Look at me!

Look at me! If you gaze at anyone else, for certain you are
unaware of love for God!

Behold the face that has received its radiance from God!
Perhaps all at once you may win good fortune from it.
Since intellect is your father and the body your mother,
behold the beauty of your father's face! Show that you are his
son!

Know that from head to foot the shaykh is nothing but God's
Attributes, even if you see him in human form.
In your eyes he is like foam, but he describes himself as
the Ocean; in the eyes of men he is standing still, but every
instant he is traveling.

You still find it difficult to grasp the shaykh's state, even
though he displays a thousand of God's greatest signs - how
dull you are!

A spiritual Form, purified of the elements, reached the
heart's Mary from God's Court -

A passing messenger impregnated the heart with a breath
concealing the spirit's mystery.

Oh heart made pregnant by that King! When you put down
your burden, be sure to gaze upon it!

When Shams-i Tabrizi gives form to that burden, you
will become like the heart - and like the heart, you will fly
to the Unseen!

-- Ghazal 3072
Translation by William C. Chittick
"The Sufi Path of Love"
SUNY Press, Albany, 1983

Take my spirit totally from my body

Tonight, take my spirit totally from my body, so that I

may no longer have shape and name in the world!
At this moment I am drunk in Thee - give me another
cup! Then I may be obliterated from the two worlds in Thee,
and be done with it.

When I have been annihilated through Thee and be-
come what Thou knowest, then I will take the cup of non-
existence and drink it, cup after cup.
When the spirit becomes radiant through Thee,
when the candle lights up - if not consumed by Thee it is raw,
raw.

Give me now the wine of nonexistence instant by
instant; when I have entered nonexistence, I will not know
the house from its roof.

When your nonexistence increases, the spirit will
prostrate itself to you a hundred times - oh you to whose
nonexistence thousands of existences are slave!
Give me wine, measure by measure! Deliver me from
my own existence! Wine is Thy special grace, intellect Thy
general grace.

Send up waves from nonexistence to steal me away!
How long will I pace the Oceans shore in fear?
The snare of my king Shams al-Din is catching
prey in Tabriz, but I have no fear of the snare, for I am
within it.

-- Ghazal 1716
Translation by William C. Chittick
"The Sufi Path of Love"
SUNY Press, Albany, 1983

Occupy yourself with your own inward self!

Oh heart, place no honey in the mouth of the
ill! Speak not of entrancing eyes in the assembly of the blind!
Although God is nearer to His servant than his
jugular vein*, He is far from those who are far
from Him.

Occupy yourself with your own inward self!
Then like moons the concealed maidens will come out in
theophany from behind their veils!
Although in this work you will be lost to
yourself and the world, outside of yourself and the world you
will be famous.

If you are the moon of union, give a sign of
your union! Tell of the arms, the silver breasts, and the faces
of the houris!

And if you are yellow gold from separation's
heartache, where is separation's burning brand? Only the coins
of the wretched are so dull and tarnished.
Since you have no love, at least perform the
duties of servanthood, for God will never neglect the wages of
the wage earners.

Know that love for God is Solomon's seal-how
should Solomon's income be related to the wages of ants?
Throw away the garments of thought and
cogitation, for the sun only shines upon the naked!
Seek refuge in the locks of Shams-i Tabrizi, for
they rain down musk and will protect you from tyrants.

-- Ghazal (Ode) 2073
Translation by William C. Chittick
"The Sufi Path of Love"
SUNY Press, Albany, 1983