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REL 450.56
Honors Seminar in Religion
Professor Barbara SproulSpring 2010
Riley Kellogg
May 5, 2010
The Beloved in the Mirror
the Seer and the Seen in Sufi Poetry
Naught is as his likeness; and He is the Hearer, the Seer1
We are the mirror as well as the face in it.
We are tasting the taste this minute
of eternity. We are pain
and what cures pain, both. We are
the sweet, cold water and the jar that pours.
Mawlana Jalaloddin Rumi 2, 3, 4
English version by Coleman Barks
When my Beloved appears,
With what eye do I see Him?
With His eye, not with mine,
For none sees Him except Himself.
Ibn Arabi2
English version by Reynold A. Nicholson
1,2,3,4
1 Quran (42:11)2 Poetry Chaikana website http://www.poetry-chaikhana.com.3 Many Sufi poems are untitled. Some translators give the first line of the poem, or an emblematic phrase
within it, as a title. In this paper, I will give the title, if any, provided by the translator, or the name of the
larger work from which the verse is excerpted.4 Taste, orzawq, is an important aspect of religious experience as addressed in Islamic philosophy, and
is often described as knowledge that is non-intellectual, non-rational.Zawq connotes the direct personalexperience of a thing, rather than just an intellectual grasp of it. While one can describe a salty food, that
is no substitute in our understanding of saltiness for having tasted it. Just so one can describe aspects of
religious experience, of God, of reality, but that is no substitute for having tasted that reality. The word
sapiential is often used to elucidatezawq. The common definition of sapiential is of or related towisdom; wise. But the usage in Islamic philosophy is closer to another meaning of the Latin rootsapere:to taste, be wise. I think that this dual meaning implies that wisdom, as distinct from knowledge,
requires engagement of the entire being and not only the intellect.
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dance, music, and religious practices that are associated with, or make up, that tradition.
Sufism is not a sect, or a unified school of thought. What makes a person a Sufi has never
been well defined, though it has been much studied. For the purposes of this paper, I will
draw on the sources that have been included under the designation Sufi by scholars in the
field, and will generally use the word to refer to the mystical traditions of Islam. The term
mysticalwill be used here to denote the practices and thinking associated with the
experience of, search for, or recounting of direct and participative contact or union with
God. This is distinct from religious practices in themselves:prayer, e.g., is a mystical
practice if its aim or result is an experience of union with God, and is not mystical if it is
done for the purpose, and with the result, only of performing the actions prescribed by the
rules of ones religion. The word God, for the purposes of this paper, denotes an
omniscient, omnipotent, transcendent, immanent, sentient being that is the source of
existence in its manifest forms and the embodiment of existence in itself.8,9 The humansoul
orspiritwill refer to the interior, non-physical being; all of the elements of psychology:
perceptive, emotive, cognitive, aesthetic, as well as that which can only be referred to as
the spiritual sense. This is the aspect that partakes of mystical experience.
Why Poetry?
You must take these poems as mirrors; for you know that a mirror has
no form of itself, but rather reflects the face of anyone who looks in it.Just so, a poem has no one particular meaning of itself, but presents to
each reader his state of the moment and the completeness of his case.
Ayn al-Qozat Hamadani10
Sufism is known, more than most other religious literary traditions, for its extensive
8There are some problematic issues raised by this definition, to which I will return later.9 I will follow the practice found in many religious traditions of capitalizing the word God, andreferent pronouns.10Nameha-ye Ayn al-Qozat (Teheran, 1969) vol. 1, p. 216. Cited in Wilson & Pourjavady, p. 10.
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use of poetry as a means of expression and teaching. Even in works of prose expounding
philosophy, writers have often interpolated poetic passages.11 The poetry of this tradition
often has two sides to it: the exoteric or exterior, and the esoteric or interior. Many poems
may be read either way: as referring to the things and events of this world or as referring to
God and His actionsor as carrying both meanings at once.12 For example, many Sufi
poems in the Classical Persian tradition describe various aspects of the universe in terms of
Gods beauty, and particularly His beautiful face. When we read a line describing the sight
of ones beloved turning his head toward one at dawn, his black hair falling away from his
shining face as his eyes open, and praising the beauty perceived in this sight, the poem may
be read also as describing the beauty of God and His creation. The lovers shining face is
the sunrise, his glance the rays of sunlight, his black tresses the darkness of night falling
away from the horizon as light fills our sight.
Poetry is uniquely well suited for conveying meaning that is non-linear, non-literal,
non-logical, and symbolic. Its allusive quality allows or, rather, necessitates that the readers
own experience plays a role in the formation of meaning, to a greater extent than is the case
with prose. Poems can speak in metaphor rather than be directly descriptive. The symbolic
and associative use of language allows poetry to carry several possible meanings in one
phrase. Poetry, say Wilson and Pourjavady, is the language of love; when one loves, one sees
beauty, and is impelled to speak beautifully about it. Sufism is the condition and practice of
11 Wilson & Pourjavady, p. 4.12 Court patronage was for several centuries the main source of income for most poets, and thus oneof the main styles of poetry we have from that period. The poetry of this style had very specific forms
and conventions, as did the esoteric / metaphorical style of both writing poetry and reading it. Ernst
points out that the intersection of these forms and conventions has had the result that a great deal of
poetry that was almost certainly written with only the exoteric meaning intended, has been embraced
by Sufis as conveying esoteric meaning. One imagines that the Sufi would not find this problematic:
he is concerned with the wine of Truth and not with the vessel from which it pours (if I may be
permitted the metaphor). As Ibn Arabi wrote, My heart embraces every form (Wilson &
Pourjavady, p. 9).
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loving God and Truth; it is natural that expressions of this condition take poetic form.13
Wilson and Pourjavady discuss two understandings of symbolism14: In the first,
words are primarily a system of reference to the concrete and manifest world, and are then
used as metaphors for mystic experience, which can not be expressed directly and demands
the use of metaphor and symbol. In the second, words are more akin to Platonic ideals.
