Diwan

By: Shaykh Alawi

21

Advance, oh you in difficulty, if you desire the remedy.

Ask and desire what you love from us.

What you see of us is true — and other.

Our meaning is a meaning, which encircles all.

We strove, so we were above the standard.

By weakness we obtained all the powers.

We wandered from the cosmos, and all other.

Allah forbid! We are not among the people of allegation.

Take the Real from us and leave passion.

Be as we were, and die and vanish!

Withdraw from us by us to the Valley of Tuwa.

Our root is good, and the branch is level.

Our arrival is a Garden, pleasant for intimate conversation.

Prepare for beauty! And drink in order to be quenched.

If not, then leave us in distance,

If you do not make us the medicine for ardent passion.

Every man among us has what he intends.

22

Mercy and sweet abundance among the Friends.

The Garden of Ridwan in our presence.

The presence of absolute purity giving life to the selves. The Garden of Firdaws has need of us.

We were given tankards to drink from the wine of gnosis at the hands of immortal youths.

The people of the realities are among the gardens, reclining on couches.

The state of the Gnostics is that they have met each other on embroidered thrones.

The sons of the Presence have good news before the next world, esteemed in beauty.

They have respect in every world and with the noble scribes.

The slaves of the Merciful in every age have security in which they are at peace.

They are boasted above all mortals. They have wise men who are the heirs.

They are the abdal. They can approach. They are the representatives of the messengers in the universe.

They have gravity, radiance of affiliation. The mark of nearness is seen on them.

We are the chains of authorities. We have witnesses. All benefits are in our company.

23

The bride of the presence appeared in tajalli

With radiance since she descended

Like a virgin amusing herself

With wine and song.

She cast her hand into my hand

And lutf appeared before,

Then she inclined to the form of the caravan-leader

With poetry to console us.

After we had been quenched with words

Suddenly the whole form leapt.

Like Qadib al-Ban in wealth,

He revived us with a cup.

By Allah! I passed it over

With the hand of expansion and bewilderment.

She said: Oh Prophet of His!

Honor our cup!

I took it from her by me

When I understood that she is me.

The matter was obscure to me.

Where is she in relation to me?

Am I her very radiance?

Unlimited splendor displays her.

As I was in her mist

I am still I.

Or am I a secret appearing

On purpose in the presence of absolute purity,

Clothed in densities,

Or am I not I?

When I rose from my intoxication

And wrapped my affair in my denial,

She called me from my secret:

You yourself encircle us!

I am pure existence

Absolute without limits.

I descended by fetters

So they supposed me to be an idol.

I descended from disconnection

With fetters and connection.

The one who does not perceive me supposed that

I am not I.

Had there been a split in existence

It would have been built on the proof.

The sea is like its waves.

Recognize us in the same way!

Similarly I spoke in my opinion.

She said to you from me:

Opinion is not enough

If you do not see us.

I said to her: Be tolerant with me

And acquaint me with the meaning.

I have wandered in taking-form

And I do not know who I am.

Am I a pure light?

Isolated from an overflowing,

A body you see and witness?

Tell me who I am.

Make the meaning of information clear to me.

Where is the fixed?

In the inward or the outward?

Tell me about the meaning!

Acquaint me with wisdom itself

And with the saying: wherever

You turn your faces

There is where I am.

Explain the meaning of the Qur’an to me,

In addition, clarify it for me. She said: Come near.

What is after elucidation is elucidation.

Understand in order to recognize me!

We have acquainted with the meaning of information.

We have pointed out the track to you.

We said. There is nothing outwardly manifest

But that it from us.

She brought an eloquent statement,

Clarified and distinct.

There is no hinting in it.

She gathered the meaning in it.

She translated it on my tongue.

She gave it to my brothers,

So that they could take it from her by me

And leave me as me.

24

O murid! Set out with a present heart, a tongue going dhikr with your word, ‘Allah!’

Strive and you will see all benefits, the secret of the most glorious in your dhikr, ‘Allah!’

The love of the friends has muddled my mind. The people of perfection have acquainted me with Allah.

Oh caravan-leader! Refresh us with the dhikr of my masters — they pulled my heart to the presence of Allah.

I began to unify, and Allah is a witness that I prostrate in the presence of Allah.

I prostrate and stand. I thirst with love. Oh critic! You do not perceive Allah. Oh critic! You do not perceive Allah.

If you wish to perceive, then ascend and travel by night. Take my secret from me. By it, you will meet Allah.

I am a Gnostic of these lata’if. Oh fearful one! Draw near, you will see Allah.

I am one in this witnessing. I do not reject the one who desires Allah.

Whoever is not pleased with us is forbidden our passion. He is in hardship until he meets Allah.

My lovers obtained while you distinguish. We won and they won nearness to Allah.

Oh narrator! Proclaim the name of al-‘Alawi, Allah appointed me after ad-Darqawi.

Give thanks, my heart! I obtained my desire. Proclaim and call! Oh, by Your praise Allah!

