Poetry Chaikhana Sacred Poetry from Around the World

Muslim / Sufi 11th Century	About Abu-Said Abil-Kheir Timeline (967 - 1049)
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English version by Vraje Abramian Original Language Persian/Farsi	[36] Piousness and the path of love
Commentary by Ivan M. Granger Themes   Fire   Lover and Beloved         Recommended Books The Drunken Universe: An Anthology of Persian Sufi Poetry, Translated by Peter Lamborn Wilson / Translated by Nasrollah Pourjavady Love's Alchemy: Poems from the Sufi Tradition, Translated by David Fideler / Translated by Sabrineh Fideler The Mystics of Islam, by Reynold A. Nicholson Nobody, Son of Nobody: Poems of Shaikh Abu-Saeed Abil-Kheir, Translated by Vraje Abramian Under the Sufi's Cloak: Stories of Abu Said and His Mystical Teaching, by Mohammad Ali Jamnia / Mojdeh Bayat	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.     -- from Nobody, Son of Nobody: Poems of Shaikh Abu-Saeed Abil-Kheir, Translated by Vraje Abramian Amazon.com
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Commentary by Ivan M. Granger

I love the way this poem expresses the radical realization that Sufis and all true mystics express: There is a point when you become so utterly consumed by the Divine One, by the fire of Love, that "belief and non-belief" disappears. All notions of God disappear in the blazing experience of God. Who then is pious? Who then has a place in society? Where are your boundaries that you can say, 'I am this and not that'? The Beloved gathers you up and lays you out upon the whole earth...

Ivan M. Granger's original poetry, stories and commentaries are Copyright © 2002 - 2008 by Ivan M. Granger.
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