They refer primarily to that which has Divine or transcendent realityi.e. light, love,
existenceand are used only metaphorically to refer to the world. In this second type of
understanding, the use of language in its double meaning, exoteric and esoteric, both
speaks of the exile of man from his original and fundamental unity with the Divine, and is a
part of the journey to reunite with it. As these writers put it:
these two ways of looking at symbolism are not mutually exclusive. Onemight say that the first is valid from mans point of view, the second
from Gods point of viewalthough ultimately Reality is One, and the very
idea of there being more than one point of view is merely a separative illusion.
Sufism uses language to shatter this illusion, but to do so it must beginwhere man finds himself.15
There are several major, recurring themes used in Sufi poetry: God as the Beloved,
with man as the hopeless yet hopeful lover, swooning with devotion and desire; that of the
moth and the flame, wherein man is drawn irresistibly to Gods flame, and his separate self
is annihilated in the moment of union with God; that of wine, with Gods presence the
intoxicant which makes man forget his separate self andpass away into drunken ecstasy;
and that of the mirror, where man variously sees himself reflected in the eye of his
13 Wilson & Pourjavady, p. 4.14 Wilson & Pourjavady, pp. 5-7.15 Wilson & Pourjavady, p. 6-7. This world between is the liminal space where Ibn Arabi locates
the activity of the creative imagination of man, which forms a major subfield of his writing, and ofSufi philosophy and psychology in general.
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beloved / Beloved, sees God in himself, and is the mirror which God created in order that
He might see and admire Himself. All of these themes are facets of the First Pillar of Islam,
the philosophy of Unity, orTawhid.16
Philosophical Basis / Background
The first authority for Islamic knowledge, philosophy and guidance is the Quran,
which is believed to be the word of God transmitted verbatim, directly from Him to the
prophet Mohammed in the first half of the seventh century CE. The Quran says thatGod
is ultimately beyond the grasp of human perception17: God is larger than human
perception: Vision does not encompass him; he encompasses vision.18
The eye cannot see
itself. There is a colloquial expression, to wrap ones mind around a thing, meaning to
grasp and understand it. We cannot grasp something larger than our fist; nor can we, with
our finite minds, understand a reality larger than the reality of our finite selves; Sufi
thought says that we can seek to transcend the limitations of our finite, manifest selves and
surrender to an awareness of our participation in the larger reality.
The second authority consists of the hadith.Hadith are sayings of Mohammad (the
Messenger of Allah), passed down first orally, then in writing. They are instructive in proper
behavior of the individual (in sometimes surprisingly minute detail) and in understanding
of God and the universe, and are standard references for the formulation and interpretation
of Islamic law. They take the form of On the authority of so-and-so (may Allah be pleased
with him), who said that [so-and-so said that so-and-so said that] the Messenger of
16Tawhidis the First Pillar of Shia Islam, followed byResurrection,Prophecy,Leadership of theTwelve Imams, andJustice. The Pillars of this branch are more conceptual than those of the Sunni,which are prescriptive of the duties of the believer:Profession of Faith, Prayer, Fasting, Alms-giving,
and Pilgrimage to Mecca.17 Ernst, p. 4218 Quran 6:103
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Allah (peace be upon him) said The hadith are categorized as to their strength (from
soundorauthentic, throughfabricated) depending upon a carefully researched and rated
standard of reliability applied to the sources cited in the chain of transmission.
There are two types ofhadith: prophetic hadith and sacred hadith (hadithqudsi).
The prophetic are sayings that are attributed to Mohammad, speaking from his own
wisdom, or that recount events that took place in his presence, and of which he approved.
The sacred are those that convey ideas attributed not to Mohammad but to God speaking
through Mohammad, that Mohammad said were revealed to him in dreams or visions. In
short: the Quran is Gods thought in Gods words. Sacred hadith are Gods thought in
Mohammads words. Prophetic hadith are Mohammads thought in Mohammads words.
The following two sacred hadith are central to my discussion of Sufi thinking on human
identity in relation to God:
I I was a hidden treasure and I wanted (or loved) to be known. So I created
the World so that I might be known.19
Alternate translation:I was a treasure that was not known, so I loved to be known. Hence Icreated the creatures and I made Myself known to them, and thus they came
to know Me.20
II My servant never ceases to seek nearness to Me until I love him. Then,
when I love him, I am his hearing through which he hears, his sight through
which he sees, his hand through which he grasps, and his foot throughwhich he walks.21
19 Wilson & Pourjavady, p. 42. Translations of these poems and hadith often conflate love and desire,
with different translators offering one or the other in rendering the same verse. This apparentambivalence in the writing is important to the understanding of Divine love as expressed by the Sufis;
they express this love as passionate, often seemingly as erotic. This is tied to the intoxicated abandon
of surrender to the Beloved.20 Chittick article.21 Chittick article. The full text of the hadith is:
Those who seek nearness to Me seek nearness through nothing I love more than the performance ofwhat I have made incumbent upon them. My servant never ceases to seek nearness to Me through
supererogatory works until I love him. Then, when I love him, I am his hearing through which he
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The first of these hadith is fundamental to an understanding of Islamic cosmology
and cosmogony, since it gives the motivation for Gods act of creation, and thus of the
existence of all manifest forms. It is also illuminating on the relationship between man and
God, and on the nature of divine love. The second hadith is germane to these ideas as well,
and takes them further to describe the transformation of man in the process of receiving
divine love. Taken together, they portray the universe as being created by God, out of God
himself; then man, separate from Him, wishing to be near Him; then man working devotedly
to elicit Gods love to bring about the desired nearness; then God bestowing his love; which
finally results in God being (once again) the motive force and the essence of mans existence,
the individual and relative self having been obliterated in the union with the Divine.
God created the world out of a desire to be seen and admired, and to have a vantage
point from which to see and admire Himself; out of loneliness. All created beings and
things, are, in this view, manifestations of God; God in the process of looking at himself.
The worlds creation is not only by, butfrom God. The creation expresses the infinite in
finite form, in space; manifests the timeless in time. In that we are God looking at himself,
we are reflections of him; the seer and the seen are one and the same.
The focus of the philosophy of Ibn Arabi was Unity, orTawhid, which he used to
resolve the theological problem of Gods simultaneous immanence and transcendence by
an insistence on absolute and radical oneness of being.22 There is no god but God was
extended in his philosophy to indicate that there is no existence but existence; everything
that is is of the substance and essence of God.
hears, his sight through which he sees, his hand through which he grasps, and his foot through whichhe walks.22 Wilson, pp. 8-9.