My heart! My heart! Understand from my Lord. Preserve my love. He, He is Allah.

My heart, do not be heedless. Exalt and honor. Do not be hasty to divulge Allah’s secret.

Concealing realities is preserving contracts, good connections to the Presence of Allah.

Bless and renew and do not limit the glorified, the sun of ‘Abdullah.

Grant peace and baraka from every wayfarer after the one blessed with the Presence of Allah.

25

Oh driver of thoughts in the arena of the secret!

Oh caravan-leader of lives! Travel according to me!

I am the slave of the house. Follow me in the affair, Weakness is my neighbor, so ask my pardon.

Your distance is fire to me, and your nearness is my treasure.

Your love flows in me, mixed with my secret.

Had the bishops seen you, they would have yearned for dhikr.

They would have torn off the belt of the Christian, and wandered in intoxication.

You were named in the pre-dawn on the Night of Power.

Your nearness is day and night given the name of dawn.

Before affirmation I was veiled to my affair.

You were with me in the house while I did not know.

When the curtains and the veil of denial were lifted,

I withdrew from effects in the witnessing of the full moon.

Other-than-you has no mention in my mind and thought.

Had I been on live coals, we would have turned over in hardship.

You are with me in the fire. Would that I knew

Whether you will be my neighbor for all time.

26

Oh people of the people of my love! Your pleasure in enough for me. My yearning increased for you. Love of you possessed me.

My lovers! Your meaning has made me wander in confusion. My heart refused to forget your encounter.

You took my heart! That is your ransom. You left my sleeplessness contradicting your passion.

My goal is my desire, my wine, and my intoxication.

People of my love! Who do I have except you?

My taking-refuge is my protection, my goal and my support. People of love! Good news to you! Good news to you!

How many lights you have which cover you in the dhikr if the singer sings the name of your Master!

Rise to the dhikr. We see you bewildered. Dive with reflection while the caller calls you.

You yearned greatly for the meaning, and it came to you. You left whatever is ephemeral — and all behind you.

You were in the senses while the Master was your protection. You unfurled your banner in the presence of purity.

Give thanks! May Allah guard you, oh people of the secret! My heart is in love with you.

How much I have had in the journey which other-than-you desires. I hope for long life and especially your good pleasure.

27

My veil is rent, when I say ‘Allah!’

You see me weeping loudly when I look at Him.

The body is agitated and the intellect wanders confused in Him.

Other is in doubt, ignorant of the Master.

They stand in the veils, boasting of their blindness.

The one who rejects my being a Qutb is stupid, without knowledge.

He has no knowledge of my relationship — he supposes that I am other-than-Him.

Would that he knew what I have! He would pardon me in his desire.

He would drink from my drink. He would be guided by its guidance.

My guidance and nearness — from Him, by Him, and to Him.

My desire and my reckoning end in His pleasure.

My Joy and rapture is my love of His love.

The beauty of the Real has captured me. Its meaning has made me wander in confusion.

We do not fear rebuke had I spoken about His vision.

He appeared in the veils and was hidden by His radiance.

All is in ruins — were it not for Him, you would not have seen Him.

28

Oh cupbearers of the wine! Arise with us to honor captivating beauty!

Wander frantically in the presence of purity, and lose your way to phenomenal beings.

I am an enamoured debtor pawned in this affair.

My affair in it is immense. It is beyond all possibility.

Similarly, my pledge is ancient. It existed before the being of the cosmos.

A noble one saw a youth from whom the gardens shone.

He had sound taste, too fine for the minds.

He informed me that I speak and have intimate conversations with the Merciful.

My path is straight and it reaches certainty.

A resolute youth travels on it, armed with Iman.

My presence is pure bliss and the fruits of the Garden are near.

There is the water of Tasnim in it, and a pair from every thing.

My lover stands in it between the houris and the youths.

29

The full cup has drops spilling from it by necessity.

Whoever wishes let him reject, and whoever desires, let him experience.

Whoever wishes to change the sea, inevitably loses.

Whoever cannot obtain my annihilation, let him ask for news of it.

30

Oh you who desire Allah! We will repeat a word for you, so pay attention to it. If you understand my word, you will reach Allah by it.

Oh murid! You must have the wine of tawhid. If you desire increase, then forget other.

Do dhikr of the Greatest Name, and cross through the cosmos, you will win the booty. Dive into the sea of out-of-timeness. That is the sea of Allah.

Dive into the sea of lights, the meaning and the secrets, and annihilate these abodes — your heart will reach its desire.

Be annihilated in the Worshipped — you will taste the meaning of witnessing since that existence is only from the light of Allah.

The Mulk and the Malakut as well as the Jabarut are all attributes, and the essence designates Him.

Withdraw from the attributes and annihilate yourself in the essence of the essence. These are indications whose end leads to Allah.

The end is to Him and the beginning is from Him. Now He has appeared, and the cosmos is among His ornaments.

The cosmos has a mirror and a place in which the attributes appear —

Muhammad, the light of the essence, May Allah bless him.