SUFISM - TASAWWUFIslamic Mysticism Poetical Examples

notes by Denis Bašic

Muhyiddin ’Ibn ‘Arabi

1165-1240

Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi al-Sheik al-’Akbar - Doctor Maximus

(the Greatest Master)• Ibn Arabi was born in Medinat Mursiya (present day Murcia) in Al-

Andalus in 1165 CE, and his family moved to Sevilla when he was eight years old.

• In 1200 CE, at the age of thirty-five, he left Spain for good, intending to make the hajj to Mecca. He lived near Mecca for three years, where he began writing his Al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya (The Meccan Revelations).

• In 1204, he left Mecca for Anatolia with Majduddin Eshaq, whose son Sadruddin Qunawi (1210-1274) would be his most influential disciple.

• In 1223, he settled in Damascus, where he lived the last seventeen years of his life. He died in 1240 CE at the age of 76. His tomb in Damascus is still an important place of pilgrimage.

• Ibn Arabi is known as the prime exponent of the ideal later known as Wahdatu-l-Wujood (Absolute Monism)

• Some of his sayings from his major work Fususu-l-Hikem (Bezels of Wisdom):العبد رب والرب عبد The slave is the Lord and the Lord is the slave.الرب رب في التنزل والعبد عبد في الترقي The Lord is a Lord in his descent [to His creation] and a slave is a slave in rising.

It is He who is revealed in every face, sought in every sign, gazed upon by every eye, worshipped in every object of worship, and pursued in the unseen and the visible. Not a single one of His creatures can fail to find Him in its primordial and original nature.

Ibn 'Arabi, Futûhât al-Makkiyya

The movement which is the existence of the universe is the movement of love.

Ibn 'Arabi, Fusûs al-Hikam

In what I have written, I have never had a set purpose, as other writers. Flashes of divine inspiration used to come upon me and almost overwhelm me, so that I could only put them from my mind by committing to paper what they revealed to me. If my works evince any form of composition, that form was unintentional. Some works I wrote at the command of God, sent to me in sleep or through a mystical revelation...

Muhyiddin ‘Ibn ‘Arabi

My heart has become capable of every form: It is a pasture for gazelles, And a convent for Christian monks, And a temple for idols, And the pilgrim's Ka'ba, And the tables of the Tora, And the book of the Koran. I follow the religion of Love, Whatever direction its caravans may take, For Love is my religion and my faith..

Muhyiddin ‘Ibn ‘Arabi

When my Beloved appears, With what eye do I see Him?

With His eye, not with mine, For none sees Him except Himself.

Muhyiddin ‘Ibn ‘Arabi

While the sun's eye rules my sight, love sits as sultan in my soul. His army has made camp in my heart -- passion and yearning, affliction and grief. When his camp took possession of me I cried out as the flame of desire burned in my entrails. Love stole my sleep, love has bewildered me, love kills me unjustly, and I am helpless, love has burdened me with more than I can bear so that I bequeath him a soul and no body.

Muhyiddin ‘Ibn ‘Arabi

Tomb of Ibn Arabi encased in glass in the lower level of a mosque at the bottom of Mount Qasyun in Damascus.

Mawlana Jelaluddin

Rumi1207-1273

Mawlana Jalaluddin Rumi (1207-1273)

• Rumi was born either in Balkh (modern Afghanistan) or Wakhsh (modern-day Tajikistan). Both cities belonged to the historical Persian province of Khorasan that was under the Khwarezmian Empire of the time.

• However, most of his life Rumi spent in Konya in Anatolia, which is why he is called Rumi. “Rumi” is, namely, a descriptive name meaning "the Roman". Anatolia used to be a part of the Roman Empire until the Seljuq conquest in the mid 11th century.

• Though he lived in the Seljuk sultanate, he wrote his mystical poetry predominately in his native Persian.

• Following his death, his followers and his son Sultan Walad founded the Mawlawīyah Sufi Order, also known as the order of the Whirling Dervishes, famous for its Sufi dance known as the samāʿ ceremony.

Why should I seek? I am the same as He. His essence speaks through me. I have been looking for myself!

Rumi

Love’s nationality is separate from all other religions, The lover’s religion and nationality is the Beloved (God).

The lover’s cause is separate from all other causes Love is the astrolabe of God’s mysteries.

Rumi

Come, come, whoever you are, Wanderer, idolater, worshiper of fire, Come even though you have broken your vows a thousand times, Come, and come yet again. Ours is not a caravan of despair.

Rumi

I died as a mineral and became a plant, I died as plant and rose to animal, I died as animal and I was Man. Why should I fear? When was I less by dying? Yet once more I shall die as Man, to soar With angels blest; but even from angelhood I must pass on: all except God doth perish. When I have sacrificed my angel-soul, I shall become what no mind ever conceived. Oh, let me not exist! for Non-existence Proclaims in organ tones, 'To Him we shall return.

Rumi

از جمادی مُردم و نامی شدم --- وز نما مُردم بحیوان سرزدم

مُردم از حیوانی و آدم شدم --- پس چه ترسم کی ز مردم کم شدم

حملهء دیگر بمیرم از بشر --- تا برآرم از ملایک بال و پر

وز ملک هم بایدم جستن ز جو --- کل شییء هالک الاوجهه

بار دیگر از ملک پران شوم --- آنچه اندر وهم ناید آن شوم

پس عدم گردم عدم چو ارغنون --- گویدم کانا الیه راجعون

What can I do, Muslims? I do not know myself. I am neither Christian nor Jew, neither Magian, nor Muslim, I am not from east or west, not from land or sea, not from the shafts of nature nor from the spheres of the firmament, not of the earth, not of water, not of air, not of fire. I am not from the highest heaven, not from this world, not from existence, not from being. I am not from India, not from China, not from Bulgar, not from Saqsin, not from the realm of the two Iraqs, not from the land of Khurasan I am not from the world, not from beyond, not from heaven and not from hell. I am not from Adam, not from Eve, not from paradise and not from Ridwan. My place is placeless, my trace is traceless, no body, no soul, I am from the soul of souls.

I have chased out duality, lived the two worlds as one. One I seek, one I know, one I see, one I call. He is the first, he is the last, he is the outer, he is the inner. Beyond "He" and "He is" I know no other. I am drunk from the cup of love, the two worlds have escaped me. I have no concern but carouse and rapture. If one day in my life I spend a moment without you from that hour and that time I would repent my life. If one day I am given a moment in solitude with you I will trample the two worlds underfoot and dance forever. O Sun of Tabriz (Shams-i Tabrizi), I am so tipsy here in this world, I have no tale to tell but tipsiness and rapture.

Mawlana Jalaluddin Rumi

I am the servant of the Qur'an as long as I have life. I am the dust on the path of Muhammad, the Chosen one. If anyone quotes anything except this from my sayings, I am quit of him and outraged by these words.

Rumi's Quatrain No. 1173