Umar Ibn Al-Farid: Sufi Verse, Saintly Life

The Classics of Western Spirituality

by ابن الفارض, Ibn Al-Farid, Th. Emil Homerin (Introduction)

Umar Ibn al-Farid (b. 576 [hijri date]/1181 CE; d. 632 [hijri date]/1235 is the most venerated mystical poet in Arabic. An accomplished Sufi as well as a respected poet, his poetry blends the two traditions-classical Arabic poetry and Islamic mysticism-in a body of work with a distinctly devotional and mystical character.

In a major contribution to the critically acclaimed and long lived Classics of Western Spirituality�series, editor Th. Emil Homerin makes available here two of Ibn al-Farid's poems that have long been considered classics of Islamic mystical literature. The Wine Ode, a poem in praise of wine as well as a love poem, can also be seen as an extended meditation on the presence of divine love in the universe. The Poem of the Sufi Way, one of the longest poems ever composed in Arabic, and the most famous one rhyming in "T," begins as a love poem and then explores a number of crucial concerns confronting the seeker on the Sufi path. Both works have been treated for centuries in numerous mystical commentaries. Noteworthy as well in this volume is the addition of the Adorned Proem, a reverential account of Ibn al-Farid's life by his grandson.

Individuals interested in the fields of mysticism and spirituality, as well as lovers of poetry, particularly love poetry, will find this to be fascinating reading. It will have great relevance, of course, for scholars and students of Arabic literature, Islam and mysticism.

Genres: Poetry, Religion, Islam, Mysticism, Spirituality

384 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 5, 2001

About the author

Ibn Al Farid
ابن الفارض، هو أبو حفص شرف الدين عمر بن علي بن مرشد الحموي، من حماة في سوريا، أحد أشهر الشعراء المتصوفين، وكانت أشعاره غالبها في العشق الإلهي حتى أنه لقب بـ "سلطان العاشقين".

ولد بمصر سنة 576 هـ الموافق 1181م. ولما شب اشتغل بفقه الشافعية، وأخذ الحديث عن ابن عساكر. ثم سلك طريق الصوفية ومال إلى الزهد. رحل إلى مكة في غير أشهر الحج، واعتزل في واد بعيد عنها. وفي عزلته تلك نظم معظم أشعاره في الحب الإلهي، حتى عاد إلى مصر بعد خمسة عشر عامًا.

توفي سنة 632 هـ الموافق 1235م في مصر ودفن بجوار جبل المقطم في مسجده المشهور.

Reviews

[Elena Panarina · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Poem of the Sufy Way is the most powerful spiritual literary work I have ever read . Absolutely unattainable , and absolutely uncomparable , by the strength of its impact on the spiritual nature of man, with any other literary work . It lifts the human spirit to such a height, that I do believe that this poetry is the result of the personal transcendent experience of Ibn Al- Farid - the genial poet and extremely fine and deep thinker .

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Al-Farid’s “Poem of the Sufi Way” recounts a mystic journey towards spiritual unity through listening and remembrance. It is a rejection of self-love (i.e., worldly love) for a greater love that has existed before creation, as well as a rejection of “the idolatry of difference.” The mystic experience is expressed through the allegory of intoxication, with poetic speech as a moment of sobriety that recounts the spiritual unification with the “lover,” who is both part of the Self, but also the Light of Muhammad. The ultimate aim of the mystic poet is to “seek out the meaning of oneness / and live there, or die its captive.” The poetic voice acknowledges in a moment of recognition that this spiritual state has always existed, mirroring Muhammad’s prophetic revelation of being the light that existed before creation.

Even for those who don’t hold Islamic religious views, the poem presents a stirring allegory of spiritual awakening in the form of a poetic psychomachia in which the Self is divided into the “blamer,” “the slanderer,” and “the lover.” Likewise, the five senses, which initially mask or conceal reality when focused entirely on earthly desires, become the tactile testaments to the poet’s new spiritual unity. When the spirit/soul/Self becomes one, as in the primordial moment of creation, the veil is lifted from the sensuous world. The final section contains a beautiful metaphor of shadow puppet theater which works as a metaphor for the Light of Muhammad, the unconscious, and the epic poem itself.

Homerin's introduction and notes (printed side-by-side with the text of the poem in this edition) are essential for Western readers without a broad knowledge of Arabic literature and language or Islamic texts.

