Rabi'ah, O Rabi'ah

Rabi'ah, O Rabi'ah

In the Name of AllaaHu, the Presence of Love, the Ocean of Love


These are my rough translations of three poems by Rabi'ah al-Adawiyya (peace be upon her sweet delicate intoxicating being) from Basra, Iraq, about whom the soul of the Night says:

"O Rabi'ah, if only I could hide the Beloved from your sight! The love that burns in you has no doubt about seeing Naked Reality and so what you see is what the Beloved sees, what you hear is what the Beloved hears and what you feel is what the Beloved feels. O Bride of the Night, those who are asleep cannot possibly see the difference between love and lust and so they remain asleep... But the tears of longing that you shed... are love's own and the yearning that you bear puts the full moon to shame. When will I see another like you after your disappearance into the Source of Love? Blessed are they who seek, find and are raised above rest and motion in love's name. To that Reality alone I belong."

***

Hu


In love, nothing exists between heart and heart
Speech is born out of longing,
True description from the real taste
The one who wastes, knows;
The one who explains, is lost
How can you describe the True Form of
....Hu....
In Whose Presence you are blotted out?
And in Whose Being you still exist?
And Who alone lives as a Sign for your journey?

My Beloved


My peace, dear brothers and sisters, is my solitude
And my Beloved is with me always
For Hu's love I can find no substitute,
And Hu's love is the test for me among mortals

Whenever I contemplate Hu's Beauty,
Hu is my Mihrab, towards Hu is my Qibla

If I shall die of love before completing satisfaction,
Alas, for my worldly anxiety and distress,

O Healer of Souls, Dissolver of Hearts,
The heart constantly feeds upon its desire
But love has burned any other than You, O Beloved
And You alone are my heart's desire

O my Joy, O my Eternal Life
O my Being, O my Ecstasy

I have separated myself from the rest of creation
In the chamber of disappearance

My hope is for Union with You, O my only Desire.

You alone are my Greatest Need


Your hope in my heart is the rarest Treasure
Your Name upon my tongue is intoxicatingly sweet
My choicest hours, O Beloved
Are the hours when I am lost in remembrance of You

Without remembering You,
How can I endure the world to come,
Where love and only love is the only pull
That can take the soul beyond the veils?

Without seeing Your Face,
How am I to celebrate love?

I find myself a stranger here on Earth
And lonely amidst Your worshippers,
O Beloved, this is the substance of my complaint.

***

I love this Sufi a lot! Rabi'ah... O Rabi'ah.... The whole Universe is jealous of you for the love that has taken root in your heart, and for its secrets shared with the great silence of the Night... Indeed, while in your exile here on Earth, your love for the Beloved was an innocent reality in your heart and veins and so it flew with your blood, with your breath... You wrote not with a pen and ink but with a heart enflamed and blood intoxicated.

Every word that you say vibrates within me and, like the pinions of a solitary Eagle in the sky, cannot be possibly stolen by the seasons and time... The wings of love, once wounded, are revived again and again.

Now whenever and wherever the Beloved looks, there you are, O sweet fragrance of being...

Ishq,

{Dani}