Endowment
of Beauty
Your wonderful face is the cause for all beauty indeed [1]
Everything faces this perfection because “nothing is concealed”
After a long life said ‘Die’ but I am dying from
The sorrow that life might not be loyal after all [2]
Much, the pretentious sage counted the hundred beads
In all cities, this way made all fingers pointing at him [3]
What sorrow if Your blade cutting my head apart
The real sorrow if my head and Your blade afar
Prayed for my need by that most profane lip [4]
My needs flowing what reason left for praying
No one can reach the limit to “kiss that lip” [5]
Much desire in head but trampled under the feet
Jaami clutching at Your Zolf by the hand of hope
[6]
May Allah the Highness, excess of Zolafa endows for
Today, I am in a stage of my
voyage recognizing there are
several Laws of Beauty:
- Anything facing the Creator, willingly
or unwillingly, shall be beautified
- As things draw closer to the Creator,
the more beautiful they become
Therefore drawing closer to
people/world via fame and
material gain has the reverse effect of homeliness or becoming
unattractive and
ugly.
[1] “Nothing is hidden” is presented
verbatim in Arabic at
the end of the second verse a verse from Koran [3:5]:
Jaami makes a breathtaking
point: If nothing is hidden from
the Creator ever, that means they all face It meaning they slip,
willingly or
unwillingly, towards the perfection of Its beauty.
Therefore the first verse
concludes that all beauty comes
from the fact that we all face the Beloved. Anything facing the
Creator, must
become beautiful, has no choice. Our eyes and mind many not grasp the
beauty
of something but this is the truth, the Law of Beauty.
[2] Jaami has been waiting for an
entire lifetime for the
Beloved to say, “Die” and he is NOT scared of death but instead he
fears that life
might not deliver the promise to kill him.
[3] I was once walking around Cambridge
and a young Muslim
Harvard student start talking to me about writing poetry and etc. He
said
something that made me do this website. He said what is the point of
writing
book about Allah!? Lets say you worked so hard and published a book and
then they
sell ten copies in the Harvard bookstore. Just a couple of people read
it and
that’s it? Now if millions read them then that is a different matter
worthy of
much effort.
Jaami advises us to stop this
thinking. Like the sage that
is famous (finger pointing in Farsi means getting famous). It would
have been
better for the sage to pay attention to few people than millions
admiring him.
[4] “Profane lip” means our stupid ways
of praying and
asking Allah for things. Imagine going in front of President of United
States
saying, “Listen ass_ole decrease my taxes and create more f_cking jobs,
do you
hear me you piece of sh_t”. Isn’t this vulgar and rude? From Rumi to
Baba Tahir
to Jaami they talk about this rudeness of Mankind when they invoke
their Lord
to ask for things.
Adding more insults, what we
need is pouring to us whether
we pray or not, specially wording our prayers so rude.
[5] In the past Sufi societies and even
today kissing has a
non-sexual context in contrast to western culture, media and
literature:
- Kissing mentioned in words means
gratitude, repent and humility.
- Men can kiss men in public or private,
and women kiss women in public or private and they are not indication
of any gay sexual behavior.
- Both in words and in actions, kissing
is an act of social love and reverence
Now in Sufism ‘Kiss’ has a
particular meaning, inclination
and gravitation to embrace the meanings and qualities of the words
abstract/practical or physical/spiritual.
‘Lip’ in Sufi cipher has,
depending on the poet, certain
meanings:
- ‘Lip’ means words, speech in written
or spoken form
- Jewels/garnet of Lips means depth and
secrets of words
- Sugary Lips means descended words and
revelations messengers and prophets via intermediary like Angels
- Sweet Lips means sent down with no
intermediary grasped by cognition of mind and heart
So “Kissing that lip” means:
“inclination to grasp and act
upon the meanings of the words” and in this context words of Allah in
form of
scriptures or others. Jaami says that no one can reach the limit of
seeking the meanings of the words of the Beloved.
“Trampled under the feet”
means failure, defeat and
humiliation.
[6] ‘Zolf’ or ‘Zolafa’ are Arabic/Koran
words that mean “go
near”, “approach” or “advance”, Koran [34:37]:
But in Farsi it also means
curl or luck of hair. The
ignorant that reads this verse thinks that Jaami is grabbing the hair
of Allah
in hope of help!? In the second verse, which is all in Arabic, Jaami
TEACHES to clarify the meaning of the word.
How interesting! These poems
Jaami wrote were not poetry.
They made up a catalogue of Sufi concepts in most clear language and
terrific
details.
A note for the silly:
Jaami did not kiss the lips of the Creator and did not grab the Hair of
Allah.
Background: C60 The most beautiful molecule.
©
2003-2002,
Dara Shayda
