Sol 6

  1. Hardship is a sign of relief.

    So beware, friend, of stubborn contention.

  2. Good will not come through your sleeping.

    Rise toward His protection and rejoice.

  3. And turn toward that radiant face.

    No humble servant who knocked has failed

  4. At a door that has never closed.

    So enter the door as those before you did.

  5. Leave created things and rise in the dark.

    Be sincere in longing and earnest speech.

  6. Draw near the palm trunk and shake it.

    Pick and claim the fruits of your aim.

  7. Cross upon the path of truth.

    Keep to the teacher’s door and you will succeed.

  8. Thus you will become a devoted, saved friend.

    Whoever strives for union will find it.

  9. The radiance of welcome will come to him.

    So remove your sandals on the Mount of guidance.

  10. Leave every desire behind forever.

    Abandon contrivance and noisy talk.

  11. Adorn your obligations with the practices

    Of Taha, the Chosen One, and strive well.

  12. And if you seek gifts from the Lord,

    My brother, beware of accompanying one

  13. Who does not forbid you crooked paths.

    Stay with whoever guides you to Him.

  14. Beware of going with those cast aside.

    And if you fear harm from this world,

  15. Be content, renounce it, and remember Him;

    Do not enter the door of anyone besides Him.

  16. Seeker of the Living One, you will reach Him

    If you persist in doing good.

  17. Disown other attachments and remove them from yourself.

    Enter the tavern of the Friend and incline

  18. Toward the wine server, father of lamps.

    Drink deeply of wine that holds purity.

  19. In it is water for the thirsty heart.

    With the cup, quench the flame of yearning.

  20. Drink and rejoice; fear no other.

    Beware of turning from this path.

  21. Let tears from the eye flow like blood.

    Feel compassion for the poor among creation.

  22. Return to God and trust in Him.

    How long will you remain thus? Wake up.

  23. Rise and enter by the doors.

    Apologize for your delay.

  24. Bow in humility so that you may prevail.

    Repeat when the night grows dark:

  25. My Lord, I come to You broken.

    My longing has stirred for no one else.

  26. Ask Him through the one who has guaranteed aid to the sinner.

    Far be it from Him to begrudge hope to one who seeks.

  27. Say: I ask Your forgiveness, Lord; show tenderness.

    I have come to You emptied of

  28. My fasting, my prayers, and my arguments.

    Have mercy on us and remove my fear,

  29. For the sake of our Muhammad, the seal of the messengers.

    I hope in You, having no means,

  30. Nor learning, nor deeds,

    Nor proof or arguments.

  31. Sin has ruined my limbs.

    The host of affliction has grown dark.

  32. Poverty has made seas of blood flow.

    I possess nothing but tears

  33. From fear that my flame may be overwhelmed.

    None but You grants me hope

  34. And, in grace, clears the cloud of worry.

    You are the Giver to whoever asks.

  35. Could anyone but Your presence be sought? No,

    By Your beauty, bright with loveliness.

  36. I take no one besides You

    As Lord, for any other would bring harm.

  37. By Your right, be my refuge.

    Whoever seeks another besides You

  38. Is struck by the darkness of distance.

    How much I hope for nearness to You.

  39. Surely Your grace sustains my hope.

    Remove my anguish and fear.

  40. Whomever You let stray is among the

    Lost; whomever You guide is saved.

  41. Let me taste the drink of union.

    Make me know the truth through the Names.

  42. May the terror of my state not stay with me,

    While tears race from my eyes,

  43. Flowing like surging waters in fear of You.

    How Your remembrance heals every pain.

  44. Its light shines within me.

    I called out with longing and ardor:

  45. O critic of my heart, alas, leave off

    Your reproach and stop this distress.

  46. Take wisdom’s secrets from me

    So you may see the meaning of pure wine.

  47. Stop and go back; do not distract me.

    How often you blame me without excusing me.

  48. Leave me in ease and relief.

    My spirit journeys toward Your beauty.

  49. It is bewildered by Your splendor.

    It forgets all other attachments.

  50. My ear listens to my Beloved.

    It is deaf to the tiresome tale-bearer.

  51. By love’s grace, the lover finds peace.

    The heart rests in the wine of the spirit.

  52. Taste flees from what is mixed.

    Keeper of the wine tavern, pass around

  53. The pure wine and leave the mixed.

    Pure drink benefits the heart.

  54. It lifts from it the hardship of hardness.

    Let me taste three draughts of it.

  55. Pass the cup of secrets and let

    Me cease to be among the heedless crowd.

