1
Chickpeas must tolerate
Heat for their taste to burst
So they please the palette -
The cook does as he must.
We are like Musa was,
Needing sabr and trust,
Submitting to a cause
Our Khidr knows is just.
2
‘Tis in our hearts we pray,
Not merely with our tongue.
The dhikr our breaths say
Is how our spirit’s sung.
Each prayer is a death,
Where first we fall, then rise,
In the rhythmic breath
That being underlies.
3
This world is Nimrud’s fire,
Whose flames consume the fool
With all his vain desire
That only serves as fuel.
Yet nothing could devour
Ibrahim in that fire,
Preserved from its power,
From Pharaoh’s might and ire.
4
Because God alone is
None is ever alone.
Hagar discovered this,
And struck water in stone.
There, in the cave of night,
Where the Praised One was sealed,
Beauty was stitched in light,
And the first Word revealed.
