Abu Saeed Abil Khair

Let sorrowful longing dwell in your

heart,
never give up, never losing hope.
The Beloved says, The broken ones are
My darlings.
Crush your heart, be broken.
Shaikh Abu Saeed Abil Kheir Nobody,
Son of Nobody Vraje Abramian
~~
If you do not give up the crowds
you wont find your way to Oneness.
If you do not drop your self
you wont find your true worth.
If you do not offer all you
have to the Beloved,
you will live this life free of that
pain which makes it worth living.
Shaikh Abu Saeed Abil Kheir Nobody,
Son of Nobody Vraje Abramian
Piousness and the path of love
are two different roads.
Love is the fire that burns both belief
and non-belief.
Those who practice Love have neither
religion nor caste.
Shaikh Abu Saeed Abil Kheir Nobody,
Son of Nobody Vraje Abramian
~~
Be humble.
Only fools take pride in their station
here, trapped in
a cage of dust, moisture, heat and air.
No need to complain of calamities,
this illusion of a life lasts but a moment.
Shaikh Abu Saeed Abil Kheir Nobody,
Son of Nobody Vraje Abramian
~~
Suppose you can recite a thousand holy
verses from memory.
What are you going to do
with your ego self, the true

mark of the heretic?

Every time your head touches
the ground in prayers, remember,
this was to teach you to
put down that load of ego
which bars you from entering
the chamber of the Beloved.
To your mind feed understanding,
to your heart, tolerance and
compassion.
The simpler your life, the more
meaningful.
The less you desire of the world,
the more room you will have in it
to fill with the Beloved.
The best use of your tongue
is to repeat the Beloveds Name in
devotion.
The best prayers are those in
the solitude of the night.
The shortest way to the Friend
is through selfless service and
generosity to His creatures.
Those with no sense of honor and
dignity are best avoided.
Those who change colors constantly
are best forgotten.
The best way to be with those
bereft of the Beloveds qualities,
is to forget them in the
joy of silence in ones corner of solitude.
Shaikh Abu Saeed Abil Kheir Nobody,
Son of Nobody

Attar
Strive to discover the mystery before
life is taken from you.
If while living you fail to find yourself, to
know yourself,
how will you be able to understand

the secret of your existence when you

die?
~~
In the dead of night, a Sufi began to
weep.
He said, This world is like a closed
coffin, in which
We are shut and in which, through our
ignorance,
We spend our lives in folly and
desolation.
When Death comes to open the lid of
the coffin,
Each one who has wings will fly off to
Eternity,
But those without will remain locked in
the coffin.
So, my friends, before the lid of this
coffin is taken off,
Do all you can to become a bird of the
Way to God;
Do all you can to develop your wings
and your feathers.
Fariduddin Attar
Hakim Sanai
Those unable to grieve,
or to speak of their love,
or to be grateful, those
who cant remember God
as the source of everything,
might be described as a vacant wind,
or a cold anvil, or a group
of frightened old people.
Say the Name. Moisten your tongue
with praise, and be the spring ground,
waking. Let your mouth be given
its gold-yellow stamen like the wild
roses.
As you fill with wisdom,
and your heart with love,
theres no more thirst.

Theres only unselfed patience

waiting on the doorsill, a silence
which doesnt listen to advice
from people passing in the street.
Sanai Persian Poems Coleman
Barks
Hazrat Sultan Bahu
Imam Ghazzali
Maulana Rumi
Omar Khayam
Wine turns out to be a good metaphor
for the sufi approach for many reasons:
sufi meditation gives a sweet blissful
feeling, sufism is about living in the
moment, sufism wants to be above a
purely rational approach, sufism wishes
followers to feel humble.
Drinking wine is my travail
Till my body is dead and stale
At my grave site all shall hail
Odor of wine shall prevail.
(hazrat sultan bahu says faqeers are
those whose grave is alive, khayam
seems to suggest he is a faqeer)
Drinking wine is my travail
Till my body is dead and stale
At my grave site all shall hail
Odor of wine shall prevail.
(hazrat sultan bahu says faqeers are
those whose grave is alive, khayam
seems to suggest he is a faqeer)
They say the Lion and the Lizard keep
The Courts where Jamshyd gloried and
drank deep:
And Bahram, that great Hunterthe Wild
Ass
Stamps oer his Head, and he lies fast
asleep.
Alike for those who for TO-DAY prepare,
And those that after a TO-MORROW
stare,
A Muezzin from the Tower of Darkness
cries

