Hadith of the Night Journey – Laylat al-Miraj

Salaam and Greetings of Peace:

“When God took me on the Night Journey, I passed a man hidden in the light of God’s throne. I asked if he was an angel, and was told no. I asked if he was a prophet, and was told no. So I asked who he was, and was told that he was a man whose tongue was always moist with the remembrance of God when he lived in this world, whose heart was always attached to the mosques, and who never said an unkind word to his parents.”

— Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), cited in Aisha al-Bauniyya’s (d. 1517) Kitab al-Muntakhab fi usul al-rutab fi `ilm al-tasawwuf, trans. Th. Emil Homerin. The Hadith appears in Ibn Abi al-Dunya.

Ya Haqq!

Rumi’s Easter Poem – Happy Easter!

Everyone has eaten and fallen asleep. The house is empty. We walk out to the garden to let the apple meet the peach, to carry messages between rose and jasmine.

Spring is Christ,
Raising martyred plants from their shrouds.
Their mouths open in gratitude, wanting to be kissed.
The glow of the rose and the tulip means a lamp is inside.
A leaf trembles. I tremble in the wind-beauty like silk from Turkestan.
The censer fans into flame.

This wind is the Holy Spirit.
The trees are Mary.
Watch how husband and wife play subtle games with their hands.
Cloudy pearls from Aden are thrown across the lovers,
as is the marriage custom.

The scent of Joseph’s shirt comes to Jacob.
A red carnelian of Yemeni laughter is heard
by Muhammad in Mecca.

We talk about this and that. There’s no rest except on these branching moments.

– Jalaluddin Rumi (from The Essential Rumi, by Coleman Barks)

Ya Haqq!