CANNES, France — In “The Tree of Life,” a cosmic head movie of the most ambitious order, Terrence Malick reaches high, his ecstatic camera and thoughts soaring. Shown on Monday morning at a press screening at the 64th Cannes Film Festival, where it was met with pre-emptive, harshly insistent boos and a vigorous rejoinder of […]
Tag Archives: Inspiration
The Heart of Man
SURAH YA SIN The Thirty-Sixth Collection of Recitals Eighty-Three Verses Among those reported to have been revealed to the Prophet Muhammad in the city of Mecca. 1. Ya Sin. 2. This is the Recitation, replete with wisdom! 3. You are one of the messengers of God, O Prophet! 4. You are set on a straight […]
A Hafiz Poem
You have not danced so badly my dear, Trying to hold hands with the beautiful one You have waltzed with great style, my sweet, crushed angel, To have ever neared God’s heart at all. Our partner is notoriously difficult to follow, And even his best musicians are not always easy to hear, So what if […]
Rumi: Show Your Face
Ghazal 441 by Jalaluddin Rumi, Literal Translation Show your face, for the orchard and rosegarden are my desire; open your lips, for abundant sugar is my desire. Sun of beauty, come forth one moment out of the cloud, for that glittering, glowing countenance is my desire. Out of your air I heard the sound of […]
A Rumi Poem
Inside Dome of the Blue Mosque, Sultan Ahmad, Istanbul
“Oh, if a Tree Could Wander”
Oh, if a tree could wander and move with foot and wings!
It would not suffer the axe blows and not the pain of saws!
For would the sun not wander away in every night?
How could at ev’ry morning the world be lighted up?
And if the ocean’s water would not rise to the sky,
How would the plants be quickened by streams and gentle rain?
The drop that left its homeland, the sea, and then returned?
It found an oyster waiting and grew into a pearl.
Did Yusuf not leave his father, in grief and tears and despair?
Did he not, by such a journey, gain kingdom and fortune wide?
Did not the Prophet travel to far Madina, friend?
And there he found a new kingdom and ruled a hundred lands.
You lack a foot to travel?
Then journey into yourself!
And like a mine of rubies receive the sunbeams’ print!
Out of yourself? Such a journey will lead you to your self,
It leads to transformation of dust into pure gold!
Jalaluddin Rumi
Translated by Annemarie Schimmel
The Love of God
Seek, and you shall find. As you study all religions, to find their interpretation of spirituality, you will discover the divine touch in each. The more places you look, the better your understanding will be. I don’t care what religion you come from! I think that all religions do good, and all of them have good and bad people in them.
Painting by Iman Maleki
Every religion has people who understand it’s teaching, and people who imagine themselves wise, and who are wise. I chose the Sufi Islamic path because I believe it is the easiest and most direct form of getting to know oneself without intermediaries; certainly, it is my path. I care that you really know yourself. This is the greatest gift, and you can only give it to yourself.
We each have the divine spark placed in us. It is our responsibility to make the connection, to awaken to the light, to open our eyes to the light within us, and to live in accordance to the divine light once discovered.
All religions join in a unity. It is the love of God. It is the proclamation from the very depth of the seekers heart for God. It seeks God’s reality and divinity.
All consciously awakening people seek to know themselves, to better themselves, and in removing the veils from ourselves, we find our light within.
Yilmaz Alimoglu
Copyright © Yilmaz Alimoglu 2010-2015
Maimonides
Moses ben-Maimon, called Maimonides and also known as Rambam (רמב”ם – Hebrew acronym for “Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon”), was a preeminent medieval Jewish philosopher and one of the greatest Torah scholars and physicians of the Middle Ages. Maimonides was born during what some scholars consider to be the end of the golden age of Jewish […]
The Sun of the Invisible
"Sunlight", Oil on canvas, by Iman Maleki
Don’t sleep for just one night, my beautiful friend.
And the treasure of Eternity will appear before you.
The Sun of the Invisible will warm you all night;
The collyrium of mystery will open your eyes.
This evening, I beg you, fight against yourself, don’t sleep.
So you discover those splendors that spread ecstasy.
It is at night that beauties unveil themselves;
The one who sleeps never hears their soft calls.
Wasn’t it at night that Moses saw the burning bush
And heard its miraculous summons to come closer?
It was during the night he traveled so far
That he came to see a bush drowned in glory.
The day’s for earning a living, the night’s for love
So the eyes of the jealous cannot spy on you.
The rest of the world may sleep, but real lovers
Throughout the night talk inwardly with God.
All through the night God is calling us,
“Rise up, use this time richly, you poor man!
If you don’t, you’ll burn with regret
When your soul’s separated from your body.”
Mevlana Rumi
Translated by Andrew Harvey
THE AWAKENING
By Jalaluddin Rumi
THE AWAKENING
In the early dawn of happiness
you gave me three kisses
so that I would wake up
to this moment of love
I tried to remember in my heart
what I’d dreamt about
during the night
before I became aware
of this moving
of life
I found my dreams
but the moon took me away
It lifted me up to the firmament
and suspended me there
I saw how my heart had fallen
on your path
singing a song
Between my love and my heart
things were happening which
slowly slowly
made me recall everything
You amuse me with your touch
although I can’t see your hands.
You have kissed me with tenderness
although I haven’t seen your lips
You are hidden from me.
But it is you who keeps me alive
Perhaps the time will come
when you will tire of kisses
I shall be happy
even for insults from you
I only ask that you
keep some attention on me
Translations by Farsi scholar Fereydoun Kia
Rumi: Stay Close, My Heart
Stay close, my heart, to the one who knows your ways;
Come into the shade of the tree that allays has fresh flowers.
Don’t stroll idly through the bazaar of the perfume-markers:
Stay in the shop of the sugar-seller.
If you don’t find true balance, anyone can deceive you;
Anyone can trick out of a thing of straw,
And make you take it for gold
Don’t squat with a bowl before every boiling pot;
In each pot on the fire you find very different things.
Not all sugarcanes have sugar, not all abysses a peak;
Not all eyes possess vision, not every sea is full of pearls.
O nightingale, with your voice of dark honey! Go on lamenting!
Only your drunken ecstasy can pierce the rock’s hard heart!
Surrender yourself, and if you cannot be welcomes by the Friend,
Know that you are rebelling inwardly like a thread
That doesn’t want to go through the needle’s eye!
The awakened heart is a lamp; protect it by the him of your robe!
Hurry and get out of this wind, for the weather is bad.
And when you’ve left this storm, you will come to a fountain;
You’ll find a Friend there who will always nourish your soul.
And with your soul always green, you’ll grow into a tall tree
Flowering always with sweet light-fruit, whose growth is interior.
Translated by Andrew Harvey
Excerpts from the book
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