Why do you worship God…?
In fear and terror,
Because I was afraid
and desired it
Whoever breaks the merchandise
Has to have bought it first.
How then can I accept a gift
of stolen goods?
I don't mourn for things
that make me suffer,
I spun some yarn to sell for food
Where did you come from?
From There
And I am here too:
alone, hidden from all of them—
With You
I see the white pages of my deeds,
Tossing in the wind.
…let me rest in my own house—
Burn like wax, and give light.
This is my prayer
If you hadn't singled me out
to suffer your love,
let God be satisfied with me.
This piece is composed solely out of phrases taken randomly from “Doorkeeper of the Heart: Versions of Rabi’a”, as translated by Charles Upton (1988). I bought this book in 2017, soon after learning that there had also been women who were very central to the Sufi tradition, including its gift of lyrical outpourings.
One of these women was Rabi’a al-‘Adawiyya al-Qaysiyya, a major saint in Islam—born around 717 AD in Basra. In fact, by a huge span of 500+ years, Rabi’a’s sufi poetry precedes that of Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi—whose work I most definitely will share in a future #ReadIt post.
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