Translated by Dr Nazeer Ahmed
1.
The word that springs forth from the heart, impact it has,
Wingless, the power of flight it has.
Sacred reality it is, its vision is on heights yonder,
Rising from the dust, to heavens does it soar.
My love, disruptive, wild and clever,
An unfettered cry, the skies did it cleft asunder.
2.
Said the nascent heavens when they heard my cry: “There is someone here”,
Declared the planets: “There is someone near the highest throne”.
“No”, said the moon, “It is someone from the earth”,
The galaxy chimed in: “There is someone hiding amongst us”.
If anyone recognized my complaint, it was the gatekeeper of heaven,
He knew me as the human who was expelled from heaven.
3.
Even the angels were in wonderment where the voice was coming from,
Not open even to denizens of the celestial Throne was the secret.
“Has the human reached even the boundaries of the Throne?”
What powers of flight has a speck of dusk acquired!
How unaware of etiquette are these earthlings,
How impish and impertinent are these beings who live down below!
4.
So unsettled is he that he is disgruntled even with God,
Ah! It is the same human before whom the angels bowed.
He knows the settings but is not wise enough to understand the signs,
Yes, indeed! He is not familiar with the hidden secrets of humility.
Proud is humankind of the power of speech,
Pity, they lack the grace of how to speak.
5.
Descended a voice from the heavens: “Replete with sadness is your lyre,
Overflowing at the brim are your tears beyond control.
Your cry in its ecstasy did pierce the heavens,
How zestful is the tongue of your passionate heart!
Pleased that you rendered your grievance with grace and beauty,
Converse did you make the human with Me.
6.
Disposed are We towards grace, but there is none who seeks,
To whom shall We show the path when the destination no seeker seeks.
Open to all is My guidance, but few have the capacity to learn,
Missing for a construction of Adam is the animated clay.
Upon one who is qualified, we bestow the majestic throne of Iran,
For those who seek, We unveil a universe, new.
7.
Your hands are powerless, hearts steeped in disbelief,
A source of ill repute, your community is for the Prophet.
Gone are the idol beakers, the idol keepers remain,
The father was Abraham, the sons are Azar.
New are the intoxicated, new is the cup, new is the wine,
The sacred Ka’aba is new, the idols are new, so are you.
8.
Those were the days, a source of beauty and joy,
The red tulip of the desert was the pride of the season of flowers.
Whoever was a Muslim, was an instrument of Allah,
The one who was your beloved once is faithless now.
Go now and affirm your fidelity to a paramour, new,
Bound the community of Ahmed e Mursal to stations confined!
9.
How difficult it is for you to wake up in the morning,
It is sleep that you love, when is Our love dear to you?
The restraint of fasting is too much for a disposition not restrained,
Answer Me: Are these the ways of fealty?
Community is with faith; where there is no faith there is no community,
When there is no mutual pull, there is no agglomeration of stars.
10.
If there be any in the world who has no skills, it is you,
If there be any who does not care for his own home, it is you.
The halo in which bolts of lightning are quiescent, that is you,
Those who trade their forefathers graves, that is you.
You, who profit from selling tombstones,
Will you not trade in idols of stone if you find them?
11.
Who was it that removed the darkness from the pages of time?
Who was it that liberated humankind from the clutches of servitude?
Who was it that decorated My Ka’aba with their foreheads?
Who was it that clasped the Qur’an to their breasts?
Your forefathers they were, but what are you?
Waiting, with folded hands, for a new dawn to rise.
12.
Did you say? The ear of the Muslim listens only to the promise of Hurs,
Even if there be a complaint, it should make some sense.
From the dawn of time, justice is the law of existence,
If a disbeliever behaves like a Muslim, he is entitled to Hurs and palaces.
None among you is even desirous of Hurs,
The fire on Mount Sinai is there, but no Moses for it to see.
13.
The benefit of this nation is one, so is its loss,
The prophet of everyone is one, so is the religion, and the faith,
The Haram is one, Allah is one and the Qur’an is one,
Would it too much to ask if the Muslims were one?
There is tribalism in places, casteism in others,
Is this the way to survive and prosper in this day and age?
14.
Who is it that repudiates the blessed Sunnah of the Prophet?
Whose actions not responsive to the wisdom of the ages?
Whose eye is it that is mesmerized by the influence of strangers?
Who is it that is tired of the ways of his forefathers?
Gone is the fire from the heart, gone is awareness from the spirit,
To Muhammad’s message, not the least honor do you give.
If there be those who frequent the masjid and stand in rows, it is the poor,
If there be those who endure the discomforts of fasting, it is the poor.
If there be one who call on our Name, it is the poor,
If there be one who observe seclusion, it is the poor.
Drunk with wealth are the rich, heedless of Us,
If the enlightened Millat is still alive, it is from the poor.
16
Gone is the sound reasoning of the preacher,
Gone is the lightening from the temper, the fire from the words,
The rites of Adhan are there, gone is the spirit of Bilal,
The philosophy is there, gone is the oration of Gazzali.
The mosques weep that the votaries are gone;
Gone are the Companions, gone with them is the character of Hijaz.
Uproar there is: “The Muslims have disappeared from the world”,
We wonder: Were there any Muslims ever?
You are Christian in your manners, Hindu in culture,
Are these the Muslims, of whose sight even the Jews would be ashamed?
You maintain you are a Syed, a Mirza, an Afghan,
All of these you are, tell me if you are also a Muslim?
18
Fearless truth was the breath of a Muslim’s word,
Justice was its reinforcement, free from the stigma of bias.
The tree of the pristine essence of a Muslim, watered it was by honor,
His courageous existence, beyond comprehension!
