays
toward the Friend’s beauty
 
There are a hundred ways of prayers
Bowing down
And prostration

Ru m i


 Mine . . . Yours

Three levels of Islam:

 
First:
What’s mine is mine
what’s yours is yours
 
Second:
What’s mine is yours
what’s yours is also yours
 
Third:
There’s neither mine
nor yours
 
There is also a fourth level
The rank for lovers
 
There
there is no longer “me”
nor “you”
only an Us

Oral tradi ti on, con t emporary Suf is


Abode of Demons

Whatever heart
doesn’t incline
to love
is not
a heart
 
It is
the abode
of demons

‘Iraqi


My Beloved’s Face

Everyone bows
toward the sanctuary
in Mecca
 
I bow
toward
my beloved’s face

Abu Sa ‘i d


 A New Love

A new love
comes
 
The love
that all the loves before
yearned for
 
I burned
 
My ashes spelled out
the “No god”
before the “Only God”
 
To burn yet again
my ashes
came back to life
taking a thousand forms

Rumi


 How Can I?

My gracious
flirtatious
beloved
 
Don’t ask me
if I ever think of you
 
How can I
remember you
When there is no
forgetting you

Sa‘di


 You Are What You Seek

If you seek jewels in a mine

You are that mine
 
If you lust after a morsel of bread
You are that piece of bread
 
Here’s a little secret
 
If you know it
You know it
 
You are what you seek

Ru mi


 Same Love

I’ll tell you something

amazing
and make it
brief
 
It’s your love
that I’ll take
to the grave
 
the same love
me
will raise

Abu Sa ‘i d


 You and I

Faithful friend
come
come closer
 
Let go
of “you” and “I”
 
Come
quickly
 
You and I
 
have to live
 
as if
you and I
 
never heard
 


of a “you”
and
an “I”

Rumi


 Such a Beloved

I have such a beloved

whose love
is inside me
 
If she so desires
she can trample my cheek
underfoot

Hall aj


 I Fear God . . .

My soul screams out

“what love! What fire!”
 
This fire
the water of life
is intimate with you
 
Wish I could borrow a hundred eyes
to keep them all
glancing at you
 
Where to borrow
such eyes?
 
Who today casts
such love-glances?
 
The earth is illuminated
through your face
as if
there are a thousand suns and stars
in the sky
 

I am ashamed of love
to call you a mere human
 
I fear God
to call you divine

Ru m i


 Love Beyond Death

Radical Love is nothing

but heart-shattering grace
 
Nothing
but the expansion of heart
and guidance
 
The masters of law
offer no lessons
on love
 
Religious law is
relevant only until death
 
Love is for all eternity
infinite

Rumi


 Realm of Love

I journeyed to every realm

running here
running there
 
I have never seen a realm
Like the realm of love
A love that spills over
 
At the beginning
didn’t cherish this love
 
Not knowing
led me to
an exile of suffering
 
I let go of this sweet realm
became like an animal
grazing here,
grazing there
 
Loveless
every sound I heard


 was vile
no matter where in the world
I was
 
A soft voice whispered to me
from the realm of love
“Dear soul,
keep on your journey
it is Me
who created this abode of suffering”
 
I said:
“I don’t want to go
there
into this suffering”
 
I wailed
 
He said:
“Go my love
anywhere you like
I am closer to you


 than the beating of your heart”
 
He enchanted me!
 
This enchantment
I bought with heart and soul
 
His enchantment
brings the world to dance
 
Who am I?
Since I returned
to that unmanifest world
 
I would tell you
that you’ll know
when you get here
 
But the pen broke
when I arrived here

Rumi


Who’s Seen Such a Love?

Who’s ever seen

such a love
anywhere
in all the worlds
 
The lovers
plain to see
 
The Beloved?
Hidden

Rumi


 I Need to Go Back

Which way did I come from?

 
I need to go back
I’m still raw
 
To be away
from the Friend’s alley
in the religion of lovers
is forbidden

Rumi


 I’m Yours

I suffer
from myself
 
Bewildered
In you
 
If I am good
If I am bad
I’m yours
 
Without you
I am half
unwhole
look at me!
 
If you cast
one glance my way
I will be whole
 
My heart is drenched in blood!
 


One glance from you
will rescue me

‘Atta r


Tired of Beasts and Demons

Show your face

I yearn for a garden
a rose garden
 
Open your mouth
I yearn for sweetness
 
Hold out your hand
I hear the drumbeat
like a falcon
I yearn to land on your arm
 
Teasing me
You said:
“Torture me no more. Go . . .”
I yearn for you saying
“Torture me no more”
 
You are a lovely breeze
from the meadow of love
Flow over me
I yearn for the myrtle’s scent
 

I swear this to God
Without you
every realm is a prison to me
I yearn to be distraught
in every plain and desert
 
On one hand the goblet
the other hand caught
in your tresses
I yearn to dance like this
in the middle
of the lovers’ circle
 
Yesterday a mystic
wandered around the city
with a lit lamp at hand
in broad daylight:
 
“I’m sick and tired
of beasts and demons!
I yearn for a real human being”
 


I said to him:
“We’ve searched
there is none to be found”
 
He said:
“That one that’s not to be found
I yearn for that one—
that one”

Rumi


 Pretending to Whisper

In a gathering last night,

saw you
 
There was a crowd;
couldn’t hold you
 
So I kissed your fragrant hair
a hundred times
 
Each time pretending
to whisper something
in your ears

‘Ayn al-Qoz at


 I Am Layla

This radical love

is a fire
 
When it enters a heart
it consumes everything
in the heart
 
even the Beloved’s image
is effaced away
from the heart
 
Majnun was burning in this love
They told him:
“Layla is coming”
 
He said:
“I am Layla”
 
And lowered his head

‘I raq i


 Be My Layla

Unleash upon me the saga

of being in love
O friend
 
Be my Layla
 
For
I am
Majnun

N e z a mi


Hiding Inside My Poems

I’ll hide within my poems

as I write them
hoping to kiss your lips
as you recite them

A mareh


 Surrender

All surrender to beauty

willingly
and to power
unwillingly

Ha zrat Inayat Khan


 Heart Thief

Each day
you come with
a new love
a fresh way
 
Each time
I look
you get lovelier
 
I said:
“I’ll take you to court
ask for my heart back”
 
I fear
you’ll also steal
the judge’s heart

Sa‘di


 I Wonder

I wonder
 
this idol
so lovely
cosmos cannot hold her
 
How does she
make a home
in this lover’s heart?

