How Can We Escape (1/19/20)
Love came and broke my regret as if it were a bottle.
How can we escape
Love’s constant breaking and repairing?
Who can repair a broken bottle except Love?
Rubailer (2016), Rubai #3, page 112.
How Lucky (1/12/10)
The soul’s Sultan pushes us from one play to another
as if we were pawns in a chess game.
I wonder if He wins. I wonder if He is ever checkmated.
After all, aren’t we the ones on trial?
He picked up our particles, gathered them together,
then kneaded them with the universe to make a paste.
He pierced our noses and inserted reins made of greed and lust
in order to pull us around the world like camels.
Who are we?
He put an oxen’s bell on the neck of the sky
and keeps crushing us under that sky as if we were sesame.
How lucky is that camel who has been tied by the halter of God’s Love.
He makes us drunk and excited while we are among the other camels.
Divan-i Kebir, Volume 15, Ghazal 6, verses 48-52, page 11.
There is a Way (1/5/20)
O confused heart, the way to the Beloved is through your soul.
O one who has lost his way, there is a road to the Beloved
which is both known and unknown.
Don’t worry if your way is blocked from all six directions.
There is a way right from the bottom of your heart.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai #, page 109. #3
No Place for Water and Earth (12/29/19)
Look at these fragments of soul
which have been chipped off, sparkling in this valley.
Watch this sea. Watch these ships
as they collide with each other. Continue reading
Love Has Arrived (12/22/19)
Love has arrived and become the blood in my skin and veins.
It has emptied me of my self, filling me with the Beloved.
Every part of my body is now occupied by the Beloved.
Only my name has been left to me.
He has become everything else.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai #4, page 112.
The Situation (12/15/19)
I tried to describe the situation of my heart as I knew it.
The tears and blood of my heart had become rough,
but I couldn’t explain it. Continue reading
Death is Reaching Out to God (12/8/19)
There is a new life in death for the man of faith and justice.
From death, peace and calm come to clean souls.
Death is reaching out to God, not out to fear and cruelty.
The one who refuses to die with that death will die every day.
That is the greatest of all troubles.
Rubailer (2016), Page 101, #2.
I Will Keep Silent (12/1/19)
Just now, ruby-colored tears have started coming from my eyes.
A trace of Love’s dust never appears, but a sign has appeared from Love. Continue reading
Both Worlds Are Submerged in Him (11/24/19)
If you want the Beloved to show His face to you, turn inside.
Give up your flesh and walk to the Essence.
He is such an Essence
that He is surrounded by layers of curtains.
He is submerged in His own Being,
and both worlds are submerged in Him.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai 1, page 97.
I Am Right Here (11/17/19)
“I don’t have anything to do with this.”
That’s what you said, looking quite sour.
Words like “vinegar is a nice condiment” were written all over your face. Continue reading
Nothing Except the Beloved (11/10/19)
“As long as I live, I won’t stray from the right way.”
I gave that oath to myself.
But later, I looked to my right, then to my left,
then to my right, then to my left.
Each time, I saw nothing except the Beloved.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai #1, page 91.
Who Has… (11/3/19)
Who has seen a trace of that charmer?
In whose house is that full moon hidden?
Who has seen without eyes His Beauty?
Who has seen that world beyond this one? Continue reading
He Tells What He Sees (10/27/19)
O mortal, this is the Master of all the East.
This is the lightning from the cloud which scatters pearls.
Whatever you say is based on reasoning alone,
whereas He tells what he sees,
and that is the difference.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai #4, page 70.
Two Opposite Bits of News (10/27/19)
A smile explains Your kindness.
Crying is a complaint about Your grief. Continue reading
That is the Sacrifice (10/13/19)
O heart, here you are, sitting in the middle of His sorrow.
To suffer is the cure. Do not complain. That is the order.
When you step on the head of your desire, your dog-self will be suffocated.
That is the sacrifice.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai #1, page 73.
Look at Souls (10/6/19)
Clean souls ascend to the sky.
Turbid souls descend to the valley, are buried in the ground.
Open the eye of your soul and look at souls.
