A Tent Upon The Flames

My heart pegged the sorrow’s tent upon the flames of loss
The dreams, the destination of blood flowing from tearful eyes
Look upon this tent the handicraft made by my inventive heart
Look upon this red dye, the painting painted by my artful eyes
 
So many hearts stalled and shattered bleeding because of You
So many hands lost wandering upon the scalps because of You
So many of Its sublime words like glittering jewels and gold
On your ears awaiting to be knocked like a ring upon the door
 
If one finds a way behind the curtains of happiness
He has no intimate love relations with You whatsoever
Underneath the flowers shade that bedewed green grass
Be fair! It is a splendid sight for all to watch alas! [1]
 
Ruined is the one gazing upon the beauty of Your Face
No blame upon this bewildered estranged man gone insane
Any heart beholding the sublime chains of Your Zolf’s tresses 
Other than with ferrets and chains the heart not restrained [2]
 
The Creator raised the flag of victory for your honor
Shaped and formed the universe for your sake all over  [3]
You must not hate and quarrel with this world
You can not arm with swords and spears against the Lord
 
Its Royal Highness shared with my wisdom this advice secretly
Told upon the ear of my heart and heart said to life intimately:
Share not your sorrows with anyone openly
Since there is no friend to share the broken heart sincerely
 
The unnumbered stars the horsemen and cavalry of Yours
The wheel of cosmos lowly subject to the sword and pen of Yours [4]
What is the universe compared to the splendid majesty of Yours
A mere fist full of dust and even that thrown under the step of Yours
  
If anyone wearing the garment of Its throbbing love
Enduring the afflictions shall leave him naked like I
 
   
End.


Your heart was broken long ago, though in a state of analgesic hibernation you felt nothing. And when this wound brought close to someone or something you loved, suddenly numbness gone and you felt the incredible pain.
 
Be assured that it was not her/him that caused the heartache, know that it was not the loss of wealth or health that brought you the pain in the chest. The wound was always there just that the person you loved gave it the experience wherein the sensation of pain came to be. And this pain incubated within the experience of loss, is an indication that something was done to your heart, perhaps prior to the experience. Some trace of the traceless Creator!
 
Indeed your heart was broken long ago by the Beloved, bestowing beneficence upon you. The object of affection (he or she) who caused the immense hurt, was the veil pulled away by the hand of pain so that your eyes can see with clarity your heart being touched between the fingers of Beloved. The experience of loss was necessary to give this touch by Beloved an outwardly manifest.
 
Just like the tent and the red painting in Faryaabi’s poem above, heartache is filled with causes, mechanisms and processes. Just like physical heart is filled with biological, chemical, physical mechanisms and processes to create the sensation of healthy heart or painful heart troubles, the spiritual heart as well filled with such processes and mechanisms during the times of serenity and peace and during the times of heartache and loss.
 
A knife cutting a finger, is an experience manifesting pain indicating the intrusion of a foreign object into your body. If the pain was not there the knife would have cut all the way through and by the time your eyes saw this truth, you had been injured fatally.
 
Similarly the heartache, is an experience manifesting pain, the indication of being touched by an outside force, in this case the Beloved. This pain is an endowment of a gift of loss and heartache that prevented and guarded against much harm and destruction, had your heart not been broken.
 
And all this made clear from the words of the blessed Prophet:
 
“The hearts of all children of Adam are between two of the fingers of Ar-Rahman (the Most Beneficent One) as though one single heart to turn and direct as It wishes”  
 
The Haitian child in the picture suffering from hard labor and slavery in this day and age of technological wizardry, economic globalization and manufacturing surplus. The Majestic Beloved of the heavens and earth broke his heart and all other hearts between Its powerful fingers, connected in a continuum as one heart! Close your eyes lovers! If you cannot... Stab your eyes brothers! So you can see the child’s suffering... Because behind his curtain of suffering and slavery is the Eternal most Beautiful Being, Everlasting in all time and space, the Creator of all things.


[1] Temporary pleasures and happiness of this world.
 
[2] ‘Zolf’ in Koranic/Aarbic (Koran[34:37]) means to draw closer  but in Farsi means locks of hair! Sufis have used this term in their poetry, which is a wonderful ambiguity of meaning. The usage reads as though they are talking about getting closer to someone via holding the ends of hair locks. They do not mean that the Allah has hair, they are using this as a poetic expression of Isharat (Hinting, pointing) to deliver a feeling of closeness towards the Beloved. Just the same way Hand of Allah does not mean God has hands like ours with muscles and fingers.
 
[3] Koran [31:20]:
 
“Do ye not see that Allah has subjected to your (use) all things in the heavens and on earth"
 
[4] The Pen is used as a metaphor for a designer or a dictator. There are different inks, which the pen once dipped in, can write/design something new. If the ink is that of the physics then the pen draws the blueprints of the cosmos we see. If the ink is the molecular one then the Pen writes the DNA sequences of all living beings. If the ink is time, then the Pen writes all our doings, destiny and fate. If the ink is the sacred holiness, then the Pen writes the holy scriptures sent to Mankind. This is a metaphor in the poem to indicate the Creator designing all things via this Pen.
 
[5]
 
مسند عبد الله بن عمرو بن العاص رضي الله تعالى عنهما مسند المكثرين من الصحابة مسند أحمد

‏ ‏حدثنا ‏ ‏أبو عبد الرحمن ‏ ‏حدثنا ‏ ‏حيوة ‏ ‏أخبرني ‏ ‏أبو هانئ ‏ ‏أنه سمع ‏ ‏أبا عبد الرحمن الحبلي ‏ ‏أنه سمع ‏ ‏عبد الله بن عمرو ‏
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© 2003-2002,  Dara Shayda