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To bridge the gap separating mans point of view and Gods point of view, itmust find a world between them, a world where Gods Light is parceled out
to lend existence to the myriad things, and where by reversing the process the
myriad things can be reunited with that light.23
Ibn Arabi speaks of the creative imagination as occupying this intermediary world
between things: matter and spirit; the manifest and the potential; the contingent and the
absolute or necessary. This is the space in which man may see through the veil of the
physical, created world into the eternal aspect of reality. He wrote of devotion and prayer
as the process of polishing the mirror of the heart, removing the rust and grime that dim
ones vision of God, which is to be found reflected therein.24
There is a tendency in human nature to veil this understanding of our unity with
God from our consciousness by a focus exclusively on the things of the material, created
world. We experience our being in terms of our finite existence, as differentiated from one
another and from the source of our being. Yet it is equally in our nature to seek and find
awareness of this transcendent aspect of reality. The human is unique in creation in his
ability to recognize his essential unity with God, and to emulate or reenact a portion of the
creation through prayer, and through the paradox of an active and willing surrender of the
will to the absolute, the Real25. This privilege of man was given to him when god made
a Covenant with man: Am I not your Lord? man answered, Yea, verily we witness
([Quran] Viii, 172).26
For man, his distinctive cognitive attribute, the ability to be aware of his original
unity with and present separation from God, makes this separation an exile. Man yearns for
23 Wilson & Pourjavady, p. 6-7. Ibn Arabis philosophy of the creative imagination of man forms amajor subfield of his writing, and of Sufi philosophy and psychology in general.24 Chittick article.25 God is frequently referred to as the Real in Sufi writing.26 Wilson & Pourjavady, p. 35
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reunion, and the path towards it is mans proper pursuit. The journey to union with God is
often depicted as a long, dangerous and difficult one, requiring great courage and fortitude.
There are manystations andstates along the path, technical terms for where one is in
respect to the journey of spiritual development. There have been epic poems on the subject
of this journey, including the famous allegory The Conference of the Birdsby Farid al-Din
Attar, which narrates a variety of excuses for not undertaking the journey, and many of the
perils and trials found along the way.
The ultimate ontological unity of man with God, however, presents a paradox in the
description and prescription of the path to wisdom and union with God: we are already one
with Him and have merely forgotten it. So the journey to God, to union with the Beloved,
which often seems so long and arduous, is really only a matter of realizing that we already
are, and have always been, at the place we seek to reach. Of opening our eyes, or of waking
up to the fact that the goal is at hand and always has been. We are one with God; our
separation and exile is ultimately only illusion. This has led to some very short poems on
the subject:
Take one step outside yourself:
The whole Path lasts no longer than a step.
Shah Nematollah Wali27
However, for most people, the path does in fact last longer than a step, and requires
much study, preparation, and effort; hence the need for instruction in making the journey.
For others, it is a step that needs to be taken repeatedly. And even when one has reached a
state of mystical union with God, as long as one lives as a human that union is not
complete and permanent. Ones nature as a creature remains; one is a wave and distinct, if
27 Wilson & Pourjavady, p. 34
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not utterly separate, from other waves and from the ocean of which each wave is a part. So
the need for ongoing instruction and reminders of the true nature of ultimate reality remains.
Selected Poems28
As mentioned above, there is a rich body of sources for this study. I have chosen
eight poems as representative examples of the theme of the mirror and the concept of unity,
and offer some commentary on each. They are presented in no particular order, except in
such a way as I hope will make the ideas flow well from one o the next.
From the Divan-i Shams-i Tabrizby Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
Let go of your worries
and be completely clear-hearted,
like the face of a mirror
that contains no images.
If you want a clear mirror,
behold yourself
and see the shameless truth,
which the mirror reflects.
If metal can be polished
to a mirror-like finish,
what might the mirror
of the heart require?
28 One issue of poetry in translation must be raised, if only to say that it will not be addressed here in
depth. There is always the tension in translating any work between producing a literal translation of
the meaning of the words, and producing a like effect in the reader to that of the original text. Due to
the allusive nature of poetry, the resonances of neither the words, nor the poem as a whole, can be
fully conveyed by a literal word-for-word translation. Some have argued that it is impossible to render
a true translation of a poem; even the most painstaking effort will inevitably be an interpretation, andhave a different flavor. (In a phrase popularly attributed to Robert Frost, Poetry is what gets lost in
translation or, even more emphatically, A poem is that which cannot be translated) Beyond that is
the danger of the translator-poet, intentionally or not, substituting his own intentions and meaning for
those of the original author. Ernst addresses this last point (pp. 169 173) and notes that Sufi poetry
generally has lately suffered from reinterpretation into a somewhat generic New-Age mold. I cannot
address the fidelity with which the original authors intents have been transmitted in the English-
language versions of the poems cited here; that is for another effort. I will address, rather, the ideas
found in them, without strict concern for their historical provenance.
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Whenever Beauty looks,
Love is also there;
Whenever beauty shows a rosy cheek
Love lights Her fire from that flame.When beauty dwells in the dark folds of night
Love comes and finds a heart
entangled in tresses.
Beauty and Love are as body and soul.
Beauty is the mine, Love is the diamond.
They have together
since the beginning of time-
Side by side, step by step.
This poem makes clear and full use of the mirror theme, and also that of the Unity
of Being. God, here referred to as Beauty, creates the universe out of himself; in the
solitude of nothingness. Every created thing is a manifestation of some divine aspect or
quality. The process of creation is the unveiling, and the created things, or manifestations,
are the mirrors in which he beholds His own beauty. The poem also says that this process
happensAll through eternity. The creation, in other words, was not an event in the past, but
is a process happening both outside of time, and through all time. God continues to create,
to look, to reveal himself to himself. This is the definition of the existence of things. Eternity
becomes the verdant field of Time and Space: the process of Gods self-revelation is that
which creates time and space. Love may be seen as the mutual desire for reunion between
man and God, who have [been] together / since the beginning of time. Time does not exist
except in reference to the ongoing creation and existence of the manifest universe.No eye
but His own / has ever looked upon this Universe, because no other eyes but his exist.