As does the taste linger on when the wine slips from the lips,
As does the wine pour out, so did he empty his Self before the divine.
19
Every Muslim was a thorn on the nerves of falsehood,
In the mirror of his existence, there was the treasure of noble works.
Whatever trust he had, it was in his own ability,
While you are afraid of death, he held the fear of God.
If a son is not competent to receive the wisdom of his father,
An inheritor, how can he be of his father?
20
You are all drunk, desirous of ease of the flesh,
Are you a Muslim? Is this the way of a Muslim?
Neither the poverty of Haider nor the wealth of Uthman do you possess,
Spiritual connection, is there any between you and your forefathers?
Muslims they were, honored in their times,
Oblivious of the Qur’an, you are disgraced in your time.
- You are vengeful between each other, they were forgiving,
You do and spread what is wrong, they were covering and forgiving of wrong.
You desire to attain the abode, high,
But first, produce a heart that is sound.
The throne of China was theirs, they wore the Persian crown,
Let us not indulge in idle talk, what nobility do you own?
22.
Self-destruction is your way, they were honorable, self-respecting,
Bereft of brotherhood you are, they gave their lives for brotherhood.
You are but idle talk head to toe, they were action,
You long for a bud, they lived surrounded by gardens.
Nations remember their tales even to this day,
Their mark of justice, Inscribed on the canvas of existence.
Like a brilliant star you appeared on the horizon of your nation,
Brahmins you became with the love of the idols of Hind.
The love of flight you had, you left your nests,
Negligent were the youth, you discarded even your faith.
Destroyed were all restraints by a civilization, new,
It took them out of the Ka’aba, idol house did it throw them in.
The lovers no longer seek the loneliness of the desert,
Living in the city, they seek not to wander in the desert.
He, Qais, has lost his mind; he may live in the city or not,
Even so, her veil Laila must lift when he is here.
Do not complain of infidelity, nor wail about tyranny,
Love is without fetters, why should beauty not be free?
25
The new age is like lightning, it sets every barn on fire,
Neither a desert nor a garden does it spare.
The fuel for this fire are nations old,
The Millat of the Seal of Prophets is on fire.
The faith of Ibrahim, if it be renewed even today,
The coolness of a rose garden, fire may yet produce.
O gardener! Do not be dismayed by the garden that is decayed,
Branches new will emerge, shining, with effulgence from buds anew.
When the garden is cleansed of dead leaves and mulch,
The martyr’s blood will shower its red on roses, new.
Behold! The color of the dawn is reddish,
A sign of a new dawn, it is of an emerging sun.
27
In the garden of existence, there are nations that enjoy its fruits,
Some are denied the fruits, others watch them wither away.
Date palms there are in profusion, some lush, others withered and wilted,
Many more, hidden in the garden’s womb.
The date palm of Islam is a model for luxuriance,
A fruit, a produce, nurtured over centuries of time.
Your robe is cleansed of the dust of nationalism,
You are that Yusuf for whom every Egypt is his homeland.
Your caravan cannot be dispersed,
Your belonging, nothing more than a tingle of the caravan bell.
Your tree is like a candle, its connecting wick aflame,
Your ideas are like fire, setting the future aflame.
- You will not be destroyed if destruction overwhelms Iran,
The intoxication of wine, not tied to the container it is.
Evident it is from the charge of the Tartars,
The Ka’aba found its keepers in the abode of idols.
You are the anchor for the ship of Truth in these times,
You are the faint star as the passage of time heralds a darkness anew.
30
There is an uproar about the charge of the Bulgars,
A herald to awaken, for those who are asleep.
You deem this to be an event of despondence?
Nay! It is a test of your sacrifice, your reliance on your own self.
Why are you troubled by the neigh of enemy horses?
Extinguished not is the light of Truth by the breath of enemies.
- Hidden is your reality from the inner vision of nations,
There is yet a need of you for the assemblage of existence,
Your energy it is that keeps the times alive,
Your Khilafat it is, a rising star for destiny human.
This is not the time to rest, there is work unfinished,
The completion of the Light of Tawhid is yet to be finished.
- The fragrance is encapsulated in the bough; disperse it,
Riding on garden wafts, carry the fragrance.
You are a tiny speck of dust, become a vast desert,
From the melody of waves, become the turbulence of a storm.
All obstacles, conquer with the strength of your Love,
Illuminate the world with Muhammed’s name.
If it were not for this flower, there is no song of the nightingale,
There is no opening of buds in the garden of time.
If there be no wine bearer, there is no wine, no intoxication,
There would be no realm of Tawhid, neither would you be.
This name, the pole of the tent it is,
This name, the energy for the pulse of existence it is.
34.
This name is in the desert, in the footsteps of mountains, in the valleys,
In the oceans, in the embrace of waves, in the storms,
In the cities of China, in the deserts of Morocco,
And hidden it is in the faith of the Muslim.
Let the vision of nations witness this rapturous view,
Witness, till eternity, the majesty of Rafa’na Laka Dhikrak,
35
That blackened earth, the world of people of dark eyes,
The world that nourishes and sustains the martyrs.
That world of the hot sun, of the green flag of believers,
The world that the lovers call the world of Bilal.
Like restless mercury, it derives its energy from this name,
Immersed in its light, like the starlit pupil of the eye.
36.
Reason is your shield, love your dagger,
O My dervish! The whole world is your Khilafat.
The zeal of your Takbir is not but for Allah,
If a Muslim you are, your plan is your fate.
If you are true to Muhammed, We are yours,
What of this world, the Tablet and the Throne are yours.