Fools! your Reward is neither Here nor

There.
I resolve daily that at dusk I shall repent
For a night with a cup full of wine spent.
In the presence of flowers, my resolve
simply went
In such company, I only regret that I
ever resolved to repent.
Come, fill the Cup, and in the Fire of
Spring
The Winter Garment of Repentance
fling:
The Bird of Time has but a little way
To flyand Lo! the Bird is on the Wing.
Ah! my Beloved, fill the Cup that clears
To-day of past Regrets and future Fears
To-morrow?Why, To-morrow I may be
Myself with Yesterdays Sevn Thousand
Years.
Pursuing knowledge in childhood we
rise
Until we become masterful and wise
But if we look through the subtle
disguise
We see the ties of worldly lies.
Early one morning I heard an angelic
chime
Bringing news of a loving and joyous
clime
Pursuit of the unimportant is the worst
crime
Live in joy & love before the end of your
time.
Iram indeed is gone with all its Rose,
And Jamshyds Sevn-ringd Cup where
no one knows;
But still the Vine her ancient Ruby
yields,
And still a Garden by the Water blows.
How sweet is mortal Sovranty!think
some:
OthersHow blest the Paradise to
come!
Ah, take the Cash in hand and waive
the Rest;
Oh, the brave Music of a distant Drum!

Happily I walked with the tavern down

the line
Passed an old drunk, holding a bottle of
wine
Do you not fear God? was reproach of
mine
said, Mercy is Gods sign, in silence I
wine and dine.
This Old World weve named Cosmos by
mistake
Is the graveyard of nights & days, no
more awake
And a feast that hundred Jamshids did
break
And a throne that hundred Bahrams did
make.
The secrets eternal neither you know
nor I
And answers to the riddle neither you
know nor I
Behind the veil there is much talk about
us, why
When the veil falls, neither you remain
nor I.
All my companions, one by one died
With Angel of Death they now reside
In the banquette of life same wine we
tried
A few cups back, they fell to the side.
Ah, make the most of what we yet may
spend,
Before we too into the Dust Descend;
Dust into Dust, and under Dust, to lie,
Sans Wine, sans Song, sans Singer and
sans End!
The Moving Finger writes; and, having
writ,
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.
And, as the Cock crew, those who stood
before
The Tavern shoutedOpen then the
Door!
You know how little while we have to
stay,
And, once departed, may return no
more.

Into this Universe, and Why not

knowing
Nor Whence, like Water willy-nilly
flowing;
And out of it, as Wind along the Waste,
I know not Whither, willy-nilly blowing.
In the wheel of fortune the unseen vine
Drink, be merry, wait your turn in line
When it is your turn, neither cry nor
whine
Everyone must taste the same deadly
wine.
The Worldly Hope men set their Hearts
upon
Turns Ashesor it prospers; and anon,
Like Snow upon the Deserts dusty Face,
Lighting a little hour or twois gone.
The Grape that can with Logic absolute
The Two-and-Seventy jarring Sects
confute:
The sovereign Alchemist that in a trice
Lifes leaden metal into Gold transmute;
Hark! Feed me wine, if you really care
Turn into ruby my face of amber
Bathe me in wine when death me
ensnare
With boards of vine my coffin bear.
Once transpired, cannot be changed
Only pain will come if remorse engaged
Though with sorrow you may be aged
Not even a dot will be rearranged.
The Ball no Question makes of Ayes and
Noes,
But Right or Left as strikes the Player
goes;
And He that tossd Thee down into the
Field,
He knows about it allHE knowsHE
knows!
(the Ball is the seeker who must submit
totally to the will og God)
You know, my Friends, how long since in
my House
For a new Marriage I did make Carouse:
Divorced old barren Reason from my
Bed,

