(d. AD 1431; AH 834)
The Islamic scholar and Sufi poet Shah Nimatullah Wali, who was descended from the sixth Shiite Imam Ja’far al-Sadiq, was the founder and qutub (or master) of the Nimatullahi Sufi order.
He was born into a Sufi family in Aleppo, Syria, and travelled widely throughout the Muslim world studying the philosophies of many masters, including the writings of the great Sufi philosopher and mystic Mohyuddin Ibn ‘Arabi.
King and beggar are one, are one.
The hungry and sated are one, are one.
Sorrowful I am and drink the dregs.
The dregs, sorrow and cure, are one, are one.
There is none but One in this world.
Speak not of two, God is one, is One.
I have seen a thousand mirrors,
But the Beloved’s face is one, is one.
We are stricken by one who’s fair and tall,
But the stricken and the illness are one, are one.
A drop, the sea, the wave and the four elements
Are without doubt in our sight but One, but One.
Nimatullah is one in the two worlds.
Seek him here, he’s one, he’s one.
The point appeared in the circle
And was not;
But it was the dot
That the circle begot.
The point appears
As a circle, as it revolves
In the eyes of him
Who a circle draws.
When the point
Completed the circle
Its beginning and end
Were one.
When the compass
Did the circle complete
It was wrapped up
And rested its feet.
Without existence
Not-being are we;
We who are Not
And You existence free.
I said the whole world was His dream;
Then I saw His dream was He.
Sweeter than the words of our guide,
Nimatullah knows no other words!
The named is One, and has a hundred thousand names.
The Being one, and appears in a hundred thousand forms.
His appearance is the cup, its meaning the wine;
Though in my eyes they’re one and the same.
Without His Being the Universe is non-existent,
But of His Being and gift the world is a symbol.
The world is because of His universal Being;
Whatever you see is His Blessing and Grace.
He is Eternal, we are not.
Let us lose ourselves in Him.
The world is veiled from itself,
Nay the world itself is a veil.
This veil is for ever, O my soul.
O Friend of God, O proof of mine,
I have related the state of this world to you
So that you can know the world, and so farewell!