‘Iraqi


 A Jealous Divine Beloved

The Beloved is jealous in love

 
He demands that the lover
love no one
other than Him
need no one
other than Him
 
Therefore, He made Himself into everything
so that whatever the lover loves
Whatever the lover needs
is Him
 
All this is Him
but is manifest through me
 
There’s no doubt!
It’s me
But through Him

‘I raqi


 In You

God loves Himself

in you

‘Iraq i


 Without You

You are my ease

my renewal
 
You are my life and soul
 
Without you
I don’t breathe well

‘Iraq i


 I Wish

I am jealous of the earth

upon which you walk
 
O, I wish instead
that you would walk
on my face
so long as I live

al-Sul ami


Everything Is Forbidden

It is lovely
for there to be
total informality
between a lover
and a beloved
 
All these formalities
are for strangers
 
The only rule is this
 
Everything is forbidden
except for love

Rumi


 Revelation to My Heart

I heard a hidden voice from God

saying
“After Muhammad
We have not sent Gabriel
to any one”
 
I said
“There is a way
other than Gabriel
 
God’s revelation comes
to my heart
directly”

Kh a raqani


Give Me Back My Heart, Or . . .

Either give me back my heart

or make do with me
 
Look at my utter need for you
How long will you play
hard to get?
Torture me no more!
 
If you command it
I’ll give my life for you
so that
you bring me back to life
with a kiss on my lips

‘Atta r


 Together with a Partner in Paradise

Then I saw my wife in one of the gardens in the presence of

God (glory be to Him) . . .
in one of the upper chambers of paradise
in the presence of God,
and that upper chamber was of red ruby.
 
My wife was sitting near the Truth (God) on the side of a
bench,
as though she was waiting for me.
 
Then I heard from the voice of the hidden
the saying of the most High,
“with the righteous among their parents, and their spouses.”

Ru z be h an B aql i


 Her Love Slays Me

Her love came

and took me over
 
Took away my reason
and did with me
whatever she willed
 
Thoughts of her
lay siege on me
like a highway robber
burning up
all I had harvested
 
Now without her
I don’t breathe well
 
Being patient without this beloved?
sheer infidelity
 
Her face
a full moon
 


Find my path
without her?
Never!
 
My longing for her?
beyond sickness and remedy
 
This love
beyond faith and infidelity
 
This fire in my soul
is from her love
 
My faith and infidelity?
from her love
 
Her love
slays me
 
not a breath longer
will I endure
till I see her
 

Her love
has thrown me in dust
drowned in blood
 
The dirt under my feet
will drown in my blood
 
This is the state of my heart
What am I to do?

‘Atta r


 I Seek Her Wherever I Am

A precious soul saw Majnun wrapped up in love’s pain.

He was sitting in the middle of the road,
sifting through dirt.
 
He said:
“O Majnun,
what are you searching for like this?”
 
Majnun said:
“It’s Layla,
of course,
I seek.”
 
He said:
“But where are you going to find Layla
in this dirt?
How can you find a pure pearl
in the dry dirt?”
 
Majnun said:
 


“I seek her
wherever I am
 
Maybe one day
in one breath
I’ll find her”

‘Attar


 Losing Two

I know
without knowing
 
I don’t know
if you
are I

Or I,
you
 
I’ve lost two things:
myself in you
and duality

‘Atta r


 She Hushed Me

Last night
in the midst of a crowd
 
My beloved
adored like an idol
reached over
held me close
 
in that embrace
She owns all that I am
 
I said:
“I worship you!”
“I’ll roar in this love . . .”
 
She put her lips
on mine
and hushed me

‘Ayn al-Qoz at


This page intentionally left blank
 B E L OV E D
COMMUNITY


The path of radical love is both individual and communal.

No one can do the work on our hearts other than we ourselves.
We must be the lamps on our own paths. And yet, none of us
soars alone. Like the spirit birds in ‘Attar’s tale Manteq al-tayr,
we soar together. We need one another as mirrors. It is in
others and through others that we see the beauty that is often
veiled within ourselves and from ourselves.
To be on the path of radical love is to find God in the very
midst of humanity. And one cannot have a Beloved Commu-
nity without love. It is through this love that we move from the
tenderness of interpersonal relationships to justice out in the
world. It is through this love that kindness can be actualized,
justice can be mobilized, meanness can be neutralized, love can
be organized, and the Beloved Community can be realized.


This page intentionally left blank
 Humanity and Suffering

Humanity are members of one body

Created out of the same essence
 
when one member of the body
feels pain
others remain distraught
 
You,
unfeeling to the suffering of others
are unworthy
of the name human

S a‘d i


 Mirrors

The faithful
is a mirror
for the faithful

Hadi t h


 All of the Path

All of the Path

is beautiful conduct

Qushayri


Togetherness

Togetherness
is mercy
 
Disunity
is torture

Ha di th


 Laughing, Crying

You were born

crying
 
Everyone around you
laughing
 
Strive to live
so that when you die
you are laughing
 
and everyone around you
crying

Abu Sa ‘i d


On Saying Farewell to Friends

Whether friends are with you

or away from you
continue loving them
 
If you part from us,
may God lead you
to beautiful places
 
When you come to us,
you are always
welcome
 
When you go,
do not fear
that we will ever
forget you
 
When you come,
do not feel
that we will ever
have enough of you

Ya zi d al-Muhall ab i

 Wherever You Are

Wherever you are

be
 
right
there
 
fully
present

Rumi


Heart Closed to Humanity

The heart closed

to humanity
means the heart closed
to God

Ha zrat Inayat Khan


The Wound Is Where the Light Enters You

Trust your wound

to a skilled healer
 
You can’t see
the ugliness of your own wounds
 
Flies hover over them:
your thoughts
 
Your wound is
your heart’s state
unilluminated
 
The healer
this sage
puts a bandage on your wound
 
The pain
is gone
 
You think you healed all by yourself
but know this
 

The healing
was from the light
 
The wound
is where the light
enters you

Ru m i


The Broken-Hearted

God says:
 
“I am
with those
whose hearts
are
broken”

Hadi th Qudsi


 Love Someone

You are more

than this beastly form
 
Humanity
is chivalry
and grace
 
It’s no great skill
to conquer the whole world
 
If you can
love someone

S a‘di


 God Is Manifest

God is manifest
among fellow humans
as the moon shines
among stars

Rumi


 Lord and Servant Leave

When you confess your love

do not expect service
 
When the lover and beloved enter
Lord and servant leave

S a‘di


A Single Soul

The faithful
are
a single soul

Hadi th


 Send Thy Peace

Send Thy peace, O Lord,

which is perfect and everlasting
that our souls may radiate peace
 
Send Thy peace, O Lord,
that we may think, act
and speak harmoniously
 
Send Thy peace,
O Lord, that we may be contented
and thankful for Thy bountiful gifts
 
Send Thy peace, O Lord,
that amid our worldly strife
we may enjoy Thy bliss
 
Send Thy peace, O Lord,
that we may endure all,
tolerate all in the thought of Thy grace and mercy
 


Send Thy peace, O Lord,
that our lives may become a divine vision
and in Thy light all darkness may vanish
 
Send Thy peace, O Lord,
our Father and Mother
that we Thy children on earth may all unite in one family
Amen.

