How Shall I Define What Thing I Am?
By Mirza Khan Ansari
How shall I define what thing I am
Wholly existent, and non-existent, I am.
Whatever becomes naught out of entity,
The signification of that nothingness am I.
Sometimes a mote in the disc of the sun;
At others, a ripple on the water‘s surface.
Now I fly about on the wind of association:
Now I am a bird of the incorporeal world.
I have enveloped myself in the four elements:
I am the clouds on the face of the sky.
From unity I have come into infinity:
Indeed, nothing exists, that I am not.
My vitality is, from life‘s source itself;
And I am the speech, every mouth within.
I am the hearing-sense within every ear;
And also the sight of every eye am I.
I am the potentiality in every thing:
I am the perception every one within.
My will and inclination are with all;
With mine own acts, also, satisfied am I.
Unto the sinful and vicious, I am evil;
But unto the good beneficent am I.
In the lot of the devoted, I am the honey:
In the soul of the impious, the sting.
I am with every one, and in all things.
Without imperfection—immaculate I am.
(Mirza Khan Ansari ~ 17th Century mystical Sufi poet from Afghanistan.)
Leave a Reply