  56. The wine of intoxication has seized

    Our spirits, and its fragrance is sweet

  57. Through a beloved who followed truth’s path.

    My Lord, by the secret of gathering, and likewise

  58. By the gathering of gathering and every sorrowful one,

    By a beauty surpassing every beauty,

  59. Which has captivated those brought near,

    By sublime attributes and gifts,

  60. By the Essence and the secret of secrets, through one

    Who hopes for Your favors, my Lord,

  61. By the light of remembrance and the Books,

    And the affairs of the One dwelling in the heart,

  62. By the manifestations of love’s Names,

    By Your supreme reality, my Lord,

  63. And by the dawning light of light,

    By a splendor that came as a likeness,

  64. And by a hidden treasure made manifest,

    And by our saying ‘Yes’ in the covenant,

  65. By the mystery in which You were eternally,

    By Muhammad, who came with radiance,

  66. Whose hand pours goodness upon you,

    Through whom the enraptured draws near to Him,

  67. And by a light that came with scriptures,

    By the secret of nearness and likewise love,

  68. And by the people drawn along its winding path,

    By one who seeks the beautiful way in love,

  69. And one strengthened by reverence,

    And one from whom the finest account is told,

  70. And by what You created of the worlds,

    With all the fragrances within them,

  71. By the people of truth and their proofs,

    By the truthful and their radiance,

  72. By the people of remembrance and their utterance,

    By the people of the Living One and their joy,

  73. And by the sea of power and the open expanse,

    By the radiance of divine pleasure and its garden,

  74. By the seeker on the path and his direction,

    By the tavern’s wine and its rapture,

  75. By the sweetness and delight of union,

    By the woven carpet of intimacy,

  76. By the flood of generosity for whoever seeks,

    By victory attained by whoever worships,

  77. By a guide singing of Your meaning,

    And by a heart that enters Your trial

  78. And, by Your life, remains untroubled,

    By the father of guests and the one merciful to him,

  79. By the one addressed on the Mount and his servant,

    By Jesus the spirit and Adam,

  80. By the night’s unveiling and its world,

    And the darkness of the universe, black as jet,

  81. By Noah the caller and those cast aside,

    And by his call, through which a decree took effect,

  82. And by all that spread a sweet fragrance,

    By the stations of the celestial spheres, and

  83. By their risings and the constellations,

    By all the messengers and their companions,

  84. And the guides and their company,

    By those brought near and their love,

  85. By the Prophet’s family and companions, through whom

    All good things come to us,

  86. By a secret hidden from us,

    And a light by which the world shone,

  87. And those who rose in love,

    Make things easy and mend my brokenness with acceptance,

  88. So that union with You may be my joy.

    The believer finds the litany of remembrance sweet

  89. And through it reaches the desired aim.

    Lift from us the anguish that has descended.

  90. Clothe with robes of divine pleasure

    A lover whose love for You burns.

  91. By the Greatest Name when it is revealed,

    By God’s Book and what is recited,

  92. Increase the brightness of Your guiding light for me.

    Grant my heart Your breaths of grace, O

  93. My Lord, and hasten relief.

    O Lord, Your little servant has sinned.

  94. Woe to him if You do not show mercy.

    The warning of death has turned toward him.

  95. Alas for my heart if You do not erase

    The recorded offenses of sin.

  96. Make it easy, my Lord, for its writer,

    Its arranger in five-line stanzas, and its regular reciter.

  97. Generously grant a good ending to them.

    Forgive, O Lord, its composer,

  98. And raise him to the highest ranks.

    As long as tongues sing before dawn

  99. And the people’s souls rejoice in it,

    Grant, O Lord, what I have sought.

  100. Show favor to the listener whenever it is sung:

    Rise toward His protection and rejoice.

  101. Through it, good things appear to us,

    And roses bloom at its watering place,

  102. As long as the lover sings in its tavern

    Or a guide sings at daybreak:

  103. Hardship has worn away our souls.

    Grant me Your aid, O Lord.

  104. Dispel the deep darkness of my troubles,

    For the Prophet of whom the singer spoke.

  105. May God’s blessings be upon the guide,

    And greetings be offered through the years,

  106. To our perfecter and our master,

    Our counselor and our guide.

  107. Greetings from our Creator

    To our Muhammad, our Ahmad,

  108. As long as daisies give fragrance in the meadow,

    Or the world shines through his mission,

  109. Or he stands foremost among the messengers,

    Or we prosper through love of him.

  110. And upon al-Siddiq, his successor,

    And al-Faruq and every saved one,

  111. And upon the Helpers and the martyrs,

    And those who were present at Badr,

  112. And those who strove in the faith,

    And upon Uthman, martyr of the house,

  113. Who was faithful and rose to the highest ranks,

    And upon the gate of knowledge, who bestowed

  114. Generous aid on those in need,

    The one who charges again, the master,

  115. Father of the two Hasans and of the chil-

    Dren; and upon the wives and every sorrowful one,

  116. And upon all who rose to support him,

    And those who travel his path,

  117. After all his kin,

    And upon the Mahdi and his family,

  118. Who gives abundance in a time of burning heat,

    And upon one content with affirmation,

  119. And one judged by the rule of love,

    And upon the impassioned one who rises,

  120. And upon one who prepared the earth

    For others, as love’s distress became intense,

  121. As long as God raises their standing

    Or removes their lapses,

  122. Preserve their high rank, O Lord,

    As long as a lover inclines toward them

  123. Or the caravan travels by lamplight,

    Or they spread bounty among us

  124. And through it dispel our terrors,

    Or a shepherd speaks truly,

  125. Or a caller calls upon the Lord,

    Hoping for victory and relief.

Sol 6