H az rat I nayat Kha n


Perfection of Love, Harmony, and Beauty

Toward the One

the Perfection of Love, Harmony, and Beauty
the Only Being
united with all the Illuminated Souls
who form the Embodiment of the Master
the Spirit of Guidance

Haz rat Inayat Kha n


Bless All That We Receive

O Thou
the Sustainer of our bodies,
hearts
and souls
 
Bless all that we receive
in thankfulness

Ha zrat Inayat Khan


 Do Not Run After

Receive the one

who comes
 
Do not run
after the one
who turns his back on you

a l-Sul a mi


Digging a Hole

If you dig a hole

for your brother
to fall in
 
you yourself
will fall in it

Ha di th


 Forget All the Good

Know the value of your friends

and in their company
forget all the good deeds
you did for them

al - Sul a mi


As Above, So Below

The merciful ones

will be shown mercy
by the All-Merciful
 
Be merciful
to those on Earth
and the One in Heaven
will be merciful to you

Hadi th


Never Leave Your Friends

Show your continuous love

and understanding
and never leave your friends
because of the inconvenience
they may cause

al-Sul a mi


 Let Us Reconcile!

Come
Let’s cherish each other
 
Let us live
attuned to each other
 
Enmity takes the light
out of friendship
 
Let’s banish all enmity
from our hearts
 
Does it bring joy to your heart
to imagine me dead?
 
Why are we like this?
worshiping death
hating life?
 
If I die
You’ll want to make up
 


Pretend I’m dead now
Come,
let’s reconcile our hearts now
 
In submitting to God
our egos have already died
 
If I die
you’ll come to kiss my grave
 
We are now like this
 
Come
now
and kiss my face

Rumi


 Response to Love

Love
must be met
by love
 
The only proper response
to love
is love

a l-Sul a mi


 Soft as Soil

How can spring flowers

grow on stones?
 
Be soft
Like the soil
 
So colorful roses
grow inside
 
For years
you’ve had a heart of stone
 
Try for a while
being soft
as soil

Rumi


 As Long As

As long as I see him

I do not care to see anything else
 
As long as I hear his words
I do not care to hear anyone else

al - Sul a mi


 Living Away from Loved Ones

After suffering the pangs of love

I have no place to go
 
How empty it is
when the beloved is gone
 
To live away from those whom we love
is not living at all

al - Su l a mi


 The Real Ka‘ba

What is meant by the Ka‘ba

is the heart
of the prophets
and the friends of God
 
That
is where God is revealed

Rumi


 Serve Your Mother

Once there were two brothers, who lived with their mother.
 
Every night one brother would devote himself to serving the
mother,
whereas the other brother occupied himself with worshiping
God.
 
One night the brother who worshiped God had a dream, in
which he heard a voice from Beyond telling him:
 
“We have forgiven your brother,
and for his sake, have forgiven you as well.”
 
The brother said: “But I have occupied myself with worshiping
God,
whereas he has occupied himself with serving our mother.
You are forgiving me for his sake?”
 
He heard the voice of God say:
 


“That which you do for me, I have no need for.
But your mother needs the service your brother provides.”

K h a raqani


 These Do Not Matter

Come to the orchard in the Spring

There is light and wine
and sweethearts in the pomegranate flowers
 
If you do not come
these do not matter
 
If you do come
these do not matter

Ru m i


 Judge Not

Judge
not
 
Hold
your tongue
 
Avoid
fanaticism
 
Make the path
your only purpose

‘Atta r


 Accept Without Blame

A female Sufi, Mu‘adha, was asked about how to live in

accordance with the words of God “forgive with a beautiful
forgiveness.”
 
She answered:
“Be content.
Accept people without assigning blame.”

Mu ‘adha Umm a l-aswa d


 Idol Maker

If being praised and blamed

makes a difference to you
you are nothing
but an idol maker
 
If you still have a hundred idols
hidden inside your robe
 
Why do you pretend to be
a Sufi
in front of people?

‘Atta r


 Loving the Artist

‘Aisha, the daughter of Abu ‘Uthman, was asked about the need
to show beautiful conduct toward humanity.
 
She answered:
 
Who loves the Artist
glorifies the art

‘A ish a, the daug ht er of Abu ‘Uth ma n


 A Raging Hellfire

It is unwise
to remain with your ego
 
Know this:
 
Your ego is
a raging hellfire

‘Atta r


 Give It Away

Whatever you have

give it away
 
here
there
everywhere
 
The Qur’an says:
“You won’t attain to good
until you freely give away
what you love.”
 
You have to give away
everything
 
Even
your soul
 
That too
must be given away

‘Atta r


 Every Breath Is a Jewel

Every breath
each breath
of your life
is a precious jewel
 
Every new atom
guides you
toward God
 
How patient you’ve become
being apart from Him
 
God has raised you
with a hundred glories
and loving games
 
You don’t know this!
and keep thinking of yourself
as other than Him

‘Atta r


 Idols Inside

Smashing idols outside

is easy
so easy
 
Seeing your own ego
as an idol?
 
Hard
so hard
 
You want to know the tale
of your ego
my child?
 
Think of hellfire
with seven gates

Rumi


What’s Your Puddle of Piss?

A fly sat
on a straw
on a puddle of donkey piss
 
full of pride
it lifted up its head:
 
“I am the captain of this ship
master of this ocean!”

Rumi


 Our Brokenness

You’re clutching
with both hands
 
to this myth
of “you” and “I”
 
our whole brokenness
is because of this

Rumi


 Remove the Ka‘ba

God commands us
to pray in the direction of the Ka‘ba
 
Imagine this:
People all over the world
are gathered
making a circle
around the Ka‘ba
 
They bow down
in prayer
 
Now
imagine:
 
Remove the Ka‘ba
from the middle of the circle
 
Are they not prostrating
toward one another?
 


They are bowing down
toward each other’s hearts

S h ams-e Ta b ri zi


Don’t Blame the Night

The night has ended

Our tale has not
 
Don’t blame the night
 
Our love story
takes too long

Rumi


 God Remains

These words of intoxication come to me

 
Forgive me!
 
No choice
Have I
fallen into an ocean
Without shore
 
I rival the seven seas
Though I haven’t the strength
For a single dewdrop
 
There is no room
For hopelessness
 
My heart swims
In an ocean of hope
 
My tired soul,
arriving at the shore,
cries out:
 

 How can we
Be apart from us?
 
You and I
Departed
 
God remains

‘ Iraqi


This page intentionally left blank
 Sources

Unless otherwise indicated, all translations are mine.