How did they get here?
What happens to them?
Where and how do they go? Continue reading
The Beloved is Inside of You (9/29/19)
O one who has been deceived by flesh, who doesn’t know His own essence, put your mind in your head.
The Beloved is inside of you.
Senses are the essence of the body. The essence of your senses is your soul.
If you go beyond body, senses and soul, everything is the Beloved.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai #1, page 71.
The Only Way to Reach Eternity (9/22/19)
Every moment, Your kindness follows after sorrow.
If this were not so, no one could stand this suffering.
Make me constantly drunk with the wine which gives no hangover.
I don’t want any other wine. Continue reading
Not for Everyone (9/15/19)
Not everyone looks for You.
Nor do You ask that everyone does.
Not every mill wheel turns by the water coming from Your river.
Drawing a strong, tight bow is not for everyone.
For that, one has to be a hero.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai #2, page 77.
“Why Don’t You Come, Too?” (9/8/19)
“O heart,” I said, “why are you like this?
How long will you be hanging around Love?
My heart answered, “Why don’t you come, too?
Wouldn’t it be nice if you came and tasted the pleasure of Love? Continue reading
Since we see others, we are not one anymore.
We are in the business of the many.
We identify good and bad, and that is where the trouble starts.
A heart which has not reached ecstasy
will keep getting kicked by the other.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai #3, page 64.
Death’s Majesty (8/25/19)
Love passes with the hope of tomorrow,
finishes needlessly with fights and struggles.
Assume your life is the day which you are living right now.
See how you spend it with all of your schemes and empty projects. Continue reading
Don’t Open the Door of Thought (8/18/19)
Like every other day, we are desperately in Love today.
Don’t open the door of thought.
Play the rebab whose sound makes us forget everything.
There are a hundred different prayers
for the one whose alter is the face of the Beloved.
Rubailer (2016), Rubia #4, page 46.
My Religion (8/11/19)
Absence in Nothingness is my religion.
Annihilation from existence is what I worship.
I run towards the side of the Beloved with my feet,
but the green horse of the firmament is under my saddle.
In one breath, I leave hundreds of planets behind me.
Then, I turn back and see
that that was only one step of mine.
Why should I circle around the Earth?
The Beloved is inside of my sweet soul.
Shams of Tebriz, whom all saints praise,
has teeth which resemble sieen.*
They are my Ya Sin.**
*sieen A letter of the Arabic alphabet.
**Ya Sin The title of the sura (section) of the Quran (which has 114 suras). Quran XXXVI.
Divan-i Kebir, Volume 9, Ghazal 25, verses 258-262, page 41.
I am Absent (8/4/19)
He is inside and outside of my heart.
He is the soul of my body.
He is my blood and my veins.
How could faith or heresy fit here?
I am absent. He is all of my existence.
Rubailer (2016), page 68, Rubai #4
You are the Antidote…You are the Bait (7/28/19)
What is life without You?
Life without You is forbidden.
Living without Your beautiful face is nothing but death,
that thing which was given the name, “life.” Continue reading
I Did Not Recognize Who I Was (7/21/19)
At first, like others, I preferred being my self.
Although I was aware of my existence, I did not comprehend my being.
Because I could not see, I did not recognize who I was.
I was merely hearing my name.
Finally, and only when I went out of myself completely, I saw my real being.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai #4, page 45.
Stay for Awhile (7/14/19)
A sugar buyer comes, saying,
“A caravan has arrived from Egypt.”
Hundreds of camels come loaded with sugar cane.
O my God, what a beautiful gift. Continue reading
Bravo to Our Powers and Abilities! (7/7/19)
Sometimes , the angels are jealous of our purity.
Sometimes, the devil is afraid of our recklessness.
Our clay body carries God’s gift.
Bravos to our power and abilities!
Rubailer (2016), Rubai #3, page 43.
I Have No Constancy, No Peace (6/30/19)
He said, “I am the fire which burns you.”
I answered, “Yes, but Your Love and Your sun are in my heart.
“If I smell one rose without Your Love,
burn me right away like a thorn.” Continue reading