The Path of Love

The Path of Love

Hazrat Inayat Khan
India, early 20^th century

I have loved in life
and I have been loved.
I have drunk the bowl of poison
from the hands of love as nectar,
and have been raised above life's joy and sorrow.

My heart, aflame in love,
set afire every heart that came in touch with it.
My heart has been rent
and joined again;
My heart has been broken
and again made whole;
My heart has been wounded
and healed again;
A thousand deaths my heart has died,
and thanks be to love,
it lives yet.

I went through hell and saw there love's raging fire,
and I entered heaven illumined with the light of love.
I wept in love
and made all weep with me;
I mourned in love
and pierced the hearts of men;
And when my fiery glance fell on the rocks,
the rocks burst forth as volcanoes.
The whole world sank in the flood
caused by my one tear;
With my deep sigh the earth trembled,
and when I cried aloud the name of my beloved,
I shook the throne of God in heaven.

I bowed my head low in humility,
and on my knees I begged of love,
"Disclose to me, I pray thee, O love, thy secret."
She took me gently by my arms and lifted me above the earth,
and spoke softly in my ear,
"My dear one,
thou thyself art love, art lover, and thyself art the beloved
whom thou hast adored."

Source:
On the "Path of Love" Towards the Divine: A Journey with Muslim Mystics
Omid Safi, Colgate University
The Journal of Scriptural Reasoning, Number 3.2, August 2003

© 2003, Society for Scriptural Reasoning
http://etext.virginia.edu/journals/ssr/issues/volume3/number2/ssr03-02-e04.html