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night pass in

      Your day.

      Sublime are You, whose

      Beauty burns in all Being,

      Exalting all substance

      Through the far corners;

      Who breathed Your light

      First on the face of formlessness, and last

      On the forms of Human Reason.

      Serene are You, in Your

      Otherness, Your

      Yearning depth embraces me;

      Your knowing pales before itself:

      Enthroned in realmlessness,

      Your wisdom’s endless sea

      Is adrift in my tears.

      Absolute are You:

      The pavilions of Night wear Your perfect Form;

      From East and West Your lanterns rise:

      Light upon light.

      World upon world are You, Knower

      Of destiny, harbinger

      Of Time’s still path;

      Who finds me bowed

      In the rhythms of fate;

      Your splendor, it is in both worlds,

      Your light, it fills the far corners of Being:

      Here, all is You; there, all is You.

Recitation

      This is the Word of God. If you recite

      It before others, be sure that your voice

      Is sweet and melodious: not mere noise

      From an odious mouth drilled in despite.

      Let the lips which shape His language of Light

      Sing not just to sense, but weigh divine choice

      Of syllable and word, whose divine poise

      Holds the soul in its journey toward sight.

      Many have fainted, hearing aloud these sounds.

      Many have converted. Let me faint, too:

      Let me feel His music as it resounds

      In my deepest hearing, as it moves through

      Sense, psyche, will and act. You who recite:

      Make sound sing in my soul, till it takes flight.

Light

      A Passage from the Qur’an

      (Translated by Rafey Habib)

      God is the Light

      Of the Heavens and of the Earth;

      His Light is a parable, of

      A lamp within a niche; without the lamp, a glass

      Haloed as a brilliant star, lit

      From an olive tree, blessed;

      Whose soil is neither East nor West;

      Its very oil would shine forth

      Though untouched by fire:

      Light upon Light.

      God raises to His Light whom He will;

      He engenders parables for men, He

      Whose knowing is beyond horizon.

      His Light abides in houses, sanctified

      For the adoration of His Name. There

      Is He glorified, morning and evening

      By those whom trade nor profit can

      Divert from remembrance of God

      Or steadfastness in charity and prayer;

      Whose sole fear is for the Day

      When heart and vision wake

      In a new world

      Where God rewards their deeds

      Giving ever more from His Grace

      For God furnishes measurelessly

      Those whom He will.

      – Holy Qur’an XXIV: 35-38.

Veiled Letters

      Alif. Lam. Ra. These are the

      Letters that will not yield. They

      Stand like before and after,

      The unremitting, unreturning

      Face of time. Inscribed in

      Uncomprehending hearts,

      Unyielding faces, they are

      The traces of eternity, returning

      To language, overshadowing

      Viewpoint and perspective

      With higher harmony, notes

      From sacred spheres, intoning

      Veiled letters, trailing an

      Invisible journey, trace

      Of Otherness, whose sign

      We read but cannot know.

Reading the Qur’an

      Symbols, stood in the still light;

      Will not be understood

      As words, signs for

      Things. Their wisdom shapes

      The sounds they fill

      From a deeper source than shrill

      Persuasion. They call to deeds but

      Also to silence, whose depth reaches

      Beneath recitation

      Through long centuries,

      Exegesis, back to the voice of

      Man, treading desert sand,

      Listening to voices higher than all the

      Words within, around his world.

      These symbols call to all the

      Forces of reading: book more

      Than book, whose signs

      Are more than words, opening into

      Worlds of self, struggle, silhouetted

      Against fading of night, opening

      Into red of distance;

      Their voices flow, in meaning

      Shivering through many realms,

      Past and future,

      Whose movement cannot

      Be stilled; voices whose life

      Might not be stifled, in schools,

      Be killed in codes and ghosts of

      Rules, of literal reading:

      Symbols, whose sounds

      Are more than meaning.

Reciting the Qur’an

      Without Your Word in my heart,

      I am not me; Your Word on my lips

      Is not enough; it can be smudged off

      By the world’s kiss, alluring in softness

      Of speech. Your Word in

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