And took the Daughter of the Vine to

Spouse.
And strange to tell, among that Earthen
Lot
Some could articulate, while others not:
And suddenly one more impatient
cried
Who is the Potter, pray, and who the
Pot?
(in some states sufis become so rapt in
Truth, they are unable to distinguish
themselves from the Light of God)
Rabia Basri
I carry a torch in one hand
And a bucket of water in the other:
With these things I am going to set fire
to Heaven
And put out the flames of Hell
So that voyagers to God can rip the
veils
And see the real goal.
***************
Brothers, my peace is in my aloneness.
My Beloved is alone with me there,
always.
I have found nothing in all the worlds
That could match His love,
This love that harrows the sands of my
desert.
If I come to die of desire
And my Beloved is still not satisfied,
I would live in eternal despair.
To abandon all that He has fashioned
And hold in the palm of my hand
Certain proof that He loves me
That is the name and the goal of my
search.
Rabia al-Adawiyya, translation by
Andrew Harvey and Eryk Hanut
Perfume of the Desert
~~
O Lord,
If tomorrow on Judgment Day
You send me to Hell,
I will tell such a secret

That Hell will race from me

Until it is a thousand years away.
O Lord,
Whatever share of this world
You could give to me,
Give it to Your enemies;
Whatever share of the next world
You want to give to me,
Give it to Your friends.
You are enough for me.
O Lord,
If I worship You
From fear of Hell, burn me in Hell.
O Lord,
If I worship You
From hope of Paradise, bar me from its
gates.
But if I worship You for Yourself alone
Then grace me forever the splendor of
Your Face.
Rabia al-Adawiyya, translation by
Andrew Harvey and Eryk Hanut
Perfume of the Desert
~~
In love, nothing exists between heart
and heart.
Speech is born out of longing,
True description from the real taste.
The one who tastes, knows;
the one who explains, lies.
How can you describe the true form of
Something
In whose presence you are blotted out?
And in whose being you still exist?
And who lives as a sign for your
journey?

Face.
Rabia al-Adawiyya. Doorkeeper of the
heart:versions of Rabia. Trans. Charles
Upton

The source of my suffering and

loneliness is deep in my heart.
This is a disease no doctor can cure.
Only Union with the Friend can cure it.
Rabia al-Adawiyya, translation by
Andrew Harvey and Eryk Hanut
Perfume of the Desert
Saadi
Shaikh Sharfuddin Maneri
Wasif Ali Wasif

We wish Pharaohs Here and

Moses Hereafter

When a boat is about to sink,

passengers of themselves begin
to invoke Allah

The world is ancient, but it has

not lost its newness

Some are dead when alive; others

are alive even after death

We earn to live and we live to

earn

Fortunate is the person who

remains pleased with his fortune

When the child is ill, the mother

will know how to pray

He who has no light in his heart,

what will he gain from the festival
of lamps

Life by itself is not the aim of life.

The aim of life is to attain life
eterna

We go along carrying the burden

of others, and, having gone some

Rabia al-Adawiyya

I have two ways of loving You:

A selfish one
And another way that is worthy of You.
In my selfish love, I remember You and
You alone.
In that other love, You lift the veil
And let me feast my eyes on Your Living

way, we throw off all our burdens,

and are silently lost in some
unknown world.

It is sin to remember the sin you

have already repented over.
Forget about the sin you have
given up

Life is come from God; live it for

God. Wealth is come from God;
spend it in the way of God

A more fearful thing than death is

the fear of death

If you wish to see impurity, look

within yourself; if you wish to see
good, find it in others

Peace will come once you remove

the conflict between your desires
and your duties

That man is cursed twice who is

not generous even with the
money he has acquire wrongly

Once repentance (taubah) is truly

accepted, even the memory of
the sin is erased

What is truth? That which comes

from the lips of a truthful person.
The more honest the person the
greater the truth