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From the Masnavi by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
How can I retain my senses about me,
When the Beloved shows not the light of His countenance?
Love desires that this secret should be revealed,
For if a mirror reflects not, of what use is it?Knowest thou why thy mirror reflects not?
Because the rust has not been scoured from its face.
If it were purified from all rust and defilement
It would reflect the shining of the Sun of God.
This poem seems to be of two parts; the last four lines could be read as an answer to
the first four. In the first four lines, the poet appears to be expressing the hopeless desolation
of the lover whose Beloved is indifferent to him, is turned away and will not show His face.
If the lover cannot relate to the object of his love, if he cannot reflect God, of what use is
his existence? The second four lines seem an admonishment answering his plaint: his mirror
is not reflecting, not because God will not look at him, but because he has not polished his
mirror; he needs to clean his heart and soul of mistaken thinking in order to produce a clear
reflection; then he will be able to see the shining sun, which is the face of God.
BewildermentbyGharib Nawaz29,
Tell me: if the hidden treasure is now on display
at the bazaar, shouldnt the Gnostic leave his cell and wander forth?
Tell me: why should he pitch camp on the plain of manifestation?
No doubt to cast His reflection on the mirror of Creation but
anyway, what do I know? This dream confuses me:
no wonder my livers upset. Listen,
if creatures were made to reveal Him, why are they veiled?But then, of course, veils themselves are very revealing
well then, if Im His veil Ill make my exit
and let Him become I, the seer of what is seen.
29 Wilson & Pourjavady, pp. 114-117. Moin is a pen name of Nawaz. It is common for the last fewlines of a poem be addressed to, or to refer to, the author, often in a self-deprecatory manner.
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Hell see Himself in my mirror. He himself
will become both the seeker and the Sought.
Stop ! all I get out of this is a maze of riddles!
Words, words if it was difficult before, what a headache now!
If hes the only one who knows Himself, and we have no share in it,
then tell me: from whom was He hidden and to whom revealed?
Only the jeweler who cracks the oyster
can really appreciate the pearl and himself become the pearl.
Break the shell of water and clay from heart and soul
that the gloom of your being may be bathed in light.
There is no otherall are mirrors reflecting the Friend:
you look in the mirror, you see His faceand He becomes the Beloved.
In the midst of annihilations feast he who drains the cup of permanence
will grab the rope of ANA L HAQQ and swing from the gibbet.
If the sakis face reflects in the hermits glass of red
Hell turn to the bar and become a prize drunk
and whoever catches the Beloveds tress in his little noose
will rip up his rosary and make it a Christian sash.
What is the secret that peeps from behind the curtain
to make these dullards suddenly so aware?
I mean: considering Gods grace and mercy
it's not surprising if a pious servant should fall into sin.
Ah, when he comes at dawn to visit His patient
all the healthy folk in the neighborhood will play sick.
You are asleep. The Beloved cradles your head in His lap;
a blessing on your eyes, the day you finally awake!
Who takes one step outside himselflike the leg of a compass
will whirl round and round the whole circle
So much wine, cup after cup you poured for Moin,
his drunken heart has lost the desire to sober up.
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This wonderful poem draws on many different images and themes, and makes
many references to other writers. The first line refers to the sacred hadith of the hidden
treasure;ANA L HAQQ (literally, I am the Truth)refers to the famous words of Hallaj
which led to his martyrdom; Who takes one step outside himselfrefers to the two-line poem
by Shah Nematollah Wali quoted earlier, like the leg of a compass may refer to a poem by
Omar Khayyam that uses geometry as an allegory in discussing God; whirl round and
roundmay refer to the Mevlevi dervishes, I will not attempt to address all references
and facets of this rich poem here.
The humor that the writer finds in his bewilderment is apparent; the absurdity of the
paradoxes of realizing a radical unity of Being is palpable. The lines about theprize drunk
and the Christian sash are shockingalcohol being forbidden in Islam, and to asaki, or
holy man, in particular, and the thought of conversion to Christianity equally unthinkable.
These lines illustrate that if true enlightenment has been reached, earthly rules and
divisions become meaningless. If you are one with God, it does not matter whether you
wear a Muslim rosary or a Christian sash. And one might say that the rules of conduct and
prohibitions on certain actions and indulgences are there for the sake of aiding one in
reaching a state of enlightenment and union; once this state has been reached the rules are
no longer necessary. In the end, the writer is overcome with the intoxication of Gods
presence and ceases to be interested in finding the answers to the questions posed by the
logical, rational mind in earlier lines.
One significant point in this poem is this: all are mirrors reflectingGod; and the
next line,you look in the mirror, you see His face. This emphasizes the apprehension that
all elements of creation are Gods self-manifestation, rather than putting the emphasis on
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finding this truth within oneself, thus and would seem to indicate finding God in all of
creation: looking outward rather than only inward for this truth.
This following is the most elaborately constructed metaphorical treatment of the
mirror theme that I have seen.
The Tale of the Uniquely Beautiful Mirror Maker bySayyed Shah Jahangir Hashemi30, 31
There was an idol once (by which we mean
To say, a youth whose beauty could inspire
Idolatrous praise) who lived in Syria
And earned his keep by making mirrors in
The city of Aleppo. Sweet were his lips,
His mouth a rosebud, cheeks as fresh as rain
Upon the desert, and his face was called
The Mecca of true lovers. Like the vault of heaven
His eyebrows curved, or like two crescent moons.
The sun in shame before his loveliness
Drew close upon its face a veil of cloud
And at his kiss the Fount of Life might flow
From sterile rock. No one can tell, no pen
Of poet celebrate such perfect grace.
