Sunday, January 6, 2008

Valley of Love

Yesterday's post was from the Mystical Writing, The Seven Valleys, by Bahá’u’lláh.

The next few days will see various excerpts from that Masterwork of Spiritual Vision.

Today's excerpt is a collection of the poetic lines from The Valley of Love:

"...Attar saith: "For the infidel, error -- for the faithful, faith; For Attar's heart, an atom of Thy pain."
[Faridu'd-Din Attar (ca. 1150-1230 A.D.), the great Persian Sufi poet.]

"A lover is he who is chill in hell fire;
A knower is he who is dry in the sea. "
[Persian mystic poem.]


"Love seizeth not upon a living soul,
The falcon preyeth not on a dead mouse. "
[Persian mystic poem.]


"Love's a stranger to earth and heaven too;
In him are lunacies seventy-and-two. "
[Jalalu'd-Din Rumi (1207-1273 A.D.); The Mathnavi. Jalalu'd- Din, called Mawlana ("our Master"), is the greatest of all Persian Sufi poets, and founder of the Mawlavi "whirling" dervish order.]

"Kindle the fire of love and burn away all things, Then set thy foot into the land of the lovers. "
[From an ode by Baha'u'llah]