The most unfortunate person is

one who remains hard-hearted
even in poverty

When the eye becomes the heart,

the heart becomes the eye

Yunus Emre
The drink sent down from Truth,
we drank it, glory be to God.
And we sailed over the Ocean of Power,
glory be to God.
Beyond those hills and oak woods,
beyond those vineyards and gardens,

we passed in health and joy, glory be to

God.
We were dry, but we moistened.
We grew wings and became birds,
we married one another and flew,
glory be to God.
To whatever lands we came,
in whatever hearts, in all humanity,
we planted the meanings Taptuk taught
us,
glory be to God.
Come here, lets make peace,
lets not be strangers to one another.
We have saddled the horse
and trained it, glory be to God.
We became a trickle that grew into a
river.
We took flight and drove into the sea,
and then we overflowed, glory be to
God.
We became servants at Taptuks door.
Poor Yunus, raw and tasteless,
finally got cooked, glory be to God.
Yunus Emre, translated by Kabir
Helminski and Refik Algan The Drop
That Became Sea
~~
Your love has wrested me away from
me,
Youre the one I need, youre the one I
crave.
Day and night I burn, gripped by agony,
Youre the one I need, youre the one I
crave.
I find no great joy in being alive,
If I cease to exist, I would not grieve,
The only solace I have is your love,
Youre the one I need, youre the one I
crave.

Lovers yearn for you, but your love

slays them,
At the bottom of the sea it lays them,
It has Gods images-it displays them;
Youre the one I need, youre the one I
crave.
Let me drink the wine of love sip by sip,
Like Mecnun, live in the hills in
hardship,
Day and night, care for you holds me in
its grip,
Youre the one I need, youre the one I
crave.
Even if, at the end, they make me die
And scatter my ashes up to the shy,
My pit would break into this outcry:
Youre the one I need, youre the one I
crave.
Yunus Emre the mystic is my name,
Each passing day fans and rouses my
flame,
What I desire in both worlds in the
same:
Youre the one I need, youre the one I
crave.
~~
Ask those who know,
whats this soul within the flesh?
Realitys own power.
What blood fills these veins?
Thought is an errand boy,
fear a mine of worries.
These sighs are loves clothing.
Who is the Khan on the throne?
Give thanks for His unity.
He created when nothing existed.
And since we are actually nothing,
what are all of Solomons riches?
Ask Yunus and Taptuk
what the world means to them..
The world wont last.

What are You? What am I?

Yunus Emre, translated by Kabir
Helminski and Refik Algan The Drop
That Became Sea
~~
We entered the house of realization,
we witnessed the body.
The whirling skies, the many-layered
earth,
the seventy-thousand veils,
we found in the body.
The night and the day, the planets,
the words inscribed on the Holy Tablets,
the hill that Moses climbed, the Temple,
and Israfils trumpet, we observed in
the body.
Torah, Psalms, Gospel, Quranwhat these books have to say,
we found in the body.
Everybody says these words of Yunus
are true. Truth is wherever you want it.
We found it all within the body.
Yunus Emre, yranslated by Kabir
Helminski and Refik Algan The Drop
That Became Sea
Sheikh Saadi
Not a word is said even in sport
Without an intelligent man taking
advice thereby.
But if a hundred chapters of wisdom are
read to a fool
All strike his ear merely as sport.
A man had by his sins forfeited the
divine favour but the lamp of grace
nevertheless so shone upon his
path that it guided him into the circle of
religious men and, by the blessing of his
association with
dervishes, as well as by the example of
their righteousness, the depravities of
his character were
transmuted into virtues and he

refrained from lust and passion. But the

tongues of the malevolent were
lengthened with reference to his
character, alleging that it was the same
as it had ever been and that
his abstinence and piety were spurious.
By apology and penitence one may be
saved from the wrath of God
But cannot be saved from the tongues
of men.
He could no longer bear the reviling
tongues and complained to the pir of
the Tariqat. The sheikh
wept and said: How wilt thou be able to
be sufficiently grateful for this divine
favour that thou art
better than the people imagine?
A murid said to his pir: What am I to
do? I am troubled by the people, many
of whom pay me visits.
By their coming and going they
encroach upon my precious time. He
replied: Lend something to
every one of them who is poor and ask
something from every one who is rich
and they will come
round thee no more.
A pious man came to the door of a
college from a khaniqah.
He broke the covenant of the company
of those of the Tariqa.
I asked him what the difference
between a scholar and a dervish
amounts to?
He replied: The former saves his
blanket from the waves
Whilst the latter strives to save the
drowning man.
A pious man saw a wrestler full of wrath
and foaming at the mouth. He asked:
What is the matter with this fellow? A
bystander said: Someone has insulted
him. He remarked:

