Sufi Poetry

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    REL 450.56

    Honors Seminar in Religion

    Professor Barbara SproulSpring 2010

    Riley Kellogg

    [email protected]

    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.

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