God of Love
“Whichever Way You Turn,” Qur’an 2:115.
“One Love,” Qur’an 5:54.
“Not This, Not That. Both This and That,” Ahmad Ghazali,
Sawanih, 3.
“The Opening,” Qur’an 1:1–7. Translation by Bilal Hyde. I have
modified the translation by rendering “Allah” as “God.” The exclama-
tion at the end, Amin, is from the same root as Amen in English. In
Arabic, it contains the root of finding safety and security in God’s
presence.
“Love and Justice,” Qur’an 16:90. The word translated here as
“love” is Ihsan, the highest quality of faith of making beauty real here
and now. It refers to the whole realm of love, mercy, and beauty that
is the pinnacle of the relationship with God, nature, and the human
community.
“A God Closer Than . . .,” Qur’an 50:16.
“God Intervenes,” Qur’an 8:24.
“Signs of God,” Qur’an 41:53.
“Enter Inside My Servants,” Qur’an 89:27.
“Remembrance of God,” Qur’an 13:28.
“Never Give Up Hope,” Qur’an 39:53. The Prophet Muhammad
says, in the hadith collection of Tirmidhi, that he loves this verse of


the Qur’an more than the entire world, and all there is within the
world.
“Face of God,” Qur’an 55:26–27.
“Wherever,” Qur’an 57:4.
“Where Is God?” The hadith cited here is from ‘Ayn al-Qozat,
Tamhidat, 148.
“Muhammad as Mercy,” Qur’an 21:107.
“Perfect Our Light,” Qur’an 66:8.
“God’s Mercy,” Hadith Qudsi. The Hadith Qudsi are a privileged
non-Qur’anic genre of communication directly between Muhammad
and God. They often reveal the intimacies between humanity and the
divine. There is no canonical collection of Hadith Qudsi, and they are
frequently cited in many classic works of Sufism. This particular
Hadith Qudsi is found in the hadith collection by the scholar named
Muslim, and is recorded in Forty Hadith Qudsi, selected and trans-
lated by Ezzeddin Ibrahim and Denys Johnson-Davies, 40–41. Cf.
Rumi, Masnavi, 1:2672.
“Hidden Treasure,” Hadith Qudsi. Recorded in Badi‘ al-Zaman
Foruzanfar, Ahadis va Qesas-e Masnavi, 120.
“God, Love, and Beauty,” hadith, recorded in the collection by the
scholar Muslim. Also see Rumi, Masnavi, 2:79, and Ruzbehan Baqli,
Abhar al-‘ashiqin, 31.
“Show Mercy,” hadith collection of Termezi [Arabic: Tirmidhi].
Recorded in Badi‘ al-Zaman Foruzanfar, Ahadis va Qesas-e Masnavi,
35–36.


 “For the Sake of Muhammad,” Hadith Qudsi. This version is cited
in Rumi, Fihi ma fihi, chapter 54, p. 193, and Masnavi, 5:2537. Cf.
Badi‘ al-Zaman Foruzanfar, Ahadis va Qesas-e Masnavi, 484. Another
version of the same hadith reads as:
“If Muhammad had not been, I would not have created this world
and the Hereafter,
the Heavens and the Earth, the Throne, the Tablet and the Pen,
the Garden and the Fire. Were it not for Muhammad, I would not
have created at all.”
“A Heart to Contain God,” Hadith Qudsi. This version is cited in
Rumi, Masnavi, 1:3071–73.
“Uninterrupted Lightning,” Qushayri’s Risala, chapter titled
“Muhadara, Mukashafa, Mushahada,” quoting ‘Amr ibn ‘Uthman
al-Makki. Cf. Al-Qushayri’s Epistle on Sufism (al-Risala al-Qushayriyya
fi ‘ilm al-tasawwuf ), translated by Alexander Knysh, 98.
“A Moment,” hadith. Cf. Rumi, Masnavi, 1:3953, Badi‘ al-Zaman
Foruzanfar, Ahadis va Qesas-e Masnavi, 152.
“Know Thyself,” Hadith Qudsi. This version is cited in Rumi,
Masnavi, 4:547.
“God Sees Your Hearts,” hadith. Cited in the biography of the
saint by Ebn Monavvar [Arabic: Ibn Munawwar], Asrar al-Tawhid,
1:86. In Persian references, Abu Sa‘id ibn Abi ’l-Khayr is often
referred to as Abu Sa‘id-e Abi ’l-Khayr. Also in ‘Attar, “Rabi‘a,”
Tazkerat al-awliya’, 72.
“Lord of the Ka‘ba,” ‘Attar, Tazkerat al-awliya’, 75.


 “Removing Dirt from the Path,” in Ebn Monavvar, Asrar al-
Tawhid, 1:205.
“Divine Qualities,” Hadith Qudsi. Cited in ‘Ayn al-Qozat,
Tamhidat, 129. A more literal translation would be: “Qualify your-
self with divine qualities.”
“Beloved So Close to Me,” Sa‘di, Golestan (Rose Garden), 319.
“Be at Ease,” quoted in ‘Attar, Tazkerat al-awliya’, “Sahl ibn
‘Abd-Allah al-Tostari,” 317.
“The Heart of Your Friend,” Khwaja ‘Abdullah Ansari, Monajat.
“Something Else,” Sabri Brothers, Qawwali song, Ya Mohammad,
Nur-e Mojassam, “O Muhammad, Light Embodied.”
“Saying ‘I,’ ” Abu Bakr Kharraz. Quoted in Annemarie Schimmel,
Mystical Dimensions of Islam, 55. This idea has a long legacy in Islamic
thought, going back to the sixth Shi‘i Imam Ja‘far Sadiq, and also
Hallaj and al-Wasiti. See Carl Ernst, Words of Ecstasy in Sufism, 10;
Laury Silvers, Soaring Minaret, 47.
“Forgiveness,” Hafez, Divan-e Hafez (Khanlari edition), Ghazal
279, 574.
“You Are Greater,” al-Sulami, The Way of Sufi Chivalry, 105.
“God in Search of Humanity,” Hadith Qudsi, transmitted through
Companion of the Prophet, Ka‘b al-Ahbar, cited in Ebn Monavvar,
Asrar al-Tawhid, “Secrets of God’s Unity,” 1:243.
“A Single Breath,” ‘Attar.
“It’s All Him!” ‘Attar, Manteq al-tayr, 7–8, lines 127–31.


 “Muhammad, the Maternal Prophet,” ‘Attar, Tazkerat al-awliya’,
22, ll. 414–18.
One of the honorifics of the Prophet is Ummi, which usually gets
translated as the Unlettered Prophet, meaning that the Prophet’s
knowledge does not come from mere human learning. Some of the
Sufis, however, playfully picked up on the idea that Ummi also
comes from the root word Umm, which means mother. In other
words, Muhammad is also the maternal prophet, the prophet who
loves the community the way a mother does. In this poem ‘Attar is
asking the maternal prophet to suckle him, and the community,
through the breast of compassion and generosity. This desire to have
an intimate, bodily connection with the Prophet was not uncommon
among the radical love mystics.
“At Last,” Hazrat Inayat Khan, Gayan, 54–55.
“Heart, Lord,” Abu ’l-Husayn al-Nuri, cited by Qushayri, Risala.
Cf. Al-Qushayri’s Epistle on Sufism (al-Risala al-Qushayriyya fi ‘ilm
al-tasawwuf ), translated by Alexander Knysh, 84.
“No Way to Treat a Friend,” Rabi‘a in ‘Attar, Tazkerat al-awliya’, 87.
“Forgive Freely!” Khwaja ‘Abd Allah Ansari, Monajat, 26. The
original reads “merchant” in place of “accountant,” but in English
accountant has more the connotation implied here of one who rules
by justice and measurement of good deeds, as opposed to mercy.
“God’s Path,” Fakhr al-Din ‘Iraqi, Lama‘at, chapter 15, p. 494.
“Love, Harmony, and Beauty,” Hazrat Inayat Khan, Gayan, 45.