This base wretch is able to lift a ton of

stones and has not the power to bear
one word.
Although able to tear up an elephants
front
He is not a man who possessed no
humanity.
A mans nature is of earth.
If he is not humble he is not a man.
Two sons of amirs were in Egypt, the
one acquiring science, the other
accumulating wealth, till the
former became the ullemma of the
period and the other the prince of
Egypt; whereon the rich man
looked with contempt upon the faqih
and said: I have reached the sultanate
whilst thou hast remained
in poverty as before. He replied: O
brother, I am bound to be grateful to
the most high Creator for
having obtained the inheritance of
prophets whilst thou hast attained the
inheritance of Pharaoh and of
Haman, namely the kingdom of Egypt.
I am that ant which is trodden under
foot
Not that wasp, the pain of whose sting
causes lament.
How shall I give due thanks for the
blessing
That I do not possess the strength of
injuring mankind?

Kabir
Kabir says, rare listeners
hear the song right.
I dont touch ink or paper,
this hand never grasped a pen.
The greatness of four ages
Kabir tells with his mouth alone.

Listen, I see the world is mad.

If I tell the truth they rush to beat me,
if I lie they trust me.
God! God! they cry,
till theres a callus on their tongue.
If saying God gave liberation,
saying candy made your mouth sweet,
saying fire burned your feet,
saying water quenched your thirst,
saying food banished hunger,
the whole world would be free.

yard,
how can you die of thirst?
No customers for the word,
the price is high.
Without paying, you cant get it,
so move on by.
The road the pandits took,
crowds took.
The Truths pass is a high one.
Kabir keeps climbing.

Ive burned my own house down,

the torch is in my hand.
Now Ill burn down the house of anyone
who wants to follow me.7

Man in his stupid acts:

iron mail from head to toe.
Why bother to raise your bow ?
No arrow can pierce that.

Who can I tell?

And who will believe it ?
When the bee touches that flower,
he dies.

When there isnt a trace

of creation or destruction,
what do you meditate on ?

Theres no creation or creator there,

no gross or fine, no wind or fire,
no sun, moon, earth or water,
no radiant form, no time there,
no word, no flesh, no faith,
no cause and effect, nor any thought
of the Veda. No Hari or Brahma,
no Shiva or Shakti, no pilgrimage
and no rituals. No mother, father
or guru there
Into a lions coat
rushes a goat.
Youll recognize him by his talk.
The word reveals.
You dont find:
diamonds in storerooms,
sandal trees in rows,
lions in flocks,
holy men in herds.
Use the strength of your own arm,
stop putting hope in others.
When the river flows through your own

Pandit, do some research

and let me know
how to destroy transiency.
Money, religion, pleasure, salvation
which way do they stay, brother?
North, South, East or West?
In heaven or the underworld?
If God is everywhere, where is hell ?
The fearful things that everyone fears,
I dont fear.
Im not confused about sin and purity,
heaven and hell.
Kabir says, seekers, listen:
Wherever you are
is the entry point.
A mans wife goes with him to the door,
his friends go a few steps more.
At the corpse-ground theres only the
stretcher.
After that, swan, youre on your own.
Everyone says words, words.
That word is bodiless.
It wont come on the tongue.
See it, test it, take it.

The mind is a nervous thief,

the mind is a pure cheat.
The ruin of sages, men and gods,
the mind has a hundred thousand
gates.

Keep remembering God,

Death has you by the hair.
Hell strike at home or in foreign lands,
you never know when or where.