In God’s eyes, whoever has no tint of Love is
nothing but wood and stone.
Love wrings water from rocks, Love cleans
rust from mirrors.
Unbelief has come in war, faith in peace – Love
strikes a fire to both peace and war.
In the ocean of the heart Love opens its mouth
and like a whale swallows down the two worlds.
Love is a lion, without deception and trickery,
not a fox one moment and a leopard the next.
When Love provides replenishment upon replenishment, the spirit gains deliverance from this dark and narrow body. From the beginning Love is all bewilderment – it stuns the intellect and dazzles the spirit.
– Ghazal (Ode) 1331
Translation by William C. Chittick
“The Sufi Path of Love”
SUNY Press Albany, 1984