 “Prayer of Rabi‘a,” in ‘Attar, Tazkerat al-awliya’, 87.
“This and That,” Fakhr al-Din ‘Iraqi, Lama‘at, chapter 13, p. 490.
“Lord of the Path,” in Ebn Monavvar, Asrar al-Tawhid, 1:259.
“No Heaven, No Hell,” in ‘Attar, “Abu ’l-Hasan Kharaqani,”
Tazkerat al-awliya’, 682.
“But I Know,” ‘Attar, Manteq al-tayr, pp. 102–3, ll. 1841–59.
“Seeing Nothing Other than God,” Sa‘di, Qasa’ed-e Sa‘di, edited by
Muhammad Ali Foruqi, 98; also Sa‘di, Kolliyat, 789.
“God’s Not Lost,” ‘Attar, Manteq al-tayr, p. 182, l. 3272.
“My Only Shame,” Qa’ani. Qa’ani was a nineteenth-century
Persian poet, the first Persian poet familiar with Western languages.
“Door Never Closed,” in ‘Attar, Manteq al-tayr, p. 186, ll. 3331–32.
Also see Arabic text in Rkia E. Cornell, Early Sufi Women, 81.
“A Deal with God,” in ‘Attar, “Abu ’l-Hasan Kharaqani,” Tazkerat
al-awliya’, 672.
“Where Do You See God?” in ‘Attar, “Abu ’l-Hasan Kharaqani,”
Tazkerat al-awliya’, 691.
“My Only Need,” Rayhana “the Enraptured,” in al-Sulami’s Dhikr
al-muta‘abbidat al-sufiyyat. Arabic text in Rkia E. Cornell, Early Sufi
Women, 95.
“Seeing God,” in ‘Attar, “Abu ’l-Hasan Kharaqani,” Tazkerat
al-awliya’, 704.
“God’s Lap,” quoted in Qushayri, Risala. Chapter titled “Tasawwuf/
Sufism.” Cf. Al-Qushayri’s Epistle on Sufism (al-Risala al-Qushayriyya fi
‘ilm al-tasawwuf ), translated by Alexander Knysh, 291.


 “Everywhere You Look,” in ‘Attar, “Abu ’l-Hasan Kharaqani,”
Tazkerat al-awliya’, 706.
“Finding God,” in ‘Attar, “Abu ’l-Hasan Kharaqani,” Tazkerat
al-awliya’, 709.

Path of Love
“Say Nothing,” Rumi, Divan-e Shams, Ghazal 2219, 5:65.
“Muhammad on Perfume, Women, and Prayer,” Hadith of the
Prophet, cited in Ibn ‘Arabi’s Fusus al-hikam. Muhammad spoke
about the sensual pleasures of this world (symbolized by perfume)
and the realm of love (exemplified through love shared between men
and women) as leading one to God. Some commentators have
reflected on the fact that Muhammad speaks of “being made to love”
these three, to reflect that it is not his own desire, but a love for them
that God has placed in his heart.
“Water Takes on the Color of the Cup,” Fakhr al-Din ‘Iraqi,
Lama‘at, chapter 5, p. 469.
“Many Paths to the Ka‘ba,” Rumi, Fihi Ma Fihi, chapter 23, p. 90.
“Pain,” Rumi, Masnavi, 1:2980.
“Looking for God in Hearts,” Rumi, Masnavi, 1:2653–55. Cf.
Badi‘ al-Zaman Foruzanfar, Ahadis va Qesas-e Masnavi, 113. Rumi is
paraphrasing a Hadith Qudsi here.
“A Love Beyond Time,” Rumi, Masnavi, 1:1759.
“Accept Whatever Comes from God,” Rumi, Masnavi, 1:1764.


 “Everything Sings,” in Ebn Monavvar, Asrar al-Tawhid, 1:130.
“An Awake Heart,” hadith in the collection of Bukhari. Also see
Rumi, Masnavi, 2:3549–50.
“Martyr of Love,” hadith from the Prophet Muhammad; recorded
in ‘Ayn al-Qozat, Tamhidat, 96. Also cited in Fakhr al-Din ‘Iraqi,
Lama‘at, chapter 7, p. 475.
“Mi‘raj,” Rumi, Divan-e Shams, Ghazal 133, 1:87.
“I Want Not to Want,” Sa‘di, Golestan (Rose Garden), 424.
“Nothing Owns You,” Abu Nasr al-Sarraj, Kitab al-Luma‘, 25.
“Joy Inside the Heart,” Rumi, Masnavi, 3:3260.
“Ocean of Sorrow,” Rumi, Masnavi, 2:1771.
“A Blazing Lightning,” Shebli, quoted in Qushayri, Risala. Cf.
Al-Qushayri’s Epistle on Sufism (al-Risala al-Qushayriyya fi ‘ilm
al-tasawwuf ), translated by Alexander Knysh, 291.
“Leaping Heavenward,” Rumi, Divan-e Shams, Ghazal 463,
1:269–70. Also see Aflaki, Manaqeb al-‘Arefin, 1:266.
“A Secret,” Rumi, Divan-e Shams, Quatrain 78.
“Wordless Secrets,” Rumi, Divan-e Shams, Ghazal 296, 1:180.
“Endless Beloved,” in ‘Attar, “Zol-Nun” [Arabic: Dhu ’l-Nun],
Tazkerat al-awliya’, 1:123.
“Sound of One-Handed Clapping,” Rumi, Masnavi, 3:4392–97.
“Power of the Words of Love,” in ‘Attar, Tazkerat al-awliya’,
511–12.
“What Can Express Love?” in ‘Attar, Tazkerat al-awliya’, 513.
“If You Have Lost Heart . . .,” Rumi, Divan-e Shams. Translation is


