{"id":10,"date":"2018-04-16T20:12:03","date_gmt":"2018-04-16T20:12:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.harvard.edu\/islamicnotions\/?p=10"},"modified":"2018-04-16T20:12:03","modified_gmt":"2018-04-16T20:12:03","slug":"ghazal-oh-the-straight-path-is-never-straight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/islamicnotions\/2018\/04\/16\/ghazal-oh-the-straight-path-is-never-straight\/","title":{"rendered":"Ghazal- Oh! The straight path is never straight\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rumi’s Ghazal:\u00a0Little by Little the Lovedrunk Arrive (Andak Andak)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Little by little, the group of the lovedrunk arrive<\/em><\/span>
\nLittle by little, the worshipers of wine arrive<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

They are on their way; Comforting and gentle<\/em><\/span>
\nLike flowers from the flowerfield they arrive<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Little by little, from this world of Being and non-Being<\/em><\/span>
\nThe non-existent leave and the existent arrive<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

They come with hands and clothes full of gold\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/span>
\nFor the poor and hungry they arrive<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The gaunt, exhausted from the trials of Love<\/em><\/span>
\nStrong and healthy they arrive<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Like the rays of the Sun , the lives of the Pure<\/em><\/span>
\nFrom those heights to the lowly valley they arrive<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Green and fresh the garden for the pure<\/em><\/span>
\nWith new fruits from the love drunk they arrive<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Their essence is grace and grace they unfold and expand<\/em><\/span>
\nFrom the garden towards the garden they arrive<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

My Ghazal:\u00a0Oh! The straight path is never straight\u2026<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Thirst of the tongue, the travelers of dehydration follow the jagged path<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Thirst of the tongue, the submitters to dehydration follow the jagged path<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Thirst of the tongue, the travelers are not burdened more they can bear<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

With trust amongst chaos, creation follows the path<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The lonely come with their shirts ripped and shoes lost<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

For the spring water of the path<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The lost and confused, exhausted from chaos<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

With closed eyes and mouths following the path<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The flowing water is there, just must be scene<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

It flows endlessly with no beginning, ending or path<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The water gushes from the spring<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

With movement and progression, the travelers follow the jagged path<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How the river must be scene to flow<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The travelers of dehydration, drink the purpose of the windy-straight path<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The poem I wrote is in style of a Ghazal or a Sufi Love Lyric which became prominent during Islamic Persia. Out of this era came the famous Poet Jalaludin Rumi who is famous for writing many ghazals, The Masnawi which has been termed the \u2018Qur\u2019an in Persian\u2019, and other types of spiritual, love poetry. The ghazal I wrote- Oh! The straight path is never straight\u2026<\/em>– is in the style of Rumi\u2019s famous Little by Little the Lovedrunk Arrive (Andak Andak)<\/em>ghazal. Throughout his original poem he stirs readers through his use of language and metaphors to express his spiritual experience, and I try to do the same. To keep in touch with the style of traditional ghazals, a refrain (a repeated word or phrase) appears at the end of both lines of the first couplet and at the end of the second line in each succeeding couplet.<\/p>\n

My reference to the thirsty traveler is that of a person in life seeking purpose and fulfillment in their lives. The path is jagged because it is not easy, but is instead a challenge to find your path in life.<\/p>\n

The second couplet refers to a Surah Al-Baqarah where God promises that the circumstances they are given in life is never more than they can bear. If people can have trust in belief is this and themselves then they can follow a successful path:<\/p>\n

\u201cAllah does not burden any human being with more than he can bear\u201d [Qur\u2019an, 2:286]<\/em><\/p>\n

The next couplets refer to materialism and obsessions in the world that lead people astray, confused, and lost. Through this they have no awareness of the true reality of their and the universes\u2019 existence. This is beautifully constituted by the following:<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd We have certainly created for Hell many of the jinn and mankind. They have hearts with which they do not understand, they have eyes with which they do not see, and they have ears with which they do not hear. Those are like livestock; rather, they are more astray. It is they who are the heedless.\u201d [Qur\u2019an, 7:149]<\/em><\/p>\n

However, the last few couplets refers to how one must just open their eyes of their heart to the see true reality- God. With this, I bring the beloved intellectual poet Muhammed Iqbal\u2019s reference to Islam being self-development and progression through a spiritual sense for my ghazal. Lastly, I refer to Sura Al-Fatihah where mankind prays to be guided to the straight path. I call this a \u201cwindy-straight path\u201d for the fact in our physical world the path may not be clear and easy to follow, but if we trust our awakened hearts, salvation and peace can be found:<\/p>\n

“In the name of God, the infinitely Compassionate and Merciful.<\/em>
\nPraise be to God, Lord of all the worlds.<\/em>
\nThe Compassionate, the Merciful. Ruler on the Day of Reckoning.<\/em>
\nYou alone do we worship, and You alone do we ask for help.<\/em>
\nGuide us on the straight path,<\/em>
\nthe path of those who have received your grace;<\/em>
\nnot the path of those who have brought down wrath, nor of those who wander astray.” [Qur’an, 1:1-7]<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rumi’s Ghazal:\u00a0Little by Little the Lovedrunk Arrive (Andak Andak) Little by little, the group of the lovedrunk arrive Little by little, the worshipers of wine arrive They are on their way; Comforting and gentle Like flowers from the flowerfield they arrive Little by little, from this world of Being and non-Being The non-existent leave and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9570,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/islamicnotions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/islamicnotions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/islamicnotions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/islamicnotions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9570"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/islamicnotions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/islamicnotions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/islamicnotions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10\/revisions\/19"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/islamicnotions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/islamicnotions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/islamicnotions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}