Now no one in Aleppo loved this youth
As much as he himself; so fond was he
Of his own beauty that he wished no bliss
But to admire himself unceasingly
As with a hundred eyes. So, to that end,
He set out to construct a palace which
Would be unique as he who planned to live
In it. All arts, of mason, architect
And carpenter, he orchestrated in
His work; but last and most important he
Himself set out with all his skill to make
The interior of his castle one vast hall
Of mirrors: every wall and ceiling,
30 Wilson & Pourjavady, pp. 39-42. The authors state that this is a rather free translation of the
poem.31 1468-69 1539-60; Persian
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Every inch of surface he contrived to coat
With magic glass backed by gold enamel
Far more lustrous than the light of sun
Or moon, each of the mirrors made of glass
Like gemstone varied as a rainbow, each
As clean and polished and reflective as
The finest Chinese import. To be brief,
His palace rivaled heaven. It was fine
And perfect as your sweethearts eye when you
Yourself, the pupil of her beauty, see
Yourself reflected in its mirrord depths.
The bright house was complete but empty still
Till he, the mirror maker, entered in
To view itand himself. Ah, then the veil,The curtain of sweet unity was torn
From the face of eternity. Ah, then
The companionship of the mirror-hearted ones
Began. His face, reflected in each glass
Found its own reflection in the next
And next and next. Then, and only then,
Were his exquisite down, his beauty spot
At last revealed in all their purity
And grace. At last the beauty that he owned
Was finally unfolded to his sight
In every sweet detail in ecstasy.
O Hashemi! This place of vision, like the sky,
Is nothing but the reflection in one place
Of one supreme and perfect Beauty. We
Are like mirrors of this mirror house
Gazing from Above as from Below
Like the eye grown simple. So be cut
Off from yourself, that the sun of His grace might shine
According to the polish of your soul.
For nothing but the One is to be seen
Reflecting to infinity in all
This carnival of mirrors, where the form
Of every glance is but the shadow of
That Form Divine, and all the world is but
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The double of His Essence, Space, and Time
The book wherein He writes His magic signs.
And if our mirror has gone dark
Our treacherous eyes grown dim with cloud
It is our faults that veil the spark
Of His perfection. Cry aloud
O Hashemi
Then woe is me!
This poem is a paean to God, amply expressive of joy and love. The reflected
images are one in respect to that which is manifested in them, many in respect to the loci of
manifestation.32 This is the essential description of the entire mirror metaphor, and may
also be the esoteric point intended in employing this style of home decoration in actual fact
as well as in poetry. This was a fashionable style that reached its peak in Iran in the
nineteenth century.33 The house decorated with a plethora of mirrors is brightly illuminated,
the better to show all the elements of the home and its furnishings, since all lighting is
amplified by reflection. And all decorative elements are multiplied, producing a lush and
sumptuous atmosphere of plentitude.
In the esoteric reading of this poem, the mirror maker is a metaphor for God, and
the construction of the house of mirrors for the creation of the universe. The mirror makers
own beauty is the beauty of Gods perfection.
He constructs this house, but it is empty until he enters it; that is, the myriad forms
of the creation have no being without God; they are just empty names. Then His own
beauty is visible to Him in all its detail, in all of its elements and facets. The phrase The
curtain of sweet unity was torn From the face of eternity is a curious one; usually it is the
myriad forms that are referred to as a veil over truth. The companionship of the mirror-hearted
32 Wilson & Pourjavady, p. 42.33 ibid.
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ones Began, and they reflect the beauty of God not only directly from His source, but by
reflecting one another. There is again the admonishment to keep ones mirror polished in order
to present a clear reflection of Gods grace and beauty.
Riddleby Gharib Nawaz34
Lord,
whose face is this
reflected in spirit's mirror?
Such beauty painted
on the inner screen--
who is he?
Each atomin all space
is filled...
Who transcends the galaxies,
shows himself in every molecule--
who is he?
Sun
in the costume
of various specks of dust
sparks forth various raysof light at every moment--
who is he?
Outwardly
you appear in the meat
of our existence
but he who is hidden
in soul's marrow
who is he?
In soul's feteevery now and again he sings
a new song, melodies of peace
touching the veils
of the people of the heart--
who is he?
34 Wilson & Pourjavady pp. 118-119.
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He who manifests himself
upon himself
makes love to himself
in the name
of lovers--
who is he?
How many times, Mo'in
will you drag yourself and me
between us?
He, the goal of I and thou,
is thereright there!
Who is he?
Nawaz here reiterates all we have heard about the myriad forms of Gods Self-
manifestation, and the unity of all creation with God, leaving the reader in no doubt. But he
throws in another angle: even he has perpetrated a kind of dualism, since by speaking to
(or even of) God, he has admitted an I and a thou. He must transcend this, must leap out
of himself or over his shadow and speak from the Station of Divine Awareness itself, where
only One exists.35 It is worth noting here, though, that in Sufi interpretation of some
Quranic verses, ambiguity over the object (him/it) becomes a centerpiece of linguistic
play and mystical meditation. Because we are in the context [of] mystical union with the
divine, the standard grammatical distinction between self and other, human and divine,
reflexive and nonreflexive, begins to break down. At this point the translations make use of
the ambiguity of the object pronoun and the breakdown of the reflexive/nonreflexive
grammatical distinction at the point of mystical union.36
The following two poems do not mention mirrors, but are about the Unity of being.
The first one, Maghrebis The Game, but is a wonderful story of the creation as Gods self-
manifestation, and of his desirein this case, due to jealousyto be reunited with man.
35 Wilson & Pourjavady p. 119.36 Sells,Early Islamic Mysticism, p. 82.
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The Game by Shamsoddin Maghrebi37
Craftily my idol without you and me
somewhere eternally makes love with Himself
a narcissist worshiping Himself night and day
now the idol, now the idolater.
The whole of His essence curls itself up
into a tongue to speak about Himself:
the Joseph of His beauty attires Himself
in heaven and earth as brocade robes.
He hides Himself, peeks out from the collar
of the universe, adorns Himself with scarves of spirit
and flesh;
arrayed in gowns of body and soul He finds
a thousand assemblies crowded with Himself,draws up His armies on the field
throws the world into battle and strife:
unrest and turmoil boil up from the planet
as the army of His loveliness begins its charge.
From swirling clouds of black night the sun rises:
His face emerging from behind tangled curls,
His cheeks, His lovelocks make riots break out
in China, Tartary and Bulgaria.
