Translated by Michael A. Sells
Gentle now, doves of the Thornberry
and moringa thicket,
don’t add to my heartache
your sighs.
Gentle now,
or your sad cooing
will reveal the love I hide,
the sorrow I hide away.
I echo back, in the evening,
in the morning, echo,
the longing of a love-sick lover,
the moaning of the lost.
In a grove of Ghada,
Spirits wrestled,
bending the limbs down over me,
passing me away.
Filed under Gnosis & Mysticism, Poetry, Shaykh Ibn Arabi, Spirituality & Religion
"O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of male and female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know and cooperate with one another."
- (Quran 49:13)
I am as My servant thinks I am. I am with him when he makes mention of Me. If he makes mention of Me to himself, I make mention of him to Myself; and if he makes mention of Me in an assembly, I make mention of him in an assembly better than it. And if he draws near to Me an arm's length, I draw near to him a fathom's length. And if he comes to Me walking, I go to him at speed.
- Hadith Qudsi
Whosoever shows enmity to someone devoted to Me, I shall be at war with him. My servant draws not near to Me with anything more loved by Me than the religious duties I have enjoined upon him, and My servant continues to draw near to Me with supererogatory works so that I shall love him. When I love him I am his hearing with which he hears, his seeing with which he sees, his hand with which he strikes and his foot with which he walks. Were he to ask [something] of Me, I would surely give it to him, and were he to ask Me for refuge, I would surely grant him it. I do not hesitate about anything as much as I hesitate about [seizing] the soul of My faithful servant: he hates death and I hate hurting him.
- Bukhari
-- William Shakespeare
- William Wordsworth
Without education, you are not going anywhere in this world.
- Malcolm X
“The Islamic teachings have left great traditions for equitable and gentle dealings and behavior, and inspire people with nobility and tolerance. These are human teachings of the highest order and at the same time practicable. These teachings brought into existence a society in which hard-heartedness and collective oppression and injustice were the least as compared with all other societies preceding it….Islam is replete with gentleness, courtesy, and fraternity.”
- H.G. Wells
“I have always held the religion of Muhammad in high estimation because of its wonderful vitality. It is the only religion which appears to me to possess that assimilating capacity to the changing phase of existence which can make itself appeal to every age. I have studied him - the wonderful man and in my opinion far from being an anti-Christ, he must be called the Savior of Humanity.”
- George Bernard Shaw
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He made the Hereafter an abode to reward His believing servants only because this world cannot contain what He wishes to bestow upon them and because He deemed their worth too high to reward them in a world without permanence.
- Ibn Ata’llah
- Shakespeare
- Suheir Hammad
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3 Comments
March 16, 2008 at 6:35 AM
Assalamu Alaykaum
Better to keep silent than to pass judgement of kufr on people especially, ibn Arabi who is none other than….Shaykh al Akbar! You should make tawbah or else you will be accountable to Allah Ta’ala for your statement.
Wassalam
September 2, 2007 at 4:45 PM
Wa Alaikum Salaam Sister Aisha,
Sufism does have a place in Islam, but unfortunately many Muslims do not understand it. Being a sufi does not mean its purpose is to twirl around and drink wine, like some mistakenly believe.
Sufis practice cleansing the heart of bad traits like greed, hate, lust, etc. Their purpose is to be among the ones Allah is well pleased with. The Prophet said in a hadith, which I’m paraphrasing: “worship Allah as though you see Him.” And that is the ultimate goal of the sufi. It is not enough to just pray and fast, if we want to be like our beloved Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) whose life mirrored the Quran and who had the purest heart and character. We must strive, (jihad of the nafs) to eliminate all the bad in us, and be in constant remembrance of Allah if we want to be like our Prophet who was the best of creation.
The Prophet practiced tasawwuf although in his time they didn’t call it that because all Muslims were practicing it, and Islam was taken very seriously. When Muslims started forgetting about the deen later on after the Prophet (pbuh), Muslim scholars decided to remind people to cleanse their hearts, and called it tasawuff. Sufism is not an innovation, but something the Prophet did, it was just given a name later on.
You might find these two articles more helpful, since I’m not able to explain very well.
The Place of Tasawwuf in Traditional Islam
Why Muslims Follow Madhhabs
As for Ibn Arabi (may Allah have mercy on him) he is considered one of the greatest scholars of Islam, and I’d be very careful about calling him a kafir. Only Allah knows ultimately who is a kafir and who isn’t a kafir. Inshallah, we should be very careful labeling another person who called themselves a Muslim a kafir. Allah knows all things and not us.
May Allah guide us all to the straight path and forgive us for our errors.
September 2, 2007 at 4:09 PM
Asalamu Alaykum sisters,
Don’t u know that Ibn Arabi is a kafir(disbeliever) many scholars have said so and have proven this statement to his actions and writings he was a infamous sufi.
SO IF U SISTERS PRACTICE SUFISM PLEASE GIVE IT UP IT IS AN INNOVATION IN ISLAM AND HAS NO PART IN THIS RELIGION.