Book | Yaqoubi: In the Shade of the Levant – في ظلال الشام

"In the Shade of the Levant” is a collection of thirty-one poems dedicated to Syria and the Syrian people. They were written over the span of thirty-five years between 1980-2015. As a Syrian living in Syria and then having to leave Syria, Shaykh Muhammad Al-Yaqoubi describes his country, how it was and how it is, making his words a vessel not only to his own feelings, but to the feelings of the Syrian people and their on-going suffering under the Assad regime for forty years. The poems of “In the Shade of the Levant” present a series of unique and original sketches that trace the illuminated and radiant past of Syria and its capital Damascus through to the present state of discord in sharp contrast as witnessed and experienced in the author’s own lifetime.

Shaykh Muhammad Al-Yaqoubi is a Syrian scholar raised in one of the foremost households of knowledge, piety, and poetic brilliance in the historic city of Damascus. In each poem, he transports the reader through the passage of time in words, describing, praising and eulogizing the virtues and glories of the Syrian people to the level that stirs yearning for it in its most critical period. "In the Shade of the Levant" is guaranteed to enchant the reader and mesmerize his or her mind. It will bring Syria to you, making you feel its cool breeze from the old spring days and the pain its people endure today.

Sacred Knowledge

ISBN: 1908224142 | 978-1908224149

Poem: A Greeting to -Sham – Salamun li Sham – سلام للشام
From Fi Zhilal al-Sham by His Eminence Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi
With English translation by the author PDF | Selection | Info
Poetical meter: من مجزوء الوافر

1- A greeting of Friendliness and love
A greeting of yearning to the companions

2- A greeting from a passionate in affection
A greeting that tells of love

3- A greeting to the frequent visitor
that says, ‘welcome to your family’

4- A greeting from the East and the West
A greeting from Arabs and non-Arabs

5- A greeting that lifts hardships
A greeting from the darkness of the unseen

6- A greeting of the great opening and the Divine giving
A greeting of good ends from Allah

7- A greeting that floods with love
A greeting that has no room for contamination

8- A greeting of easiness and fertility
A greeting of rain and the fall of rain

9- A greeting geniality to the friends of drink
– A greeting of pleasure to peers

10- A greeting from the sanctuary of the heart
A greeting from the peaks of the comets

11- A greeting to you, O, the beloved of the heart
A greeting to you, O, the taker of the intellect

12- A greeting from Allah to you, my friend
A greeting that comes from the sublimity of the Lord

13- A greeting of cure and medicine
which is the greeting of my Beloved, the Elect

14- A greeting to you, singer of the convoy
You took my heart by your delicious sweet voice

15- A greeting to you, my companion, continue driving the convoy
And if you could, start even jumping

16- Speed up and drive fast
And traverse if you could all obstacles

17- Because the heart is melting
and the tears of the eyes are shedding

18- For a beloved who is from my loins
Who left me against his will

19- He is noble, guarded from defects
A Sherif without any doubt

20- How many a plights I went through!
And how much yearning to him I have suffered from!

21- Had it not been for having pleasure in books
And in the Remembrance of Allah in my heart

22- And for a wife who is standing by my side
And for friends around me

23- I would have not been holding together in my clothes
Nor would I have not needed to dye my hair

24- If, on my way, I miss to meet him
And do not see him till after 80 years

25- when my death would be imminent
Allah, His Lord, would suffice for me.

26, May Allah protect him in his youth
In his middle age and in his old years

27- in his earnest and playful states
And in his words from foulness

28- from evil and calamities
during war and peace

29- May He grow on defending
Islam, like the Qutb

30- In desire of Acts of obedience
and fear of disobedience

31- Strong, reaching the highest ranks
over all compeers and mates

32- May He grant him without any efforts
The knowledge of the gentle masters

33- May He accord him, without him boasting,
Authority to control the easy and the tough

34- I crossed the earth in travels
and cruised it offering my heart some solace

35- from a mount to a hill
and from a valley to a mountain pass

36- I have not found anything that quenches my thirst
Except drinking from the leftover

37- of the sweet good water
In the green valley of Shām

38- There, I got rid of my hunger
There also my affairs were made perfect

39- To it, I am always nostalgic
And in it, my desire has always been

40- A greeting to it from a passionate lover
While she is being usurped

41- A greeting to you, O, my beloved
A greeting that comes from a moist mouth

42- A greeting of forgiveness of the sins
A greeting of pardoning and repentance

43- A greeting without rebuke
A greeting that is not mixed

44- A greeting that put us together in one way
A greetings of return and go-back

45- A greeting to you whether I am close or far
A greeting that comes from the soul and the heart.

Ref: facebook.com/ShaykhFaisalPage 4 December 2015