[J.G.P. MacAdam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Umar Ibn-Farid, 13th century Sufi poet. You can visit his tomb in a mosque dedicated to the poet to this day in Cairo, Egypt. Apparently Farid isn't just a Sufi poet to read but something more along the lines of THE Sufi poet to read. His work isn't voluminous, even if his seminal work, Poem of the Sufi Way, is over 700 lines long. He's often presented as a disciple to al-Arabi but this is more likely the consequence of later scholars drawings comparisons between the two rather than anything intended on Farid's part.

The story goes that he would enter into ecstatic states fairly regularly—spontaneously dancing like a dervish in the marketplace, or fasting for days at a time, speaking to no one—and when he would come out of these states, he would immediately begin reciting poetry for composition. And that's how something like Poem of the Sufi Way is said to have been written.

The Poem begins with a head-over-heels male lover speaking to a female, how smitten he is with her, though, as in other Sufi poetry, this is a stand-in for the love between a creator and his (its?) creation, as the worshiper, the disciple, the Sufi moves ever closer to union, or oneness, with the Beloved, or God.

As the Poem progresses, the woman, or God, regularly referred to as "her", chastises him for being so foolish. The lover loses his hotheadedness. He matures. He begins to walk the true Sufi path. The oneness with the Beloved begins somewhere around halfway through, and it's expressed with lines like these:

If she speaks,
it is I who whispers;
when I tell a tale
she is the one who tells it.

We begin to get into the mirror analogy as well, the whole idea that God created humankind in order to reveal Himself to Himself, the Creator glimpsing Himself through the eyes of his Creation. Farid makes repeated references to The Day of the Covenant, as expressed in the Quran, Surah 7, verse 172:

"And when your Lord drew from the loins of the children of Adam their progeny and made them bear witness against themselves: "Am I not your Lord?" They said: "Indeed, Yes! We so witness!"

We are God's self-manifestation, in other words. Created in His image, and all that. But the point of walking the sufi path is to re-achieve, as it were, that primordial oneness with God which was before man was created, a union, of sorts, between Creator and Created, an obliteration of the self out of love for God. Though Farid does cite that even once "oneness" is achieved, the daily duties of being Muslim still can't be neglected.

I can't say I successfully understood every stanza or line. I'm immensely grateful for the copious footnotes without which I would never have been able to draw so analogies to Quranic lore. In a way, it's like when an author, in English or another more familiar language, says something like "turn the other cheek" in a sentence. You know they're making reference to the Bible, specifically Matthew Chapter 5, Verse 39. Farid's Poem of the Sufi Way is chock full of such references, but to the Quran. It's like there's a whole religious universe out there of which I am wholly, mostly, ignorant, even as I study up on it. I could never be as familiar with the Quran, I feel like, as I am by nature, by simple cultural osmosis and ancestry and history in America, with the Catholic/Protestant Bible. The more you know the more you realize what you don't know kinda thing. Whole worlds out there I can, at best, only learn about, but never be...

Thank God for translators, eh?

Here are some of my favorite lines from Umar Ibn-Farid:

"Still, if I end unknown, in pain,
you have done no wrong
to a soul finding joy
in martyrdom.

"Even if you waste my blood
so I do not die a martyr,
it is enough I know
who called down my fate."

***
I have found in gripping rapture
when she is recalled
in the chanter's tones
and the singer's tunes,

What a suffering man feels
when he gives up his soul,
when the messengers of death
come to take him.

***
How much inspiration
can a heart meet?
How much can a tongue say
in the mold of speech?

***
I kept going back and forth
with her, within myself—
my sense drunk,
her beauties, my wine—

Setting out
from certain knowledge
to its source and truth,
reality my quest,

Calling to myself from me
to guide me by my voice
to that part of me
lost in my search,

Me begging me
to raise the screen
by lifting up the veil,
for I was my only means to me.

***
I survey the far horizons round me
in a momentary thought,
and cross the seven heavens
with a single step.

[Ivan Granger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Umar Ibn al-Farid’s poetry is often considered to be the pinnacle of Arabic mystical verse, though surprisingly little known in the West. His two masterpieces: “The Wine Ode,” a beautiful meditation on the “wine” of divine bliss, and “The Poem of the Sufi Way,” a profound exploration of spiritual experience along the Sufi Path. I keep returning to this book for another taste of the “wine.”