Category: The Jewelled Garden

Here are the opening verses of the Poem of the Sufi Way by Umar Ibn al-Farid, which was recently sampled here.  The poet’s grandson Ali said that al-Farid saw the Prophet Continue Reading →

Moshe Ibn Ezra (c. 1055-1138 CE) was a Jewish philosopher, linguist and poet born in Granada, in what was then the Muslim province of al Andalus.  He is considered one Continue Reading →

The ecstatic Sufi poet Umar Ibn al-Farid (1181–1234 CE) was born in Cairo of Syrian parents, lived for a time in Mecca, and then returned to Cairo where he subsequently passed Continue Reading →

The Mughal Prince Dara Shikoh (1615-1659 CE),  the elder son of the Emperor Shah Jehan,  was the student of a Sufi of the Qadiri order, and the following short poem Continue Reading →

Not much is known of the life of Solomon (or Shelomo)  Ibn Gabirol, although his writing exerted considerable influence on Muslims and Christians of his age.  He was born in Malaga, Continue Reading →

Following on from the post of Hazrat Inayat Khan’s reflections on the Buddha, here is an account of the Buddha’s last words to his disciples at his moment of leaving Continue Reading →

Little is known about the mystic and poet Qasimul Anwar (1356-1435 CE).  He was born near Tabriz in Iran, but settled in Herat, in Afghanistan.  He does not seem to Continue Reading →

This deep and subtle passage from the Garden of Mystery is part of Mahmud Shabistari’s response to the question: What is the sea whose shore is speech? What is the Continue Reading →

In this song, Kabir apparently takes issue with the caste system, the inalterable sorting of people into groups (‘castes’) according to their birth that closely controlled society in his time.  Broadly Continue Reading →

During the Middle Ages, Spain benefited from a particularly rich mixture of Muslim, Christian and Jewish poetry and mysticism. Moshe Ben Nahman (1194-1270) was born to a distinguished family in Continue Reading →