Child, old man, young man, woman all becomethe place of manifestation of His beauty's sun:
He speaks from every mouth, that the tale
of His own advantage might reach His own ears.
When love sees His own beauty manifest
in the drapes and veils of I and We
jealousy flares up and He orders His beauty
Rip from your limbs the clothes of other-than-me.
So He strips naked His beauty and resides
serene in His own essence:When the tides of the ocean of Unity swell
the multiple universe is sucked back into Himself,
Then in that instant O Maghrib there will be
no other, nothing but essence, no space, no time.
37 Wilson 37
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Here is a rather free interpretation of this poem: Without you and meGod,
Being, exists without any manifest, finite, created beings Love exists in the beginning
that is, outside of manifest time; but in this realm there is no one and nothing other than
God to love or be loved; he loves himself; is, himself, love. As in John 1:1, the word is the
first act of creation: He speaks about Himself, and the utterance of self produces a reality at
once one with and separate from the speaker. Joseph (Genesis 37-50) is often invoked in
Islamic writing as the epitome of beauty; God creates the universe to be His coat of many
colors, to wrap Himself in beauty and invite admiration. He further dresses Himself in the
beings of the universe; they / we are at the same time the clothes he tries on and the mirror
he looks into to admire himself in his finery. He draws up His armies on the field
sounding like a child playing with toy soldiers, with the same knowledge that they are only
His playthings; no true harm will come to anything Real in the battle. All people are his
manifestations, created so that he might have admirers and hear them sing his praises. But
when people forget where they came from, and believe in the reality of their own existence,
He becomes jealous. He orders them to renounce their relative, worldly identity and devote
themselves to contemplation of their Divine origin and essence. His orders, however, are
the imperative experienced as love of God and desire to reunite with him. The reunion,
when the multiple universe is sucked back into Himself, brings serenity; there is no other,
nothing but essence, no space, no time. This happens in [an] instant; it cannot be placed in
ongoing time; eternity and pure essence are outside the framework of time and manifest
being.
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From the Rubaiyat, Omar Khayyam38
Whose secret Presence through Creations veins
Running Quicksilver-like eludes your pains,
Taking all shapes from Mah to Mahi; and
They change and perish allbut He remains;
A moment guessedthen back behind the Fold
Immerst of Darkness round the Drama rolld
Which, for the Pastime of Eternity,
He doth Himself contrive, enact, behold.
These two quatrains distill into their eight lines the entire concept expressed by
Maghrebi in the preceding poem. The transcendent, eternal God is completely immanent in
all of creation, from Mah to Mahifrom fish to moonmeaning all things earthly and
celestial. All mutable and mortal creation is His Self-manifestation; the process of His
being in space and time, enacted for His own pleasure.
Some Parallels from Other Traditions39
The religious use of the imagery of the mirror in religious literary traditions is not
unique to the Sufis. There may be some actual influences where different traditions came
into contact with one another, possibly between the development of Sufism and the
Christian mystic tradition that arose in Egypt, Syria and nearby areas of the Near and
Middle East prior to the ninth century C.E.; and with Greek mystery cults, and religious
traditions traveling west from India. But there are also simply common use of images that
are apt in describing an aspect of the human condition and experience.
38 Fitzgerald, Quatrain LI and LII. The extent to which the Rubaiyat attributed to Khayyam is his, and
to what extent it is Fitzgeralds, has been a subject of some debate. The quatrains, nonetheless, are
beautiful poetry, and relevant here.39 I would like to expand this paper into an extended comparative study at some time in the future.
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The historian Margaret Smith is most focused on the Christian mystical tradition;
she quotes Thomas of Marga40 who was a Nestorian Assyrian Bishop in what is now
Armenia in the middle of the ninth century C.E. This passage is eloquently expressive of
ideas that clearly fit a Sufi world-view as well:
Certain of the fathers have written in their books that there existeth in the
heart a glorious intellectual mirror which the Creator of natures formed from
all the visible and spiritual natures which are in creation for the great honourof His image, and as a means for discovering His invisibility; and He made it
a tie, and a bond and a completion of all natures...
Another instance in the Christian tradition is this, by Clare of Assisi, which
parallels particularly the poem by Rumi at the opening of this paper, in its reference to the
sweet taste of knowledge of God:
Place your mind before the mirror of eternity!
Place your soul in the brilliance of glory!
Place your heart in the figure of the divine substance!
And transform your whole being into the image of the Godhead Itself
through contemplation!
So that you too may feel what His friends feelas they taste the hidden sweetness
which God Himself has reserved
from the beginning
for those who love Him.
The Platform Sutra is the fictionalized biography of the Sixth Patriarch of Chan, or
Zen, Buddhism, Hui-neng.41 The following verse is said in the sutra to have been written by
the monk Shen-hsiu:42 Shen-hsiu hoped with this verse to demonstrate to the master of the
monastery, the fifth patriarch, that he had achieved a level of understanding that might put
him in line for the position of Sixth Patriarch.
40 Smith, p. 32 (quoting from Thomas of Marga,Book of the Governors, V. xv.)41 The original text was written circa 700-720 C.E..42 Yampolsky, pp. 130-132
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The body is the Bodhi tree,
The mind is like a clear mirror.
At all times we must strive to polish it,
And must not let the dust collect.
This verse is a solid admonition to be vigilant in ones spiritual life. We have seen a
similar admonition to polish ones mirror in the poem by Rumi that beginsLet go of your
worries, and there are many more Sufi poems that issue the same advice. The Fifth
Patriarch told Shen-hsiu that he had not reached true understanding. He told Shen-hsiu to
think about it some more and to try to see [his] own original nature. The verse showed
some understanding of the nature of being, but it was not the enlightened understanding of
self-nature he was looking for. Hui-neng, a novice at the monastery, saw the verse and was
moved to write the following verses in reply to / refutation of Shen-hsius:
Bodhi originally has no tree,
The mirror also has no stand.
Buddha nature is always clean and pure;
Where is there room for dust?
The mind is the Bodhi tree,
The body is the mirror stand.
The mirror is originally clean and pure;
Where can it be stained by dust?
