How to see God

Translated by Hussain Al-Amily, London

Four Caliphs

Four Caliphs
left history
open-mouthed -
and here we are
still drying up
the blood spots for them.

How come?

I wonder..
how come
for a diviner's script
getting engrossed
in a woman
carrying some wood
and fail to think
of saying a successor
for the domain?

How to see God..

You have seen your God
but through blade and blood.
I see Him
in the Word,
in the melody,
in the blueness of her eyes,
and in the face of the sea.

Verses and the times

Verses revoked verses
from time to time
in time of old;
yet heads of blokes stay stony,
throughout the years.

To debate..

O, mortal,
See how you debate
your God and Satan -
is it too odd
to debate with man
as your close mate
just for once?

Just for a change...

Not through a bell,
nor minaret,
why don't you
O, devoted one,
hear your God
through the nay (*),
just for a change?

My God is One..

My God is One -
never been a Catholic,
a Protestant,
a Sunni or Shiite.
He who broke Him up
who parted Him,
who spoke for Him alone,
who sorted Him
to one's own sect
claims, regime
or troops
is rather the infidel!

New Hallaj (**)

May I be delivered
from my plight.
In the Gown
there is but Him;
in the Gown
there am I too.
He is the One,
and I am the One -
rendered blended
or yet parted, but how?
in a drunken moment,
between my misgivings
and piety,
I don't know.

________________ 

(*) ‘Nay'(na:y) is another word for flute (Elias Arabic-English modern dictionary)
(**) Al-Hallaj, old-time Sufi of Baghdad who was persecuted for his mystic beliefs.