Nusaymat Al-Hima

By Shaykh Baha’udDeen As-Sayyadi رضي الله عنه

بحر الرمل

روِّحينا يا نُسَيْماتُ الصّبا … واحْمِلي للشَّيبِ أَنفاسَ الصِّبا

Relieve us, O soft-breezes of the dawn; carry the breaths of youth unto the grayed elder!¹

وعلى الضِّلعَيْنِ من بانِ النَّقا … فانْشُري من نشرِ مَن نهوى خِبَا

And, upon both winding-sides of the morningas of Naqa, spread a blossom-scent from the perfumes of the One we love…²

وإِذا عدْتِ بأَسرارِ الحِمى … مازِجي حينَ السُّرى ريحَ الكَبَى

And if Your return to us with the mysteries of the sanctuary, then intermix with the fragrant winds during Your night-journey back…

ثمَّ هُبِّي برُبانا صَنْدَلاً … وانْشُري مِسكاً علينا طَيِّبَا

Then blow sandalwood through our valleys and spread fragrant musk upon us…

كم نشرْنا في المَعاني خَبَراً … وطَوَيْنا للتَّداني سبسَبَا

How many atimes we broadcasted a report about mystic-meanings; how many atimes we crossed the desert-expanse to be brought near…³

وانتَظَرْنا طالِعَ الفجرِ لهم … فقرَأْنا من سَناهُ الكُتُبَا

And we waited for Them at the rise of dawn, then we read the scriptures from its splendor…

وروَيْنا في اللِّوا أخبارَهُمْ … ما رويْنا خَبَراً عن زَيْنَبَا

And at Liwa’ we narrated Their reports⁴; we did not narrate a report from Zaynab!⁵

وولِعْنا فيهُمُ عن غيرِهِمْ … ما أَلِفْنا دونهُمْ بيضَ الظِّبَا

And we were impassioned in Them, away from all besides-Them; we encounter not, short of Them, radiant gazelles…

آهُ منهم آهُ هِجرانِهِمْ … كم كَوى قلباً ولُبًّا أَذْهَبا

Ah due to Them! Ah at Their departure! How many a heart it burnt and how many an intellect it removed!

والأَفانينُ التي في عشقِهِمْ … علَّمَتْ أهلَ الجُحودِ الأَدَبَا

And the laden branches, which wrapped amid Their love, has taught manners to the people of rejection…

مَنْ عَذيري بفُؤادٍ فيهُمُ … لعِبَتْ في سُوحِهِ أَيدي سَبَا

Who shall pardon me for a heart immersed in Them? The hands played fetters amid the heart’s courtyards…

مِنْ هواهُمْ لُبُّ قلبي ذائبٌ … إِنَّما يدري الهَوى مَنْ جرَّبَا

From Their love, my heart’s core ever-melts; verily the one who knows love is the one who has tried it!

قال ساقيهمْ: خُذِ الكأَسَ ومُتْ … رَشقوا فوقَ التُّرابِ الحَبَبَا

Their Quencher said: “Take the chalice and die!” They have sprinkled dew-drops above the earth!

مِنْ بِعادي عن حِماهُمْ سَقَمي … حَرَباً واحَرَبا واحَرَبا

My sickness comes from my distance away Their haven. Woe! What woe! What woe!

لو بدتْ لي نظرةٌ مِنْ وجهِهِمْ … لملأتُ الكونَ فيها طَرَبا

Were a glance from Their Visage to have appeared unto me, by It, I would have filled the cosmos with ecstatic-dance!

أَنا فيهُمْ غائِبٌ عن مشهَدي … صِرْتُ بين القومِ فيهِمْ عَجَبَا

In Them, I am absent from my place of beholding; In Them, I have become a marvel amid the saints!

يا سُعادُ الله في قلبي بهِمْ … قد شقَقْتِ يا سُعادُ الحُجُبا

O Allah’s happiness in my heart for Them! You have cloven, O Su’ad, the veils!⁶

وأخذْتِ الظُّلمَ فيهم دَيْدَناً … وأخذْنا الصَّبرَ طوْعاً مذهَبا

And you have taken oppression of Them as a habit! We have taken patience in obedience as a Path!

رفرَفَ العشقُ على ألبابِنا … ثمَّ أَتبعْناهُ مِنَّا سَبَبَا

Love has fluttered upon our intellects; then we have taken means from it for ourselves…

قُطِعَتْ حيلتُنا في حُبِّهم … هكذا الله تعالى كَتَبَا

Any cheating⁷ has been cut away in Their love; thus Allah Almighty has destined!

كيفَ أَنسى بينَ رُكبانِ الحِمى … يومَ قالوا يا غريبَ الغُرَبا

How can I forget the caravans of the haven, on a day They told me: “O most estranged of strangers!”

أَثبَتوا لي في هواهُمْ غُرْبَتي … إِنَّ في هذا منَ الغيبِ نَبَا

They have affirmed my for me my estrangement in Their love! Verily in this there is a tiding from the unseen!

1. Wordplay: Saba (the Dawn/East-Wind) and Siba (Youth). ↩︎
2. Naqa (which can be translated as a sand hill) is also a place near the sacred city of Medina, where the Prophet ﷺ is buried. ↩︎
3. Contrast between broadcasting/spreading (Nashr) and crossing/enfolding (Tayy). ↩︎
4.  Liwa’ (which can be translated as a banner) is also a place near the sacred city of Medina. ↩︎
5. Zaynab is one of the many names for the archetypal beloved, however because she is presented in contrast to the “Beloveds” which the poet is praising, she represents all that is besides the true “Beloveds”, and we’ve written before about how the plural pronouns for the beloved can either represent a group of people the author loves or a way to obscure the true identity of the True Beloved amid the group He/She may be in. ↩︎
6. Wordplay: the word “Su’ad” is mentioned twice in this line, once in its literal meaning as “happiness” or “felicity”, and the other as a name for an archetypal Beloved. This time, however, Su’ad is typically related to the treacherous beloved in Ka’b Ibn Zuhayr رضي الله عنه’s famous praise of the Prophet ﷺ, which started with an introductory ghazal for a treacherous, or perhaps attention-deficient/forgetful, beloved, meant to symbolize the old pagan ways and their failures. ↩︎
7. “Cheating (Heelah)” is more so the act of finding loopholes. There are no loopholes, excuses, cheats, or hacks in true love! ↩︎