The two rebuttals are much the same.43 As we have seen expressed in Sufi poems,
there is one understanding of the mind as mirror, and the importance of keeping it clean so
as to present a clear and unsullied reflectionwhether of Allah or of the Buddha-nature.
But beyond this is the perception that the reality of body and mind is an illusion; they are
temporal manifestations that are necessarily contingent, relative, and thus lacking in
Reality. The existence of the mirror is itself an illusion, like attributing existence to a wave
without reference to and reliance on an ocean. In the poem below, written by a
43 Yampolsky says that the presence in the text of these two verses attributed to Hui-neng as rebuttal
to Shen-hsiu indicates the poets uncertainty over which of them is the better. In a footnote, he notes
that later versions have changed the third line of this to: From the beginning not a thing is.
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contemporary of Hui-neng, the mind of man and the objects of perception are no longer
seen as a mirror of God, Reality, or Truth, but are themselves the dirt on the mirror:
Mind and Senses by Yung-chia Hsan-cheh (Yka Genkaku)44
The mind is an organ of thought and objects are set against it:
The two are like marks on the surface of the mirror;
When the dirt is removed, the light begins to shine.
Both mind and objects being forgotten, Ultimate Nature
reveals itself true.
What this poem seems to suggest, actually, is not that the objects of manifest reality
are dirt on a mirror that reflects God or Ultimate Nature. It seems, rather, that the
perception of them as actual things that have reality in and of themselves is an error and an
impediment to reaching true understanding of ones nature and ones relationship to and
participation in the ultimate Reality.
Conclusions
For all the radical oneness and unity at the heart of much Sufi thought, it does
present some problems.
1. The first problem is in the definition of God as both absolute and personal, as
both Being and a being. How can that which is without limit, that which encompasses all,
have self-awareness? Awareness of self seems to require awareness of the boundaries of
selfwhere self ends and not-self, or other, begins. That-than-which-there-is-no-other has,
by definition, no such boundaries. Actually, the word encompasses is imprecise, for it
implies a gathering into or circling around from outside. This is, of course, a problem for
any religion or view that posits a single, unitary self-aware deity or transcendent principle.
44 Suzuki, p. 236
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Some systems of thought, such as Taoism, avoid this problem by conceiving the principle
of ultimate reality as non-personal. Sufism seems to embrace the contradiction.
2. It is often said in Sufi writing, both prose and poetry, that God is self-sufficient,
and has no need of anything or anyone. This is a basic attribute of that which is necessary
and absolute, in contrast to the things of creation, which are contingent and relative. This is
part of the way in which his role as the Beloved is articulated; the beloved is independent;
He has no need for the lover, but grants His love to the lover only through His mercy. If
God is self-sufficient, why is it that He is lonely? Why would He have the desire to be
known? This desire marks Him as notself-sufficient, not absolute. He is relative, or
desires to be: to be the object of sight and of love to a subject. This also portrays Him as
narcissistic45, vain; evincing human characteristics that are not among mans best.
But poetry, and Sufism, embrace opposites and paradoxes.
There is a practical difficulty, too, in the expression of such radical unity as we find
here: although the doctrine ofTawhidleads directlyand perhaps inevitablyto identity
of the religious seeker with God, this is a dangerous position to espouse. Mansur al-Hallaj
was famously executed in 922 CE as a heretic, largely based on his exclamation: Ana l-
haqqI am the Truth.46 This was taken as a statement that he himself (his finite, human
self) was God, and as such was the height of hubris, heresy, apostasy. His other similarly
controversial statements included There is nothing wrapped in my turban but God, and
There is nothing in my cloak but God. The educated Sufi would know the (presumably)
intended, esoteric meaning of these statements, and would also know that any person who
45 See the poem by Maghrebi, further on in this paper, where this is explicitly stated.46 Hallaj was not the only Sufi mystic executed on charges of heresy; among others, Ayn al-Qozat
Hamadani, quoted earlier, suffered the same fate in 1131 C.E.
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was aware of their identity with God, and properly trained in experiencing it, would be able
to make the same statement; there is nothing in anyones cloak but Godnothing but God
anywhere at all. As Rumi explained the meaning of this declaration:
When a fly is plunged in honey, all the members of its body are reduced to the
same condition, and it does not move. Similarly the term istighraq (absorptionin God) is applied to one who has no conscious existence or initiative or
movement. Any action that proceeds from him is not his own. If he is still
struggling in the water, or if he cries out, Oh, I am drowning, he is not said tobe in the state of absorption. This is what is signified by the words Ana l-Haqq
I am God. People imagine that it is a presumptuous claim, whereas it is really
a presumptuous claim to say Ana l-abd I am the slave of God; and Ana l-Haqq I am God is an expression of great humility. The man who says Ana
l-abd I am the slave of God affirms two existences, his own and Gods, but
he that says Ana l-Haqq I am God has made himself non-existent and hasgiven himself up and says I am God, i.e. I am naught, He is all; there is nobeing but God's. This is the extreme of humility and self-abasement.
Most mystics were aware, however, of the difficulty that the general populace,
untrained in understanding symbolic language would have grasping this, and of the dire
consequences that could ensue from an exoteric interpretation of an esoteric statement.
Thus most chose, prudently, to keep the language of the works they produced for the public
ambiguous; explicit statements of unity with God were saved for addressing their fellow
mysticsif they were made at all.47Poets may not have wished to follow in Hallajs
footsteps, but they often invoke his insight; his exclamation and martyrdom have attained
the status of a recurring theme in Sufi poetry.
So God desires to be known. Since the Sufi position is that He is One, it is
necessary for Him to create the universe in order that there should be a knowera seer.
There is nothing that is not God out of which He can create the universe, its inhabitants and
components; He must create them out of Himself. All of creation is of one substance, and
47 That the danger posed to a writer by misreadings of symbolic expression persists to the present day
is attested by the fatwa issued against Salman Rushdie following publication of his bookThe Satanic
Verses.
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one essence: the same substance and essence as the Creator. Thus in the final reckoning He
has not so much created as transformed; the seer and the seen are one and the same. To say
that one is the mirror and the other the one looking into it is pointless, since the mirror is
the one looking into itself. All creation is the process of Gods Being in time and space.
anyway, what do I know? This dream confuses me:
no wonder my livers upset
Stop ! all I get out of this is a maze of riddles!
