In addition to Ibn ‘Arabi’s famous poem (see this post), the “religion of love,” the root of all religion and worship beyond all distinctions and differentiations, plays an important role in other Sufi poetry, especially that of Rumi, Hafez, and Ibn al-Fariḍ:

Rumi

ملت عشق از همه دین‌ها جداست

 عاشقان را ملت و مذهب خداست

The sect of Love is different from all other religions

 For lovers, their sect and religion is simply God

 

طریق عشق ز هفتاد و دو برون باشد

چو عشق و مذهب تو خدعه و ریاست بخسب

The way of love is outside of the seventy-two sects

Go to sleep, for your love and religion are deceit and conceit

 

 

خرد نداند و حیران شود ز مذهب عشق

اگر چه واقف باشد ز جمله مذهب‌ها

Wisdom is bewildered by the religion of love

Although it knows all other religions

 

بسگل ز جز این عشق اگر در یتیمی

زیرا که جز این عشق تو را خویش و پدر نیست

Leave all that is other than this love, if you are an orphaned pearl

For apart from this love, you have neither family nor father

In the religion of lovers, whosoever’s suffering does not make him better

He is possessed of the sickness of death

 

تا شب میگو که روز ما را شب نیست

در مذهب عشق و عشق را مذهب نیست

عشق آن بحریست کش کران ولب نیست

بس غرقه شوند و ناله و یارب نیست

Until night, say that there is no night for our day

In religion, there is no Love, and Love has no religion

Love is that ocean without boundary or shore

Where lovers drown without sigh or cry

در راه طلب عاقل و دیوانه یکیست

در شیوهٔ عشق خویش و بیگانه یکیست

In loving you there are certainly no Muslims

In the religion of Love, there is no infidelity or disbelief

In Love, there is neither body nor reason nor heart nor soul

Everyone who does this is not separate from that

 

در عشق موافقت بود چون جانی

در مذهب هر ظریف معنی دانی

 

In love there is harmony because you become pure spirit

you will know the essence of the religion of each subtle one

If one of the 32 teeth grows large

from that tooth, you will become toothless

با دو عالم عشق را بیگانگی

اندرو هفتاد و دو دیوانگی

سخت پنهانست و پیدا حیرتش

جان سلطانان جان در حسرتش

غیر هفتاد و دو ملت کیش او

تخت شاهان تخته‌بندی پیش او

 

Love is a stranger to the two worlds: in it are seventy-two madnesses.

It is hidden; only its bewilderment is manifest:

The soul of the spiritual sultan longs for it.

Love’s religion is other than the seventy-two sects:

Beside it the throne of kings is just a floorboard.

 

unverified “Rumi”

 

I was unable to find Persian poems attributed to Rumi that correspond to these English verses that have been attributed to him.  If these are indeed translations and you know the original from which they are derived please let me know in the comments section.  In any event, I am sure Malwana wouldn’t object to these verses, even if they never came from his pen.

 

“I belong to no religion.

My religion is Love.

Every heart is My temple”

 

Whatever you think of War, I am far, far from it

Whatever you think of Love, I am that, only that, all that

Like a compass I stand firm with one leg on my faith

And, with the other leg, roam all over the seventy-two nations

The Seventy-Two nations learn their secrets from us:

We are the reed-flute whose song unites all nations and faiths

In all mosques, temples, and churches, I find one shrine alone

 

I profess the religion of love,

Love is my religion and my faith.

My mother is love, My father is love

My prophet is love My God is love

I am a child of love

I have come only to speak of love

 

Ibn al-Fāriḍ

The sights do not swerve in any faith

nor do the thoughts stray in any sect.

 

وما زاغت الأبصار من كل ملة
وما زاغت الأفكار في كل نحلة

 

Every part of me kissed her veil

With every mouth whose touch held every kiss

If she dissolved my body, she would see in every atom

each and every heart filled with each and every love

 

ويلثم مني كلّ جزء لثامها

بكلّ فم فى لثمه كلّ قبلة

فلو بسطت جسمي رأت كلّ جوهر

به كلّ قلب فيه كلّ محبة

 

As for my way in love, I have no way

If I turn from it (Love) for a day, then I have left my religion

And if I think of other than you, even momentarily

I would consider it as my apostasy

 

عن مذهبي في الحب ما لي مذهب

وإن ملت عنه يوما فارقت ملتي

وإن خطرت لي في سواك ارادة

سهوا على خاطري قضيت بردتي

 

And part of my way is love of lands for the sake of their people

and people, in what they love, have many ways

-Abu Firas Hamadani

 

و منْ مذهبي حبُّ الديارِ لأهلها                      وَللنّاسِ فِيمَا يَعْشَقُونَ مَذَاهِبُ

لابو فراس الحمداني-

 

 

He saw the lightning in the East and longed for the East,
but if it had flashed in the West he would have longed for the West.
My desire is for the lightning and its gleam, not for places and  earth.

–Ibn ‘Arabi

 

رأى البرْقَ شرقيّاً، فحنّ إلى الشرْقِ،       ولو لاحَ غربيَّاً لحنَّ إلى الغربِ
فإنّ غَرامي بالبُرَيْقِ ولمحِهِ        وليسَ غرَامي بالأماكِنِ والتُّرْبِ

 

لابن عربي

 

 

Ḥallāj

  تَفَكَّرتُ في الأَديانِ جِدّ مُحَقّق          فَأَلفَيتُها أَصلاً لَهُ شَعبٌ جَمّا

فَلا تَطلُبَن لِلمَرءِ ديناً فَإِنَّهُ          يَصُدُّ عَنِ الأَصلِ الوَثيقِ وَإِنَّما

يُطالِبُهُ أَصلٌ يُعَبِّرُ عِندَهُ         جَميعَ المَعالي وَالمَعاني فَيَفهَما

Earnest for truth, I thought on the religions:

They are, I found, one root with many a branch.

