Poems

Niyazi-i Misri's beloved poem 'I sought a cure for my pain, my pain was my cure': the inward turn and the nearness of God in Anatolian Sufism.

Yunus Emre's beloved na't, adi guzel kendi guzel Muhammed: the Anatolian song of love for the Prophet, his beauty, and his intercession.

Erzurumlu Ibrahim Hakki's Tefvizname, 'whatever the Lord does, He does beautifully': trust, patience, and contentment with the divine decree.

Yunus Emre's Anatolian ilahi of ghurbat. Echoes 'Islam began as a stranger,' the rights of the dead stranger, and the heart's first home.

Yunus Emre's plain Turkish ilahi on heart-breaking. The prayer that breaks a heart is not a prayer; the seventy-two nations cannot wash that hand.

Hallaj's declaration 'I am the Truth' led to his execution in 922 CE. What did he mean, and why do Sufis still debate it today?

Rumi's most quoted poem in its original context: not abandoning commitment, but a call to return after failure, rooted in tawba.

Rumi's celebrated poem on the soul's ascent through mineral, plant, animal, and human forms. An analysis of spiritual evolution in Sufi philosophy.

Yunus Emre's iconic poem on fana and divine love, analyzed through the lens of Sufi psychology: how love dissolves the ego and reveals what lies beneath.

Ibn Arabi's poem from the Tarjuman al-Ashwaq on the heart's capacity to receive all divine self-disclosures, with its true meaning.

Rumi's most misquoted poem from the Divan-i Kebir. What does it actually say in its original Persian and theological context?

The Sufi allegory of the moth and flame from Attar's Mantiq ut-Tayr: only the moth that burns knows fire. A teaching on fana and ego.

The opening of Rumi's Masnavi: the most celebrated passage in Sufi literature on separation, longing, and the soul's return to its origin.

Wine, tavern, cupbearer: the most provocative vocabulary in Sufi poetry is also its most precise. A guide to divine intoxication.