Unveiling herself revealed (from The Poem of the Sufi Way)
by Umar Ibn al-FaridEnglish version by Th. Emil Homerin
Original Language Arabic
Unveiling herself revealed
existence to my eye,
so in everything seen
I perceived her.
My attribute is hers
since we are not called two;
her shape is mine
since we are one.
If she is called,
it is I who answers;
when I am summoned, she replies
and obeys the one who calls me.
If she speaks,
it is I who whispers;
when I tell a tale
she is the one who tells it.
For the second person's sign
became the first between us,
and so my rank is high above
all who cling to difference.
 | -- from Umar Ibn al-Farid: Sufi Verses, Saintly Life, Translated by Th. Emil Homerin |
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Unveiling herself revealed
existence to my eye,
so in everything seen
I perceived her.
Such an important reminder to us all: When looked at properly, deeply, free from the filter of the petty self, all of existence smiles back at us with the face of the Beloved.
But more than that--
My attribute is hers
since we are not called two;
her shape is mine
since we are one.
We don't just see the Eternal everywhere except within ourselves. When we really, courageously look, we see the Eternal absolutely everywhere -- including within ourselves. Not just "within" ourselves, but as ourselves, our true Self. There is no other self.
Every other form of small identity and ego is seen as just a story we've told ourselves about who we are. And that story fades away as unnecessary when our true identity is finally known.
When that curtain separating lover and Beloved falls away, the lover does not rush to embrace the Beloved. No, instead, we find that the Beloved alone has only ever existed within us. The lover is merely the Beloved returning to herself.
and so my rank is high above
all who cling to difference.
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