hands and shadows

While the hand moves
the shadow must follow.
Since the shadow gains its substance
from the hand
it has none of itself.
That which derives existence
from something else
how can we say
it truly exists?
It has a name, yes,
but is not that existence
which subsists through God.




~ Fakhruddin 'Iraqi
from Divine Flashes

the look of its landlord

For in this house, everything

has the look of its landlord.

While the hand moves

the shadow must follow.

Since the shadow gains its substance

from the hand

it has none of itself,

That which derives existence

from something else 

how can we say

it truly exists?

It has a name, yes,

but is not that existence

which subsists through God.

~ Fakhruddin Iraqi

from Divine Flashes

Some thought that all these loves were copies of 

our love for the landlord.

~ C.S. Lewis 

from God in the Dock

poverty of the lover

The true lover gazes toward the reality of things:

My eyes so fix

upon your image

that whatever I gaze at

I imagine you.

Wherever he looks he finds that Face and therefore needs everything he sees. 

 "Poverty is intrinsic need; it has nothing to do with this or that."

And why does nothing need the lover? One can only need something which exists.  But the lover, outwardly detached and inwardly disengaged, has returned the robe of existence and all its trappings- which he only held in trust - ... Again he has donned the patched cloak of his own nothingness.  "He is ... as he was in eternity-without-beginning," and in such a state, who needs him?

But...in poverty there comes a state wherein the poor man himself needs nothing.  As one of them said, "The poor man is not is not in need of God Himself!"  Need, after all, is an attribute of the existent; but he who dives into the sea of nothingness needs no more.  His poverty is complete.

You are nothing 
when you wed the One;
but you are everything 
when you become nothing.




~ Fakhruddin 'Iraqi
from Divine Flashes

telling a story to her own ears

Every word of every tongue is

Love telling a story to her own ears.

Every thought in every mind,

She whispers a secret to her own Self.

Every vision in every eye,

She shows her beauty to her own sight.

Every smile on every face,

She reveals her own joy for herself to enjoy.

Love courses through everything,

No, Love is everything.

How can you say, there is no love,

when nothing but Love exists?

All that you see has appeared because of Love.

All shines from Love,

All pulses with Love,

All flows from Love--

No, once again, all IS Love!

~ Fakhruddin Iraqi

first step

The first step in love

is losing your head.

After the petty ego

you then give up your life

and bear the calamity.

With this behind you, proceed:

Polish the ego's rust

from the mirror

of your self

~ Fakhr al-Din Iraqi

from Love's Alchemy

translations by David and Sabrineh Fideler

that crookedness is straightness itself

They asked al-Hallaj, "To which religious School do you belong?

he answered, "God's own."

He who limned 

a thousand worlds with paint-

you layabout! - do you expect

He'll use your color or mine?

Our paints and tints

are but opinions and fantasy,

He is colorless

and we must adopt His hue.

Look: a shadow lies crooked upon the ground because the very earth is laid rough; but no, 

that crookedness is straightness itself, for the perfection, the "straightness" of the eyebrow is in its 

sinuous curve.

Only because it is bent

is this piece of wood a bow.

Reality is a sphere: wherever you place your finger,

there is its dead center.

~ Fakhruddin Iraqi

from Divine Flashes

behind the screen

Love plays its lute behind the screen - 

where is a lover to listen to its tune?

With every breath a new song,

each split second a new string plucked,

The world has spilled Love's secret -

when could music ever hold its tongue?

Every atom babbles the mystery -

Listen yourself, for I'm no tattletale!

~ Fakhruddin Iraqi

from Divine Flashes

photo by Christine de Grancy

a blaze of light

There's a blaze of light

In every word

It doesn't matter which you heard

The holy or the broken Hallelujah


~ Leonard Cohen

My eyes so fix

upon your image

that whatever I gaze at

I imagine you.

~ Fakhruddin Iraqi

from Divine Flashes

sing

Sing

the matchless pleasure

of gypsy girl

and beggar

Toss

cap from head

fling sandals

from feet.

So

I kick my life away

and sacrifice

my heart

Trade

the caravanserai

of this world and the next

for One.

