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Michael Lord Sep 22
The travelers have passed you by
Singing and dancing their way to
Paradise
They have waved
Come join!
Don’t turn away
Sip a little Hafiz each night
Before pulling the starry shroud
Over your sleep
Then come
Banging your drum
And join our saintly caravan
Michael Lord Sep 22
Like the caged homing pigeon
I yearn only for release.

From the timeless realm,
I once chose time.
Radiant with light,
I once chose darkness.
Plucking from the tree of life,
I once chose to suffer.

As a dervish of the One
Here I chose to wander.
As a dervish of the One
Home I chose to forget.

Yet

I stood by the birthing bed,
I sang in sorrow
When Spirit married blood.

When death’s mourners passed,
I danced with joy
At the sunder of Spirit and flesh.

As a dervish of the One
I began to remember.

With the eyes of Allah
At suffering I laughed.
With the ears of Allah
At laughter I wept.

I turned my face toward
The One.

I learned to let go
Of all I loved.
Then I let go of love.

Exiled,
Imprisoned in time,
Like the caged pigeon,
I yearn to fly home.

I pray,
Release me.
Let me go home.
The title for this poem was given to me by a talented writer who lived across the Salish Sea.  She challenged me to write a poem to go with the title; I believe the title was given to her in a dream.  I did write a poem and I believe it says much about me.
Michael Lord Sep 20
From the void Allah awoke
To sing a single holy note.
His voice gave rise to all vibration,
Spirit song of life’s creation.

La illa ha illah ‘lah
Alhumdulillah Subhanallah

Joined in a Circle we pray his name.
Within the Circle angels the same.
Wingtip to shoulder, shoulder to wing,
Gathered together, together we sing.

Alhumdulillah Subhanallah
La illa ha illa ‘lah

The Sufi heart is a chalice of pain.
Here in secret we hold his flame.
The Sufi heart is a chalice of Love
Filled with baraka from above.

La illa ha illa ‘lah
Alhumdulillah Subhanallah
Sufi zikr
Michael Lord Sep 19
There are worlds upon worlds.

We came here under contract
To forget.
Yet does your heart not hold
A whisper of home?
Do you not feel a longing
For return?

We endure this dark way station,
Where pains and sorrows
Multiply.

We think we learn of love
In all its many forms,
Yet we drink a weak brew,
The taste of real Love
Forgotten.

Here we turn around,
To retrace our footsteps
Through the universe of Spirit,
That ocean of Love.

With joy we join our caravan
Of forgotten friends and lovers,
Our tribe of gypsy souls.

We bang our drum
And sing of our return.
Again we travel
Joyful,
Begin that endless journey,
Shall navigate the
Timeless Realms,

Our compass ever pointing
The way to
The One.

We may linger
Here and there,
There are worlds of such beauty.

But Creator
Ever calls to us,
Come closer to my Light.
We grow ever lighter,
Shine ever brighter
As we answer the call.

Our destiny a homecoming,
Now purely of Light,
Beings of Spirit,
Welcomed by angels,
We join their chorus

Ever rejoicing
In orbit of
The One.
This poem reflects teachings I absorbed during my decades as a Sufi mureed.
Adnan Shabbir May 24
A mere click of a button and you’re jumping for joy

A long way we have travelled from pure chaste intentions but how outdated we still are

Faded memories are what we once called the best of days

Now the faster the earth orbits, the feeble our minds are now becoming

What do we do?
Adnan Shabbir May 23
O Jaanam Tere kyā bāteṇ, har Galī maujūd haiṇ
Aur har dil ke deewāren kaamp rahe haiṇ jazbā se

Oh beloved, your stories are present in every street
And the walls of every heart are trembling with passion

Jab meiṇ koshish kartā hūṇ apnā dil ko sambhālnē
Ik awāz ātē hai kehte yehī asliyat hai

When I try to control my heart
A voice comes and says, 'This is the reality'

Kis roo lok ke dikhao, hairān dekhte haiṇ mujhe
Dūr chashm samajhe haiṇ ṣūfī, pās sar-gardān-e-ishq hai

Which face should I show people, they look at me in amazement
From afar, they think I'm a mystic, but up close, I'm just a captive of love

Yaad E To Jaanan E Jaan, har sanson e saans aap hai
Chand baatein karna aapke, yeh umar qaid milta hai  

O beloved of my soul, in every breath you reside
Just a few words with you, and a lifetime's bond is tied

Apne is kām kyūṇ kiyā, sazā-e-zulm tabāhī kī
Ab nacheez aur har āshiq, bā delash mi-andishad

What did you do this for, a punishment of cruelty and destruction?
Now this lowly one (me) and every lover is a prisoner of love
JAMIL HUSSAIN Dec 2024
O’ Beloved, in whose light my soul is lost,  
You are the breath of heaven, the very cost  
Of my existence, an intoxication divine,  
A love so deep, no tongue can dare define.  

You are the wine, and I, the cup you fill,  
A thirst unending, yet I drink my fill.  
Your eyes, like stars, consume me whole—  
An endless longing that devours my soul.  

In your touch, I am both slave and king,  
Bound by desire, yet free in everything.  
You are the flame, and I the burning wick,  
I dance in your fire, lost in love’s trick.  

O’ sacred beauty, in you I see  
The truth beyond the self, the unity.  
Your beauty is not of this world,  
But of the spirit, in your gaze unfurled.  

Come, Beloved, for I am drunk on your name,  
A mystic’s love that cannot be the same.  
My heart, a river, flows to you—  
The shore is distant, but the love is true.
The Flame and the Wick 28/12/2024 © All Rights Reserved by Jamil Hussain
JAMIL HUSSAIN Dec 2024
I am not that which sparkles pure and bright,
Nor claim to be a pearl of matchless might.
Yet should the Lord, with mercy’s boundless grace,
Bestow His favour on this fleeting place,
Then shall this drop, though humble in its form,
Join in the vast and ceaseless, raging storm.
The ocean’s depths, with love’s eternal tide,
Shall take this soul and in its ***** hide.

O’ what sweet life to sail in blissful rest,
Where waves of peace shall soothe the heart’s unrest!
And silence reigns within that ocean’s kiss,
Where stars do dance in timeless, endless bliss.
To rest within that deep and sacred flow,
Where time itself doth cease to ebb or go.

What joy, what bliss, to lose the self in Thee,
O’ boundless love, O’ vast eternity!
For in Thy depths, all things their place shall find,
And every wave speaks softly to the mind.

Thus let this drop become no more my own,
But part of Thy eternal, glimmering throne
The Glimmering Throne 27/12/2024 © All Rights Reserved by Jamil Hussain
labyrinth Nov 2021
When humankind is the subject
Slow is fast and fast is slow
Chew the cud before you object
You too will see this ironic flow
Syd Aug 2021
"I'm the truth" echoed
Mansur effaced his ownself
He was crucified
Mansur Al Hallaj was crucified for saying " I am the truth", ie proclaiming divinity. Later on, it was said : he had forgotten his own identity in the remembrance of God
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