Sufi-aana

I find the following words from the Sufi song ‘Iktara’ (the male solo version from ‘Wake Up Sid’) particularly affecting:

“…..Beeti Raat Baasi Baasi Padi Hai Sirahane

Band Darwaza Dekhe Lauti Hai Subah…..”

Which translated into English would roughly say,” The spent pillow is the only remnant of a restless night; Morning comes only to retrace its steps when it sees the door closed.”

I suppose it is these heart-aching sentiments of restlessness and loss as felt in that vision of the sleep-lorn pillow and that door tightly clasped shut, which evoke this affection. Good poetry succeeds with a simplicity in words and a vividness in images, in ensnaring the mind and oftentimes, the heart too.

The words of the Sufi poets strung together along like so many pearls, in praise of the Lord and complete surrender of the self in His love, have this innate quality of being profound while being extremely simple. The pantheon of the great Sufi poets that is Hafez, Rumi, Yunus Emre and so many others, have bequeathed mankind a wealth of wisdom and truths in the form of lyrics. Sufi poetry makes extensive use of parables, allegories and metaphors and while all poetry is at some level always an expression of the self, Sufi poets just as Sufism, often expound upon a heightened experience with the spiritual. An encounter of the kind I guess, which gives rise to intense epiphanies of the soul.

I found it bewildering when I first read Sufi poetry cos it spoke of a love for God so intense, so personal, so passionate. My orientation towards that same spiritual being was always one of fear (when I was a kid), sometimes augmented with great supplication (at exam times), later on replaced by a sense of enquiry and supplanted in periods of personal turmoil, with deep disbelief. Disparate from typical fear and insecurity, Sufism provides a refreshingly simple and bold approach. Sufism and Sufi poetry very uncharacteristically accord the same love to God which you or I would accord to a dearly beloved – replete with yearning and intense desires. Sample these lines by Yunus Emre:

“Your love has wrested me away from me,
You're the one I need, you're the one I crave.
Day and night I burn, gripped by agony,
You're the one I need, you're the one I crave.”

For whomsoever these words may seem to be addressed to at first glance, these lines actually form a conversation between the Soul (who is pining away) and the Creator (the object of desire); it is a symbolic dialogue between the murid (disciple) and his Murshid (Master or God).

Shorn of all embellishments and forged with a rare purity, Sufism is in its essence, just the soul, and about laying it unencumbered with material dualities and connecting with the Divine. A very simple message in all this is: let your soul be enslaved by the love of God and you will be emancipated of impurities. As Hafez of Shiraz the most popular Persian poet, proudly proclaims, “I am the slave of love, I am free of both worlds.”

For the Sufi I guess, mornings tiptoe in with an easy liquid grace after a restful night's sleep on a content pillow, for in his house the door is always open.