~ Fakhruddin Iraqi

from The Drunken Universe: An Anthology of Persian Sufi Poetry

art by Rodin

before a trance

In those days

before a trace

of the two worlds,

no "other" yet imprinted

on the Tablet of Existence,

I, the Beloved, and Love

lived together

in the corner

of an uninhabited

cell.

~ Fakhruddin Iraqi

from Divine Flashes

translation by William Chittick and Peter Lamborn Wilson

multiplicity in properties

He who has lifted the veil sees multiplicity in properties, 
not in Essence; hence he knows that changes in properties 
cannot touch Essence, which owns a perfection subject to no mutability. 
Light merely seems to change as it shines through colored glass, but

light has no color.

Its rays shine through the glass

and only then 

do hues and tints appear.

Don't you understand?

Come then into my eyes

and...look!

and you will see

a sun shining

through a thousand bits of glass

beaming to plain sight through each

a ray of color

Why should any difference appear

between this one and that?

All light is one

but colors a thousandfold.

~ Fakhruddin 'Iraqi
from Divine Flashes

many waves

each image painted

on the canvas of existence

is the form

of the artist himself.

Eternal Ocean

spews forth new waves,

"Waves" we call them;

but there is only the Sea.

Many and disparate waves do not make the sea a multiplicity;

no more do the Names make the Named more than One.

When the sea breathes they call it mist;

when mist piles up they call it clouds.

It falls again,

they name it rain;

it gathers itself and rejoins the sea.

And it is now the same sea it ever was.

~ Fakhruddin 'Iraqi

from Divine Flashes

the wealth of poverty

I have seen that the lane of piety stretches out,

far, far into the distance;

My dearest friends, can you not show me then

the way of the madman?

Bring me a glass of Magian wine

that I may drink deep

for I have given up all thought

of ascetic piety;

or if the pure wine has all been downed

bring me the cloudy dregs

for thick residue lights up the heart 

and illuminates the eyes.

Tuppence for the Sufi meeting house!

I flee the company of the righteous;

fill up a row of glasses with wine

and bring me the first.

I have no rules or regulations,

nor heart nor religion -

only I remain, and you, sitting in the corner

and the wealth of Poverty.

All fear of God, all self-denial I deny;

bring wine, nothing but wine

for in all sincerity I repent

my worship which is but hypocrisy.

Yes, bring me wine, for I have renounced all renunciation

and all my vaunted self-righteousness

seems to me but swagger and self-display.

Now for a time let my proof be wine

against the sorrow of Time

for only in drunkenness can one be free

of the hour's grief.

Once I am thoroughly drunk, what difference

if I end up in a church or in Mecca?

Once I've abandoned myself, what matter

if I win Union - or separation?

I've been to the gambling house and seen 

that the losers there are pure;

I've been to the monastery and have found

no one but hypocrites.

Now I've broken my repentance, at least

do not break our covenant:

at least welcome this broken heart and say

"How are you? Where have you been?"

I've been to Mecca, to circle the Kaaba

but they refused me entrance

saying "Off with you!  What merit have you earned

outside, that we should admit you within?"

Then, last night, I knocked

at the tavern door;

from within came a voice: "'Iraqi! Come in!

for you are one of the chosen!"

~ Fakhruddin 'Iraqi

from the introduction to Divine Flashes

translation by William Chittick and Peter Wilson

heaven kicks away the blankets and sheets

that because of the wine's pureness

and the crystal clarity of the glass

the color of glass and wine were confused.

All is glass - or, no, all is wine.

All is wine - or, no, all is glass.

When the sky is tainted

with the colors of the sun

heaven kicks away the blankets and sheets,

the shadows of nothingness.  Day and Night

make peace with each other:

thus have the world's affairs been ordered.

~ Fakhruddin 'Iraqi

from Divine Flashes

art by Lynda Lehmann

every atom babbles the mystery

Love plays its lute behind the screen -

where is a lover to listen to its tune?

With every breath a new song,

each split second a new string plucked.

The world has spilled Love's secret -

when could music ever hold its tongue?

Every atom babbles the mystery -

Listen yourself, for I'm no tattletale!

~ Fakhruddin Iraqi

from Divine Flashes 

translation by William Chittick and Peter Lamborn Wilson

art by van gogh