Therefore impose on no man a religion,

Lest it should bar him from the firm-set root.

Let the root claim him, a root wherein all heights

And meanings are made clear, for him to grasp.

 

Diwan al-Hallaj, trans. Martin Lings, Sufi Poems, p. 34.

Hafez

همه كس طالب يارند چه هشيار و چه مست

همه جا خانه عشق است چه مسجد چه كنشت

Everyone, sober or drunk, seeks the beloved.

Every place, be it mosque or synagogue, is the house of love

در عشق خانقاه و خرابات فرق نيست

هر جا كه هست پرتو روى حبيب هست

In love, there is no difference between the monastery and the tavern

the rays of the beloved’s face shine every where that is

 

سراسر بخشش جانان طریق لطف و احسان بود

اگر تسبیح می‌فرمود اگر زنار می‌آورد

Whatever the beloved bestowed was all through grace and kindness

Whether praying with a tasbih or putting on a Christian belt

 

خمِ زلفِ تو دامِ کفر و دین است

ز کارستان او یک شمه این‌است

The curve of your tress is the snare of belief and unbelief.

This is only a small part of its gallery of works

بجز ابروی تو محراب دل حافظ نیست

 طاعت غیر تو در مذهب ما نتوان كرد

Except for your eyebrow, Hafez’s heart has no mihrab

No one but you can be worshipped in our religion

 

در صومعه زاهد و در خلوت صوفی

جز گوشه ابروی تو محراب دعا نیست

In the ascetic’s monastery and the Sufi’s khalwah (retreat)

There is no mihrab (prayer niche) save the curve of your brow

 

گر پیر مغان مرشد من شد چه تفاوت

در هیچ سری نیست که سری ز خدا نیست

If the Magian Pir became my master, what difference would it make?

There is no head that is without a divine secret

 

روشن از پرتو رويست نظرى نيست كه نيست

منت خاك درت بر بصرى نيست كه نيست

There is no vision unillumined with the light of your face

There is no eye unindebted to the dust of your door

 

ناظر روی تو صاحب نظرانند آری
سر گیسوی تو در هیچ سری نیست که نیست

Those who see your face are the seers of truth

There is no head that does not have the secret of your tress

 

  در طريقت هرخه پيش سالك آيد خير اوست

بر صراط مشتقيم ايدل كسى گمراه نيست

In the Way, whatever befalls the traveler is for his own good

No one loses his way on a straight path, my dear

 

هر که خواهد گو بیا و هر چه خواهد گو بگو
کبر و ناز و حاجب و دربان بدین درگاه نیست

Whoever wants to enter, let him do so and say what he may

In this court, there is neither conceit nor vanity, nor spokesman nor guard

مردم دیده ما جز به رخت ناظر نیست
دل سرگشته ما غیر تو را ذاکر نیست

The pupil of my eye sees naught but your face

My bewildered heart recalls none but you

 

فکر خود و رای خود در عالم رندی نیست

کفر است در این مذهب خودبینی و خودرایی

In the gangster’s world there is no thought or opinion of self

In this religion, seeing or thinking of yourself is infidelity

روی تو کس ندید و هزارت رقیب هست
در غنچه‌ای هنوز و صدت عندلیب هست

No one has seen your face, and yet a thousand rivals hound you

You are still a bud, and yet a hundred deer surround you

یا رب به که شاید گفت این نکته که در عالم

O Lord, to whom should I explain this fine point

That beauty who is everywhere, showed her face to no one

 

معشوقه چون نقاب ز رخ بر نمى كشد 

هر كسى حكايتى به تصوّر چرا كنند

Since the beloved does not remove the veil from her face

Why does everyone make up a story from his imagination?

ترا خنانكه توئى هر نظر كجا بيند

به قدر بينش خود هر كسى كند ادراك

How can every eye see you as you are?

Each perceives only to the extent of his vision

ميدمد هر كسش افسونى و معلوم نشد

كه دل نازك او مايل افسانه كيست

Everyone tells her a tale, but no one knows

Whose tale her tender heart appreciates

هر كسى با شمع ر خسارت به وجهى عشق باخت

زان ميان پروانه را در اضطراب اندختى

Each person made love to the candle of your face in a different way

But it was only the moth that made you shake

Shabistari

مسلمان گر بدانستی که بت چیست

If a muslim but knew what an idol is,

he would know that all religion is idolatry

حنیفی شو ز هر قید و مذاهب

 درآ در دیر دین مانند راهب

تو را تا در نظر اغیار و غیر است

اگردر مسجدی آن عین دیر است

چو برخیزد ز پیشت کسوت غیر

شود بهر تو مسجد صورت دیر

 

Become primordial, from each restriction and every sect

and come to the monastery of the religion, like the monk

So long as others and otherness appear in your sight

Even if you are in a mosque, it is the same as monastery

When the veil of otherness is removed from you

The monastery’s form becomes a mosque for you

 

من و تو در میان مانند برزخ

چو برخیزد تو را این پرده از پیش

نماند نیز حکم مذهب و کیش

همه حکم شریعت از من توست

که این بربستهٔ جان و تن توست

من تو چون نماند در میانه

چه کعبه چه کنشت چه دیرخانه

I and You are the barzakh between them

When this veil is lifted up from before you

There remains not the bond of sects and creeds

All the rules of Shari’ah are from your ego

since it is bound to your soul and body

When I and You remain not in the midst

What is Ka’aba, what is synagogue, what is monastery?

 

trans. Whinfield. The Mystic Rose-Garden of Sa’ad ud-din Mahmud Shabistari. 1880