from William Chittick, The Sufi Path of Love: Spiritual Teachings of
Rumi, i.
“Come, Come Again!” This well-known quatrain is often, and
mistakenly, attributed to Rumi. It is probably from Abu Sa‘id-e
Abi ’l-Khayr (Ruba‘i 1) or from Rumi’s contemporary Baba Afzal
Kashani. See Ibrahim Gamard and Farhan Ravadi, The Quatrains of
Rumi, 609, where the misattribution is blamed on the late Ottoman
Necati Bey.
“Heaven,” Rumi, Divan-e Shams, Ghazal 644, 2:63. The word Baz
has multiple meanings: again (as in “come back, again”), falcon (“take
to flight like a falcon”), and open (as in an “open heart”). I have tried
to convey all of these meanings here.
“By Any Means Necessary,” ‘Ayn al-Qozat Hamadani [Arabic: ‘Ayn
al-Qudat al-Hamadhani], Tamhidat, 97.
“Don’t Be Meek in This Love,” Kharaqani. Modified from Vraje
Abramian, The Soul and A Loaf of Bread: The Teachings of Sheikh
Abol-Hasan of Kharaqan, 4. The original is from Mohammadreza
Shafi‘i-Kadkani, Neveshteh Bar Darya, 211.
“God’s Loving Glances,” Rumi, Masnavi, 3:2269.
“This, Too . . .,” ‘Attar, Elahi-nama. Omid Safi, “ ‘Attar, Farid
al-Din,” Encyclopedia of Islam.
“A Short Journey,” Kharaqani. Modified from Vraje Abramian,
The Soul and A Loaf of Bread: The Teachings of Sheikh Abol-Hasan of
Kharaqan, 9. The original is from Mohammadreza Shafi‘i-Kadkani,
Neveshteh Bar Darya, 49, and reads “Choose the path of certainty.”


 “This Is Love!” Rumi, Divan-e Shams, Ghazal 1919, 4:177.
Translated by Annemarie Schimmel, translation modified.
“Dance in the Light of God,” Rumi, Divan-e Shams (Jalal al-Din
Homa’i edition, p. 184). The Foruzanfar edition of Divan-e Shams
(1:297, Ghazal 510) reads slightly differently, “Dance in the light of
the Intellect,” Nur-e kherad instead of Nur-e khoda. But even there
the previous lines refer to “the light of God that brings every footless
particle to ecstatic foot-stomping dance!”
“God-seer,” Rumi, Divan-e Shams, Jalal al-Din Homa’i edition,
189.
“Not Every Eye,” blending together two slight variants in Rumi,
Divan-e Shams (Jalal al-Din Homa’i edition), 222, and Rumi, Divan-e
Shams, Ghazal 563, 2:22.
“Become Whole,” ‘Attar, Manteq al-tayr, p. 47, l. 839.
“Conforming to God,” in al-Sulami, Dhikr al-muta‘abbidat
al-sufiyyat. Translation modified from Rkia E. Cornell, Early Sufi
Women, 124–25.
“For the Love of Humanity,” ‘Ayn al-Qozat, Tamhidat, 96.
“Love as Ascension,” Ruzbehan Baqli, ‘Abhar al-ashiqin, 88.
“A Heart No Longer Mine,” ‘Ayn al-Qozat, Tamhidat, 117.
“A Garden Among the Flames,” Ibn ‘Arabi, Tarjuman al-Ashwaq.
Translated by Omid Safi from the Arabic original, based on the trans-
lation offered by Reynold A. Nicholson in The Tarjuman al-Ashwaq:
A Collection of Mystical Odes by Muhyi’ddin Ibn al-‘Arabi. Edited and


translated by Nicholson, 19. I am also grateful to Michael Sells, who
has offered a superb translation of the same poem in his Mystical
Language of Unsaying, 90.
“Such Wonders,” Fakhr al-Din ‘Iraqi, Lama‘at, chapter 6, p. 472.
“A Cut Diamond,” Hazrat Inayat Khan, Gayan, 17.
“Words of Love,” Hafez, Divan-e-Hafez (Khanlari edition), Ghazal
175, 366.
“Ka‘ba and Synagogue,” Fakhr al-Din ‘Iraqi, Lama‘at, chapter 10,
p. 484.
“God as Love,” Rumi, Masnavi, introduction to volume 2, p. 181.
“Friends and Enemies,” al-Sulami, The Way of Sufi Chivalry, 92.
“Love Is the GPS,” Rumi, Masnavi, 1:109–11. The astrolabe was a
medieval device that was perfected by Muslim astronomers. It was
used to find one’s way on sea and land, a premodern GPS device. The
analogy is profound: we as humanity are “lost.”
We need to orient ourselves to God to find our way home. What
takes us home is radical love. Love is the “Go Home” option to take
us back to God, at once our home, the path, and the destination.
“Each of Us Has a Jesus Inside,” Rumi, Fihi ma fihi, chapter 5,
p. 18–19.
“Every Desire Is a Desire for God,” Rumi, Fihi ma fihi, chapter 9,
p. 32.
“You Are That,” Rumi, Fihi ma fihi, chapter 16, p. 70. Ibrahim
Gamard and Rawan Farhadi, The Quatrains of Rumi, p. 600, discuss


whether the same poem could have belonged to Awhad al-Din
Kermani or Najm al-Din Razi.
“Many Roads to the Ka‘ba,” Rumi, Fihi ma fihi, chapter 23, p. 90.
“Old Skin,” in ‘Attar, “Abu ’l-Hasan Kharaqani,” Tazkerat al-
awliya’, 684.
“Frenzied Ocean of Love,” ‘Attar, Manteq al-tayr, p. 56, ll. 1000–
1002.
“Love Tips the Scale Over,” Rumi, Fihi ma fihi, chapter 59, p. 205.
Rumi is alluding to the notion that in the Hereafter, the good deeds
of each individual will be measured against his/her evil deeds, and
then treated with both divine justice and mercy. In this reckoning,
Rumi opines that once all the righteous religious deeds have been
accounted for, then love is brought forth that will tip the scale toward
the good and beautiful. This love, like all radical love, is both the love
that we as human beings have expressed and God’s love.
“A Treasure in Ruins,” ‘Attar, Manteq al-tayr, p. 57, l. 1009.
“What’s All This?” ‘Attar, Manteq al-tayr, p. 71, l. 1267.
“God Breathed with Her,” ‘Attar, Manteq al-tayr, p. 119, ll.
2134–36.
“Secret of Your Heart,” ‘Attar, Manteq al-tayr, p. 132, l. 2380.
“Unafraid,” ‘Attar, Manteq al-tayr, p. 181, ll. 2346–49.
“Waking Up Intoxicated,” Rabi‘a al-‘Adawiyya, in al-Sulami’s Dhikr
al-muta‘abbidat al-sufiyyat. Arabic text in Rkia E. Cornell, Early Sufi
Women, 79. Translation modified.
“Heart Awakens,” ‘Attar, Manteq al-tayr, p. 198, ll. 3552, 3557.

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 “What Am I?” ‘Attar, Manteq al-tayr, p. 212, ll. 3812–13.
“A Treasure in Every Ruin,” Rumi, Divan-e Shams, Ruba‘iyyat
1488, 8:251.
“Your Nothingness,” in ‘Attar, “Abu ’l-Hasan Kharaqani,” Tazkerat
al-awliya’, 701.
“The Heart’s Light,” Rumi, Masnavi 1:1127.

