Fakhruddin Iraqi (1213 – 1289 CE) was a Sufi and poet born in Persia but who travelled extensively, visiting India, Anatolia and Egypt before ultimately passing away in Damascus. For more about him, see this earlier post. This post is taken from the twenty-seventh of his collection of ‘Divine Flashes.’

If this screen–which is you–is struck from before your eyes, the Beloved will find the Beloved, and you will be entirely lost. Then you will hear with the ear of your heart:

“That mystery, so long contained
     is at last opened,
the darkness of your night at last
     bathed in dawn.
You yourself are the veil of the mystery
     of the Unseen Heart:
if it were not for you
     it would never have been sealed.”

Then you will say:

“By day I praised You
     but never knew it;
by night slept with You
     without realising;
fancying myself
     to be myself;
but no, I was You
     and never knew it.”

Translation William C. Chittick and Peter Lamborn Wilson