Introduction

In the Name of Allah the Most Beneficient the Most Merciful

The Artist that fashions from a mere droplet a tulip
Honors the fetus on a lofty throne to command
Its paragon wisdom mixes life & heart from water & mud
Its paramount power sequences the days and the nights
Begets water from clouds and endows with sugar the cane
Displays with terrific power “My Glory” made manifest
Once It plays the game of love with a heart
Shall empty the heart vacuous from all else
That Salek who is drunken with the wine of desire [1]
Dressed in a long gown, goblet in hand, made careless
If Its benevolence nears a lowly fallen slave
Destines a castle wafting above the wheel of universe
Loves this dust towards its destruction’s finale
Unless you muse, cannot grasp this clement reality
Seeking It, the creation finds no hint or trace
All this secrecy due to Its eternal beauty and grace
Lustrous crescent of knowledge if shines upon someone
Shall illuminate Ansaari like the darkness of Belal [2]

We called this the Treasures for Travelers, so those embarking on the Voyage may find guidance.


Chapter One: Argument between Mind & Love  




[1] Salek is the Arabic word for a traveler from one place to another, in the context of Sufism it means a voyage towards discovering and knowing one’s own self and eventually getting to know the Creator in most intimate/personal fashion

[2] Belal^{May Allah be pleased with him}, was an Ethiopian slave whom Prophet Mohammad^{Peace Be Upon Him} emancipated and this slave became the most trusted and a member of the Prophet’s household and one the most revered believers in Islam. Ansaari brings tears to the eyes when he talks about the light of Allah’s knowledge shining upon him so intensely that he is tanned with a dark skin like the black skin of Belal, hence poetically to mean righteous. For a pale central Asian this was a revolution and a courageous poetic invention that has endured to this date.

Background: Lost Boys of Sudan.

© 2004-2002,  Dara Shayda