Lover and Beloved

“As It Shall Be Then,” Rumi, Divan-e Shams, Quatrain 755, 8:128.
“Beloved in Embrace, Wine at Hand,” Hafez, Divan-e Hafez
(Khanlari edition), Ghazal 47, 110.
“Sleepless,” Sa‘di, Kolliyat-e Sa‘di (Foruqi edition), Ghazal 213,
505.
“My Beloved,” Abu Nu‘aym Isfahani, Hilyat al-awliya’, 9:332.
“Mingling,” Rumi, Divan-e Shams, Ghazal 2381, 5:157.
“Love Seeds,” Rumi, Divan-e Shams, Ghazal 1475, 3:124.
“Breeze,” Amir Khosrow Dehlavi, Divan, Ghazal 625.
“Finding You,” Abu Nu‘aym Isfahani, Hilyat al-awliya’, 10:310.
“Hundred Ways of Prayer,” Rumi, Divan-e Shams, Ruba‘iyyat 81,
8:14.
“Mine . . . Yours,” oral tradition, contemporary Sufis.
“Abode of Demons,” Fakhr al-Din ‘Iraqi, Dah Fasl, 406.
“My Beloved’s Face,” in Ebn Monavvar, Asrar al-Tawhid, 1:53.
“A New Love,” Rumi, Divan-e Shams, Quatrain 598, 8:102.

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 “How Can I?” Sa‘di, Kolliyat-e Sa‘di (Foruqi edition), Ghazal 535,
670.
“You Are What You Seek,” Rumi, Divan-e Shams, Quatrain 1815.
“Same Love,” Abu Sa‘id. Persian original is in Dick Davis,
Borrowed Ware, 56. Translation is my own.
“You and I,” Rumi, Divan-e Shams, Ghazal 251, 1:157.
“Such a Beloved,” Hallaj, recited by Abed Azrie on the CD
Aromates.
“I Fear God . . .,” Rumi, Divan-e Shams, Ghazal 450, 1:261.
“Love Beyond Death,” Rumi, Divan-e Shams, 209.
“Realm of Love,” Rumi, Divan-e Shams, Ghazal 1509, 3:242–43.
“Who’s Seen Such a Love?” Rumi, Divan-e Shams, Ghazal 824,
2:160.
“I Need to Go Back,” Rumi, Divan-e Shams, 185. The Friend
(doost) in the language of Radical Love mystics can refer simultane-
ously to a human or a Divine Beloved.
“I’m Yours,” ‘Attar, Manteq al-tayr, p. 13, ll. 240–42.
“Tired of Beasts and Demons,” Rumi, Divan-e Shams, 203–4.
“Pretending to Whisper,” ‘Ayn al-Qozat, Tamhidat, 278.
“I Am Layla,” Fakhr al-Din ‘Iraqi, Lama‘at, chapter 23, pp. 518–19.
“Be My Layla,” Nezami, Divan. Published in The Story of Layla
and Majnun. Translated from Persian and edited by Dr. Rudolf
Gelpke. Final chapter (and this poem) translated from the Persian by
Zia Inayat Khan and Omid Safi.
“Hiding Inside My Poems,” Amareh. Recited by Abu Sa‘id-e Abi

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’l-Khayr in a mystical session of music and poetry. Source is Ebn
Monavvar, Asrar al-Tawhid, “Secrets of God’s Unity,” 1:267. Transla-
tion is from Davis, Borrowed Ware, 55.
“Surrender,” Hazrat Inayat Khan, Gayan, 21.
“Heart Thief,” Sa‘di, Quatrains. Kolliyat-e Sa‘di (Foruqi edition),
759.
“I Wonder,” Fakhr al-Din ‘Iraqi, Lama‘at, chapter 19, p. 508.
Another manuscript (“L”) reads: “in my anguished heart.”
“A Jealous Divine Beloved,” Fakhr al-Din ‘Iraqi, Lama‘at, chapter
4, p. 464.
“In You,” Fakhr al-Din ‘Iraqi, Lama‘at, chapter 4, p. 465.
“Without You,” paraphrased from William Chittick’s introduction
to Divine Flashes [Lama‘at], 51.
“I Wish,” al-Sulami, The Way of Sufi Chivalry, p. 85.
“Everything Is Forbidden,” Rumi, Fihi ma fihi, chapter 20, p. 82.
“Revelation to My Heart,” in ‘Attar, “Abu ’l-Hasan Kharaqani,”
Tazkerat al-awliya’, 672.
“Give Me Back My Heart, Or . . .,” ‘Attar, Manteq al-tayr, p. 74,
ll. 1313, 1316.
“Together with a Partner in Paradise,” Ruzbehan Baqli, Kashf
al-asrar. Translation is by Carl W. Ernst, from Unveiling of Secrets:
Diary of a Sufi Master, 54.
“Her Love Slays Me,” ‘Attar, Manteq al-tayr, p. 124, ll. 2221–31.
“I Seek Her Wherever I Am,” ‘Attar, Manteq al-tayr, p. 183, ll.
3288–91.

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 “Losing Two,” ‘Attar, Manteq al-tayr, p. 209, ll. 3751–52.
“She Hushed Me,” ‘Ayn al-Qozat, Tamhidat, p. 128.

Beloved Community
“Humanity and Suffering,” Sa‘di, Golestan (Rose Garden), 190.
“Mirrors,” hadith, cited in Rumi, Masnavi, 2:30.
“All of the Path,” Qushayri, Risala. Al-Qushayri’s Epistle on Sufism
(al-Risala al-Qushayriyya fi ‘ilm al-tasawwuf ), translated by Alexander
Knysh, 290.
“Togetherness,” hadith. Rumi, Masnavi, 1:3017; Cf. Badi‘ al-
Zaman Foruzanfar, Ahadis va Qesas-e Masnavi, 128.
“Laughing, Crying,” in Ebn Monavvar, Asrar al-Tawhid, “Secrets
of God’s Unity,” 1:243.
“On Saying Farewell to Friends,” Yazid al-Muhallabi, cited in
al-Sulami, The Way of Sufi Chivalry, 95, modified.
“Wherever You Are,” Rumi, Divan-e Shams, Ghazal 1377, 3:172.
“Heart Closed to Humanity,” Hazrat Inayat Khan, Gayan, 16.
Language slightly modified.
“The Wound Is Where the Light Enters You,” Rumi, Masnavi,
1:3222–27.
“The Broken-Hearted,” Hadith Qudsi. The full version of the
saying states: “I am with those whose hearts are broken for My sake.”
Rumi, Masnavi, 1:532, cites the shorter version represented indicated
here. Recorded in Badi‘ al-Zaman Foruzanfar, Ahadis va Qesas-e

