O slaves of material things, what is Faqr ?–

a penetrating insight and a living heart.

Faqr ¹ is to sit in judgment over one’s own work,

and to envelop oneself round the words there is no deity.

Faqr is conquering Khaibar and living on barley meal,²

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kings and nobles are tied to its saddle-straps.

Faqr is ardour, ecstasy and submission to the will of God.

It belongs really to Mustafa; we are only its trustees.

Faqr makes a nightly assault on the angelic hosts,

and on the hidden forces of Nature;

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it transforms you into a different man,

and turns you from a piece of glass to a diamond.

Its whole equipment is derived from the Great Qur’an.

a dervish cannot be contained in a blanket.³

Although he speaks very little in the assembly of people,

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yet this little enlivens a hundred assemblies.

It gives to the wingless the ambition to fly,

and the majesty of a falcon to a gnat.

When a faqir falls out with kings,

the throne trembles before the mat’s majesty.

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He sets the whole town in tumult through his madness,

and frees the people from tyranny and oppression.

He does not settle but in places

where a falcon runs away from before a dove.⁴

His heart’s power flows from ecstasy and sobriety.⁵

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his slogan before the king is no kings.

It is through his dust that our fire glows and burns,

the flame trembles before the meanest particles of his dust.

No nation suffers defeat in the battle of life

as long as it has a single dervish.⁶

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Our honour is due to his lordly contentment,

our yearning is due to his carefree zeal.

Look at yourself in this mirror,

that God may bestow on you clear authority.⁷

The essence of faith lies in the graciousness of Faqr;

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the might of faith flows from its highmindedness.

The King of the Faith said to the Muslims:

“The whole earth is my mosque.”⁸

seek protection from the revolution of the nine heavens,⁹

that the Muslim’s mosque remains in the hands of others.

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The person of pure faith tries hard

to take back the mosque of his beloved Lord.

O you who talk of renunciation of this world, don’t talk of it,

renunciation of this world lies in conquering¹⁰ it.

To be its rider is to free oneself from its bondage:

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it is to rise above the status of water und clay.

This world of water and clay is the Muslim’s quarry,

would you advise a falcon to give up its prey?

I am unable to understand

why a falcon¹¹ should flee from the skies.

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Alas! for a falcon that does not follow its nature,

that recoils from inflicting pain on little birds,

that remains confined to its nest, afflicted and depressed,

and does not wing the azure expanse of the skies.

The Qur’anic Faqr is a critical examination of Existence:

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it is not mere rebeck-playing, intoxication, dancing and singing.

What is a believer’s Faqr? It is conquering of dimensions,

the slave acquires attributes of the Lord¹² through it.

The Faqr of an unbeliever is flight to the wilderness,¹³

the Faqr of a believer makes land and sea tremble

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life for the former is solitude in caves and mountains,¹⁴

life for the latter flows from a glorious death;

the former is seeking God through renunciation of flesh,

the latter is whetting one’s khudi on the stone of God,

the former is killing and burning out of khudi,

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the latter is to illumine the khudi like a lamp.

When Faqr becomes naked under the Sun,

the Sun and the Moon tremble through its fear.

Naked Faqr is the warmth of Badr and Hunain,¹⁵

it is the sound of Husain’s takbir.¹⁶

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When Faqr lost its zest for nakedness,

the Muslims lost their might (jalal).

Alas! for us and for this ancient world!

neither you nor I possess the sword of negation.

O young man, free your heart of the other-than-God,

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and barter away this ancient world.

How long can you live careless of the plight of your faith?

O Muslim, this kind of life is as good as death.

The man of faith renews himself;

he does not look at himself except in the light of God;¹⁷

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he measures himself by the standard set by Mustafa,

and thus succeeds in creating a new world.¹⁸

Woe to a nation that has fallen so low

that it gives birth to kings and lords but not to a single dervish.

Do not ask me to tell you its story, for how

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can I describe what is indescribable?

Tears choke my throat;

it is better if this commotion remains within the heart.

The Muslim of this land has lost all hope in himself,

for a long time he has not seen a true man of God,

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hence he has grown sceptical about the strength of his faith,

and has started waylaying his own caravan.

For three centuries the Ummah has been wretched and helpless,

it lives on without an inner (spiritual) fire and ecstasy.¹⁹

Lowly in thought, mean of nature, vulgar in taste,

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its teachers and religious preceptors are devoid of fervour;

its low thoughts have made it wretched,

and lack of unity has made it sick of itself.

As he (the Muslim) is not aware of his true station,²⁰

the zeal for revolution has died in his heart.

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For lack of contact with a man of knowledge, he has become

feeble and dejected, and incapable of accepting truth.

He is a slave who has been rejected by his Lord,

who has grown poor, indigent and absolutely careless.

He has no wealth which may be snatched away by a king,

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nor has he any (spiritual) light that may be taken away by a Satan.²¹

His religious leader is a disciple of the Frankish lord,

though he boasts of the station of Bayazid.²²

He says: Bondage gives splendour to religion,

and life consists in being devoid of khudi.

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He looked upon the enemy’s political control as a mercy;

danced in adoration round the Church and died.²³

O you who are devoid of spiritual zest and anguish,

do you know what this age of ours has done to us ?²⁴

This age has estranged us from ourselves

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and cut us asunder from the beauty of Mustafa.²⁵

Since love for Mustafa departed from the breast,

the mirror lost its natural lustre.

You did not understand the real character of this age,

and have lost the wager in the very first move.

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Since your mind got involved in its vortex,

no live desire appeared in your heart.

Subject yourself to examination and do not forget yourself;

be forgetful of the other-than-yourself for a while.²⁶

Why do you give in to fear, doubt and melancholy?

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Realise your position in this. country.

This garden (country) has many tall trees,

therefore do not make your nest on a low branch.

O man unaware of yourself you have a song in your throat,

recognise your true stock and do not fly with crows.²⁷

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Give yourself the keenness of a sword,

and then hand yourself over to Destiny.

You have within you an irresistible storm,

before which a lofty mountain is but straw.

The grandeur of the storm lies in restlessness;

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for it to rest for a moment is to die.

I am neither a theologian nor a jurist with an analytical mind,

nor am I acquainted with the intricacies of Faqr.

For all my keen insight into the ways of faith, I am slow-footed ;²⁸

all my work is incomplete and what to me

appears mature is unripe,

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but God has given me a heart full of living passion

and thus enabled me to unravel one knot out of a hundred.

“Take your share of my fire and ardour,

there may not come after me as a faqir like me.”