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Mystic Attar says: Strive to discover the mystery before life is taken from you. If while living you fail to find yourself, to know yourself, how will you be able to understand the secret of your existence when you die?
Baba Kuhi of Shiriz, a Persian dervish poet who died in 1050 A.D., also composed these words:
In the market, in the cloister--only God I saw. In the valley and on the mountain--only God I saw. Him I have seen beside me oft in tribulation, In favour and in fortune--only God I saw. In prayer and fasting, in praise and contemplation, In the religion of the Prophet--only God I saw. Neither soul nor body, accident nor substance Qualities nor causes--only God I saw. I opened mine eyes and by the light of His face around me, In all the eye discovered--only God I saw. Like a candle I was melting in His fire, Amidst the flames out flashing--only God I saw. Myself with mine own eyes I saw most clearly, But when I looked with God's eyes--only God I saw. I passed away into nothingness, I vanished, And lo, I was the All-living--only God I saw.
Baba Kuhi, in The Mystics of Islam, translated by Reynold A. Nicholson
3 Mahmud Shabistari - Rose Garden of Mystery
*Mahmud Shabistari, Perfume of the Desert, translation by Andrew Harvey and Eryk Hanut.
* Yunus Emre, translated by Kabir Helminski and Refik Algan, The Drop That Became Sea. http://wahiduddin.net/sufi/sufi_poetry.htm#Rabia%20alAdawiyya%20al-Qaysiyya, accessed on October, 1/2005.
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