1
Chickpeas must tolerate
Heat for their taste to burst,
So they please the palette.
The cook does what he must.
We are like Moses was,
Needing sabr and trust,
Submitting to a cause
Our Khidr knows is just.
2
‘Tis in our hearts we pray,
Not through words on the 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
Our being underlies.
3
The world is Nimrud’s fire,
Whose flames consume the fool
With all his vain desire,
With heat no form can cool.
No lick of flame could devour
Ibrahim in that fire,
Preserved from its power
And harm from Pharaoh’s ire.
4
Because God alone is
We never are 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.