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Masnavi, 28. Also cited by Ibn ‘Arabi in Futuhat al-Makiyya. See
William Chittick, The Self-Disclosure of God, 395.
“Love Someone,” Sa‘di, Golestan (Rose Garden), 590. Literally:
“win over a heart.”
“God Is Manifest,” Rumi, Masnavi, 1:1400, 70. Literally “among
others.”
“Lord and Servant Leave,” Sa‘di, Golestan (Rose Garden), 507.
“A Single Soul,” hadith. Cf. Badi‘ al-Zaman Foruzanfar, Ahadis va
Qesas-e Masnavi, 159; Rumi, Masnavi, 2:188.
“Send Thy Peace,” attributed to Hazrat Inayat Khan, “Prayer for
Peace.” I am grateful to Pir Zia Inayat Khan for confirming the origin
of this poem in Sufi magazine, July 1918, vol. 3, no. 2.
“Perfection of Love, Harmony, and Beauty,” Hazrat Inayat Khan.
“Bless All That We Receive,” Hazrat Inayat Khan, Gayan, 48.
“Do Not Run After,” al-Sulami, The Way of Sufi Chivalry, 60.
“Digging a Hole,” Hadith. Rumi, Masnavi, 1:1311. Cf. Badi‘
al-Zaman Foruzanfar, Ahadis va Qesas-e Masnavi, 62.
“Forget All the Good,” al-Sulami, The Way of Sufi Chivalry, 76.
“As Above, So Below,” Hadith Tirmidhi.
“Never Leave Your Friends,” al-Sulami, The Way of Sufi Chivalry, 82.
“Let Us Reconcile!” Rumi, Divan-e Shams, Ghazal 1535, 3:256.
“Response to Love,” al-Sulami, The Way of Sufi Chivalry, 85.
“Soft as Soil,” Rumi, Masnavi, 1:1911–12, 91.
“As Long As,” al-Sulami, The Way of Sufi Chivalry, 86.

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 “Living Away from Loved Ones,” al-Sulami, The Way of Sufi
Chivalry, 93.
“The Real Ka‘ba,” Rumi, Fihi ma fihi, chapter 43, 156.
“Serve Your Mother,” in ‘Attar, “Abu ’l-Hasan Kharaqani,” Tazkerat
al-awliya’, 671.
“These Do Not Matter,” Rumi, Divan-e Shams, Quatrain 888,
8:150, translated by Coleman Barks, Open Secret, 14. Used with
permission from Coleman Barks.
“Judge Not,” ‘Attar, Manteq al-tayr, p. 34, l. 605.
“Accept Without Blame,” Mu‘adha Umm al-Aswad, in al-Sulami,
Dhikr al-muta‘abbidat al-sufiyyat. Arabic text in Rkia E. Cornell, Early
Sufi Women, 105. Translation modified.
“Idol Maker,” ‘Attar, Manteq al-tayr, p. 107, ll. 1932, 1936.
“Loving the Artist,” ‘Aisha, the daughter of Abu ‘Uthman, from
Nishapur. In al-Sulami, Dhikr al-muta‘abbidat al-sufiyyat. Arabic text
in Rkia E. Cornell, Early Sufi Women, 185. Translation modified.
“A Raging Hellfire,” ‘Attar, Manteq al-tayr, p. 110, l. 1979.
“Give It Away,” ‘Attar, Manteq al-tayr, p. 117, ll. 2098–99.
“Every Breath Is a Jewel,” ‘Attar, Manteq al-tayr, p. 126, ll. 2262–64.
The last line can also be read as “you keep attaching yourself to beings
other than Him.”
“Idols Inside,” Rumi, Masnavi, 1:778–79.
“What’s Your Puddle of Piss?” Rumi, Masnavi, 1:1082–83.
“Our Brokenness,” Rumi, Masnavi, 1:3012.

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 “Remove the Ka‘ba,” Shams-e Tabrizi, Maqalat, 653.
“Don’t Blame the Night,” Rumi, Fihi ma fihi, chapter 48, p. 175.
“God Remains,” Fakhr al-Din ‘Iraqi, Lama‘at, chapter 26, pp.
531–32.

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 Index of Authors and Sources

Qur’an, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, Dehlavi, Amir Khosrow, 162

13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19
Hadith, 17, 22, 23, 27, 29, 76, Ghazali, Ahmad, 5
85, 86, 214, 216, 227, 233,
235 Hafez, 39, 124, 154
Hadith Qudsi, 20, 21, 24, 25, Hallaj, 174
28, 33, 41, 80, 223 Hamadani, ‘Ayn al-Qozat, 105,
118, 120, 188, 208
Abu Sa‘id-e Abi ’l-Khayr, 31, 55, Hazrat Inayat Khan, 46, 51, 123,
84, 102, 167, 171, 217 192, 220, 228, 230, 231
‘Aisha, the daughter of Abu
‘Uthman, 250 ‘Iraqi, Fakhr al-Din, 50, 54, 77,
Amareh, 191 122, 125, 166, 189, 194, 195,
Ansari, Khwaja ‘Abdullah, 36, 196, 197, 260
49 Isfahani, Abu Nu‘aym, 158,
‘Arabi, Ibn, 121 163
‘Attar, Farid al-Din, 30, 42, 43,
45, 57, 60, 108, 116, 136, 138, Kashani, Baba Afzal, 102
139, 140, 141, 142, 145, 146, Kharaqani, Abu ’l-Hasan, 56, 63,
183, 201, 203, 206, 207, 247, 64, 67, 69, 70, 106, 109, 135,
249, 251, 252, 253 148, 200, 244
Kharraz, Abu Bakr, 38
Balkhi, Jalal al-Din. See Rumi
Baqli, Ruzbehan, 119, 202 Lubaba the Worshiper, 117

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al-Makki, ‘Amr ibn ‘Uthman, 177, 178, 181, 182, 185, 199,
26 219, 221, 225, 237, 240, 243,
al-Muhallabi, Yazid, 218 246, 254, 255, 256, 259

Nezami, 190 Sabri Brothers, 37

al-Nuri, Abu ’l-Husayn, 47 Sa‘di, 34, 59, 88, 157, 169, 193,
213, 224, 226
Oral tradition, contemporary al-Sarraj, Abu Nasr, 89
Sufis, 165 Shebli, 68, 92
al-Sulami, Abu ‘Abd al-Rahman
Qa’ani, 61 Muhammad ibn al-Husayn,
Qushayri, 215 40, 127, 198, 232, 234, 236,
239, 241, 242
Rabi‘a, 48, 53, 62, 144 Sumnun, 99, 100
Rayhana “the Enraptured,” 65
Rumi, 73, 78, 79, 80, 82, 83, 87, Tabrizi, Shams-e, 257
90, 91, 93, 94, 95, 97, 101, al-Tostari, Sahl, 35
102, 104, 107, 110, 112, 113,
114, 126, 128, 129, 131, 132, Umm al-aswad, Mu‘adha, 248
133, 137, 147, 149, 153, 159,
161, 164, 168, 170, 172, 175, Zol Nun, 96

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