Difference between revisions of "Another poem sung by Shaykh Yasin"
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How near are the spirits when there’s song | How near are the spirits when there’s song | ||
| − | like melodies they knew in pre-eternity | + | like melodies they knew in pre-eternity* |
| + | [https://vimeo.com/20409830 Watch Shaykh Yasin perform this poem] (fast forward to 6:52) | ||
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| + | "Qadim" = old, or "`Alam Azali" = Pre-eternity: In Islamic cosmology, the time before the world was created, when the Primordial Covenant was established between God and humanity. As the Qur'an recounts: God said: "alastu bi rabbikum", ‘Am I not your Lord?’, and the spirits answered “balaa”, ‘indeed’. (see [https://quran.com/7/172-182?translations=20 Qur'an 7:172]) | ||
| − | + | Sufis consider this moment of Divine proximity to be the paradigm of Divine connection, the first dhikr, and the ahistorical origin to which they desire to return. “Melodies” is a reference to this Covenant; song reminds the spirits of their origin, and so they gather to hear it. | |
| − | + | Jalal al-Din al-Rumi has also written of the Covenant in this way; see Schimmel, Annemarie. 1975. Mystical Dimensions of Islam. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, p. 184. | |
Revision as of 23:22, 12 March 2018
ma aqraba’l-arwaha minna ladaa’l-ghinaa
siwaa naghamatin adrakathaa qadiimati
How near are the spirits when there’s song
like melodies they knew in pre-eternity*
Watch Shaykh Yasin perform this poem (fast forward to 6:52)
"Qadim" = old, or "`Alam Azali" = Pre-eternity: In Islamic cosmology, the time before the world was created, when the Primordial Covenant was established between God and humanity. As the Qur'an recounts: God said: "alastu bi rabbikum", ‘Am I not your Lord?’, and the spirits answered “balaa”, ‘indeed’. (see Qur'an 7:172)
Sufis consider this moment of Divine proximity to be the paradigm of Divine connection, the first dhikr, and the ahistorical origin to which they desire to return. “Melodies” is a reference to this Covenant; song reminds the spirits of their origin, and so they gather to hear it.
Jalal al-Din al-Rumi has also written of the Covenant in this way; see Schimmel, Annemarie. 1975. Mystical Dimensions of Islam. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, p. 184.
