Islamic Poems

Say to my friends when they look upon me dead

Weeping for me and mourning me in sorrow

Do you believe that this corpse you see is myself?

In the name of God, I tell you, it is not I.

 

I am a spirit, this is naught but flesh

It was my abode, and my garment for a time.

I am a treasure by a talisman kept hid,

Fashioned of dust, which served me as a shrine.

 

I am a pearl, which has left its shell deserted.

It was my prison, where I spent my time in grief.

I am a bird, and this body was my cage

Whence I have now flown forth and it is left as token.

 

Praise be to God, Who hath now set me free,

And prepared for me my place in the highest of the heavens.

Until today I was dead, though alive in your midst.

Now I am in birth, with the grave clothes discarded.

 

 

Today I hold converse with the saints above.

Now, with no veil between, I see God face to face.

I look upon the tablet and therein I read

Whatever was and is and all that is to be.

 

Let my house fall in ruins; lay my cage in the ground,

Cast away the talisman, it’s a token no more.

Lay aside my cloak; it was but my outer garment.

Place them all in the grave, let them be forgotten.

 

I have passed on my way and you are left behind.

Your place of abode was no dwelling-place for me.

Think not that death is death, nay it is life

A life that surpasses all we could dream of here

 

While in this world. Here we are granted sleep

Death is but sleep, sleep that shall be prolonged.

Be not afrightened when death draweth nigh

It is but the departure for this blessed home.

 

Think of the Mercy and Love of your Lord.

Give thanks for His Grace and come without fear.

What I am now, even so shall you be

For I know you are even as I am.

 

The souls of all men come from God.

The bodies of all are compounded alike.

Good and evil alike it was ours.

I gave you a message of good cheer.

May God’s peace and joy forever more be yours.