Bio: Sh. `Abd al-Qadir al-Jaza’iri

(see below for continuation)

O Mas`ud! may fortune come, and goodness and ease,
may the armies of darkness turn back, no longer mentioned.
My nights are (nights of) obstruction, being cut off and estranged,
separated from the Masters – unnameable (is this) separation.
Days have become gloomy, and black
the nights; no stars are there to light it up, and no fullmoon.
My bed in (these nights) is filled of anxiety and emaciation,
the side gives me no pleasure in it, nor does the back.
All night I call, with a heart enthralled by love,
and passion burning for what the breast desires.
O my Master! The separation has been long, patience is broken,
O my Master! will there, after this night, be a daybreak?
Aid – o you who aid those who seek aid
– one who has lost his senses (because of love and grief),
stricken with harm, after his beloved ones (left).
I call to ask all creation: is there any announcer of news,
who can tell me about them, that the news may revive me?
Until the Sheikh’s aspiration called me from a distance
afar: O come near! I have a treasure for you!
So I tucked up the lose end of my izar, and was carried,
on wings of yearning, that will never break.
For the one who loves, Tihama is not far [],
ease does not divert him, nor does roughness (deter him) –
Until we made our camels kneel down in the Valley,
and I dismounted my saddle, and joy for it was complete.
A Valley in which the mighty House is the Qibla –
nothing except what’s beyond it can boast such greatness [].
A Valley in which lawful game is prohibited –
whoever makes it lawful, the load of his crime rests on him.
He came to me, who raises (adepts to the level of) gnostics,
and nothing was strange – every matter became clear [].
He said: “I have been, for so many hajj seasons
awaiting your meeting, o fullmoon!
You are my beloved son, since (Allah said) “Am I not your Lord?
truely, this hour is enclosed in the Tablet and the Scriptures.”
Your grandfather gave you a foot, in which for us is
your treasure – what a good a treasure!
Thus I kissed his feet and his carpet
and he said: “Good tidings to you, now fate is accomplished.”
And he cast over my brass his secret’s Elixir,
and to him was said: “This is an ore of pure gold”