Words, words if it was difficult before, what a headache now!
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Addendum I: Additional Poems
There are many more poems that I would like to examine from this perspective, but
space considerations must limit the number included here. As an addendum, I am including
just a few other poems that employ either the theme of the mirror or the unity of God and
the creation. At a future date I would like to revisit this topic and address more poems, in
more depth.
Two poems fromKitab al-Tawasin, by Mansur al-Hallaj48
I. I am He whom I love,
and He whom I love is I:
We are two spirits dwelling in one body.If thou seest me, thou seest Him,
And if thou seest Him, thou seest us both.
II. Thy Spirit is mingled in my spirit
even as wine is mingled with pure water.
When anything touches Thee,
it touches me.
Lo, in every case Thou art I!"
All Pervading Consciousnessby Farid al-Din Attar
And as His Essence all the world pervades
Naught in Creation is, save this alone.
Upon the waters has He fixed His Throne,
This earth suspended in the starry space,
Yet what are seas and what is air? For all
Is God, and but a talisman are heaven and earth
To veil Divinity. For heaven and earth,
Did He not permeate them, were but names;
Know then, that both this visible world and that
Which unseen is, alike are God Himself,
Naught is, save God: and all that is, is God.
And yet, alas! by how few is He seen,
48 Reynold A Nicholson, The Mystics of Islam
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Blind are men's eyes, though all resplendent shines
The world by Deity's own light illumined,
O Thou whom man perceiveth not, although
To him Thou deignest to make known Thyself;
Thou all Creation art, all we behold, but Thou,
The soul within the body lies concealed,
And Thou dost hide Thyself within the soul,
O soul in soul! Myst'ry in myst'ry hid!
Before all wert Thou, and are more than all!
This poem does not use the theme of the mirror, but is all about Unity of Being;
nothing exists except as a manifestation of God. The forms of creation are veils of God,
hiding His Presence from man, though He is there to be found by those who can see.
Looking for your own face by Attar49
Your face is neither infinite nor ephemeral.
You can never see your own face,
only a reflection, not the face itself.
So you sigh in front of mirrors
and cloud the surface.
It's better to keep your breath cold.
Hold it, like a diver does in the ocean.
One slight movement, the mirror-image goes.
Don't be dead or asleep or awake.
Don't be anything.
What you most want,
what you travel around wishing to find,
lose yourself as lovers lose themselves,
and you'll be that.
49 translated by Coleman Barks, The Hand of Poetry: Five Mystic Poets of Persia
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Wonderby Ibn Arabi50
O Marvel! a garden amidst the flames.
My heart has become capable of every form: it is a pasture for gazelles and a
convent for Christian monks,
And a temple for idols, and the pilgrim's Ka'ba, and the tables of the Tora andthe book of the Koran.
I follow the religion of Love, whichever way his camels take. My religion and
my faith is the true religion.
We have a pattern in Bishr, the lover of Hind and her sister, and in Qays and
Lubna, and in Mayya and Ghaylan.
50 Wilson & Pourjavady p. 9.
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Addendum II: Chronology of Primary Sources
I found it useful while writing this paper to have a reference to the dates of the
sources I was using. I include it here in case it is useful to the reader.
Chronology of primary sources, poets and thinkers cited51
Born Died Name Where?
570 632 Mohammed
600 632 ?? Qur'an
638 713 Hui-neng Guangdong Province,China
665 713 Yung-chia Hsan-cheh
c. 800 850 Thomas of Marga
858 922 Mansur al-Hallaj
1048 1113 Omar Khayyam Persia
1098 1113 Ayn al-Qozat Hamadani
1145-6 c. 1221 Farid al-Din Attar Persia
c. 1236 Gharib Nawaz Iran, India
1165 1240 Ibn Arabi Murcia, Spain); Mecca;Andalusia; Damascus,Syria
1193-4 1253-4 Clare of Assisi Assisi, Italy
1207 1273 Rumi Balkh (in what is nowAfghanistan), Persia,Konya Turkey
1331 1431 Shah Nematollah Wali
c. 1346 1406-7 Shamsoddin MohammedShirin Maghrebi
North Africa; Tabriz,persia
1468 1539 Sayyed Shah JahangirHashemi
51 The information in this table was drawn from various sources, including those works cited in this
paper and listed at the end, and various websites, including wikipedia.org.
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Works Cited
Arberry, Arthur. Sufism: An Account of the Mystics of Islam. London, 1968.
Chittick, William C. The Divine Roots of Human Love.
http://www.ibnarabisociety.org/articles/divinerootsoflove.html. Originally published inthe Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society, Volume 17, 1995.
Corbin, Henry. Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn Arabi. Princeton, NJ: Bollingen
Series XCI, Princeton University Press, 1969.
Fitzgerald, Edward.Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. New York, 1956: Grosset & Dunlap.
Fourth Edition translation, originally published 1879.
Halligan, Fredrica R. The Creative Imagination of the Sufi Mystic, Ibn Arabi. Journal of
Religion and Health, Vol. 40, No. 2 (Summer, 2001), pp. 275-287
Hui-neng. The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch: The Text of the Tun-Huang Manuscript.
Yampolsky, Philip B., Translation, Introduction, And Notes. New York, 1967:Columbia University Press.
Ibn Arabi.Journey to the Lords of Power: a Sufi Manual onRetreat. Rochester, VT: Inner
Traditions International, 1989.
Melchior-Bonnet, Sabine. The Mirror: a History. New York: Routledge, 2001
Poetry Chaikana. http://www.poetry-chaikhana.com
Sells, Michael.Early Islamic Mysticism. New Jersey, 1996: Paulist Press.
Smith, Margaret. The Way of the Mystics: The Early Christian Mystics and the Rise of the
Sufis.New York, 1978: Oxford University Press.
Suzuki, Daistz Teitaro. The Essentials of Zen Buddhism. Westport, 1973: Greenwood Press.
Wilson, Peter Lamborn & Pourjavady, Nasrollah, trans. & commentary. The Drunken
Universe: An Anthology of Persian Sufi Poetry. New Lebanon, 1987. Omega
Publications.