(AD 1048–1141; AH 439–535)
The Sufi writer and poet Ahmad Jam was born in Namagh, a village in Kashmar, Iran. He is better known as Sheikh Ahmad-e Jami or Shaykh-e Jam or simply Ahmad-e Jam. His Mazar or tomb is located in Torbat-e Jam, Afghanistan.
Ahmad Jam is revered as a saint. His books on theology include Meftah al Najat (The Key of Redemption), Konuz al Hekma (The Treasure of Wisdom) and Seraj al Saerin (The Lamp of Pilgrims).
Each who has seen Your beauty fine
Utters honestly, ‘I have seen the Divine.’
Everywhere Your lovers wait for grace,
Remove Your veil, reveal Your face!
I am in the ocean and an ocean is in me;
This is the experience of one who can see.
He that leaps into the river of Unity,
He speaks of union with his Beloved’s beauty.
Whatever I see, I see the Beloved’s beauty;
Wherever I look I see His creation.
Wherever I look, I see Goodness;
Whatever is beautiful is the Beloved’s beauty.
Every form that is beautiful in the world
Is only a sign to the Beloved’s beauty.
How can you reach Ahmad’s madness, O wise?
His Beloved’s in the same state, and that is right.
Drunk with Love day and night,
Evermore, the intoxicant heals.
Though pure wine was not my lot,
I drink the dregs each day and night.
He who sees the Beloved’s face
Is sure to see it day and night.
The fire of love is lit in me;
I am the flame and the light,
Each day and night.
So I can beg at my Beloved’s door,
I search the world each day and night.
The destination of Love is something else;
The sign of the wise man is something else.
In the street where Love is bartered,
Under the gallows, waits the lover.
Those slain by the sword of acceptance
Are given a new life at every moment.
Though I am a sinner impure,
Of Thy mercy I am sure.
I am maligned and taunted in the street
And covered with the dust of sin;
Broken-hearted and discarded
And a thorn in the eye of humanity.
I am one lost in the way of Love
And am one whose deeds are poor.
Cast Thy healing glance on me,
For Thy grace I yearn,
And of Thy mercy I am sure.