Hu- The Divine Pronoun;
the Essence of Allah,
beyond Name, gender, form,
and all human definition;
Often translated as “He”
Shaykh al-Akbar Muhyiddin Ibn al-‘Arabi, may his secret be sanctified
My heart has become capable of all forms:
For gazelles, a meadow, for monks, a monastery,
A temple for idols, the pilgrim’s Kaba,
The Tablets of Torah, the Book of the Quran
I profess the religion of Love, and whatever the direction
Taken by its mount, Love is my religion and my faith
Tarjuman al-Ashwaq
Shaykh Muzaffer Ozak Ashki al-Jerrahi, may his secret be sanctified
The Real Beloved is the very self of love and of the lover. There is nothing prior to love. Love is the first of the first. Love is the last of the last… After everything has come to nought and perished, love still endures and will endure forever. It is eternal, and will be so for all eternity. Love is without end.
Love is an ocean. Such an ocean it is, that this sea has no bottom, no shore, no beginning, no end, and no limits…
O Lord!
Letting Your guidance escort us, offer us with Your mighty hand the drinking-glass of love, so that our hearts may never for even one moment be parted from Your love… Through divine love, Hell becomes Paradise for the lover. Love turns the fire into light. When the lover enters Paradise, he burns with your love till Paradise is like Hell for him…
O dervish calling yourself a lover!
With His love do you not whirl around? With His love do you not travel the eighteen thousand worlds? Then take to the floor and whirl with His love, address Him with love, call on Him with love!…
The eyes of the dervish who is a true lover see nothing but God; his heart knows nothing but Him. God is the eye by which he sees, the hand with which he holds, and the tongue with which he speaks.
The dervish does not stop at the names, but discovers the Named and surrenders to his Beloved. His sole concern is God, his pain is God, his remedy is God, his cure is God, his cause is God. Were he not in love, he would pass away. If his heart should be devoid of love for as much as a single moment, the dervish could not stay alive. Love is the dervish’s life, his health, his comfort. Love ruins the dervish, makes him weep; union makes him flourish, brings him to life. The dervish finds separation in union, union in separation.
In heaven—love; on earth—love; to the right—love; to the left—love; everywhere and everything is love. Love is He; the Lover He; the Beloved is He; the Loved One is He; the Dear One is He; the Friend is He. The knight of love will reach his beloved early or late. He who gives his life for love will sooner or later find his dearest. Love Him, that He may love you too. Unless He loves, you cannot love Him; unless He is seeking you, you cannot seek Him. Love your beloved, for the beloved is He; love your own true self, for your own true self is also He.
Unveiling of Love
Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi, may his secret be sanctified
No Matter what I say to explain or describe Love,
when I arrive at Love itself, I’m ashamed of my words...
Only Love itself can explain Love,
Only Love can explain the destiny of lovers.
The proof of the sun is the sun itself:
If you want proof, don’t turn your face away.
Selected from Mathnawi 1.112
Shaykh Nur al-Jerrahi, may his secret be sanctified
You alone, my Beloved, are protection,
support, inner force, and true being.
Always courting my soul, always in sympathy,
you are my rapture, well-being and joy,
the thrill of my existence, the consecration of my life.
I kneel in your presence, heart in prostration,
enraptured and exalted by your essence.
The straps of your sandals I kiss with delight.
I cannot find words to describe my mystical spouse,
the favorite of the universe, the hidden pearl.
O thief of God-filled hearts,
I submit to your overwhelming embrace,
annihilated by this magnificent Love.
Without home or asylum, without path or trace,
without any escape, any remedy,
I am lost in the desert, mountainous and remote,
the flowering desert of your Love.
You are closer than my central artery.
For you I have been mortally wounded by sweet arrows
in the mystical assembly of the heroic lovers of Love.
It is the radiant death of mortality.
I am amazed by this depth of Love,
which removes reason from the enamored ones.
I am an ant on a small leaf of the immense tree of Love,
a mote of pollen in the endless abyss of Love.
My naked heart is a brilliant ember
before the royal blue throne
of the ardent saints of my lineage.
Always ascending, this infinite aspiration
that no flood can extinguish
confirms the mystery of Assumption.
I am the virgin bride of Divine Wisdom.
An excerpt from “Countenance and Heart of the Shaykh”,
an epic poem in Atom From the Sun of Knowledge
Shaykha Fariha
Love, intimacy, and constant remembrance are the glorious way. Essentially love, love, and more love. Tariqat, the path of ease, unfolds in the Bismillahirrahmanirrahim—in the all-encompassing womb of Love. Allah is all-embracing, all-forgiving, all-providing Mother. Allah is glorious Truth and Supreme Reality. Allah is intimate lover and watchful guide. Allah is hidden Mystery. The path of ease opens the heart to adore our Beloved in all beautiful forms, and to cry out with all the beautiful names. We are with our Beloved in the open space, in the great freedom of only Hu, where Love alone is real.
How many thousand thousand times
have You told me I am Yours
O Love tell me one more time
How many pens and how many oceans of ink
have flowed in Love’s name
O Love send me oceans more
How many universes of hearts
have been broken in Love’s cause
O Love I offer You one more
How many tears for eons of years
have filled Love’s beakers
O Love I can’t stop crying
How many swans in the heavens of Love
have cried Your name
and passed away from life and form
O Love take me too