Top 15 Fakhr-al-Din Iraqi Quotes

Each image painted
on the canvas of existence
is the form
of the artist himself.
Eternal Ocean
spews forth new waves.
„Waves“ we call them;
but there is only the Sea.

(p. 77)

Love the phoenix cannot be trapped
nor in heaven or earth can it be named;

no one has yet discovered its address:
its desert holds not a single footprint.

The world drains the last drops from its cup
though itself it is not outside the glass;

dawn and dusk I caress its face, its tresses,
though where it is no day or night exists.

Morning-breeze, if you pass its lane
I have no message for it but this:

My repose, who are my very life, without you
I can take no single breath at ease.

"If You are Everything
then who are all these people?
And if I am nothing
what's all this noise about?
You are Totality,
everything is You. Agreed.
Then that which is "other-than-You"-
what is it?
Oh, indeed I know:
Nothing exists but You
..."

Majnun may gaze at Layla‘s beauty, but this Layla is only a mirror […] God with Majnun‘s eye looks upon His own beauty in Layla, and through Majnun He loves Himself.

To the eye of the true Witness, no more than One is to be seen –
but since this One Face shows Itself in two mirrors,
each mirror will display a different face.
(p. 73)

The Sufi tradition is like a vast garden in which are cultivated many flowers of different scents and colors, each sweet and beautiful, each reflecting one aspect of the garden of paradise.

The world but seems to be yet is nothing more
than a line drawn between light and shadow.
Decipher the message of this dream-script
and learn to distinguish time from Eternity.

Love the phoenix cannot be trapped
nor in heaven or earth can it be named;
no one has yet discovered its address:
its desert holds not a single footprint.

The world has spilled Love's secret — when could music ever hold its tongue?
Every atom babbles the mystery — Listen yourself, for I'm no tattletale!

Love plays its lute behind the screen — where is a lover to listen to its tune?

Like the sun I brighten each atom's cheek;
I cannot be pinpointed: I am too manifest.
I speak with every tongue, listen with all ears,
but marvel at this: My ears and tongue are erased. Since in all the world only I exist
above and below, no likeness of me can be found.

I am Love: in heaven and earth I have no place; I am the Wondrous Phoenix whose spoor cannot be traced.

It speaks to me in the silence of this one
then through the words of that one speaking;
it whispers to me through an eyebrow raised
and the message of an eye winking.

Expressions are many but Thy loveliness is one;
Each of us refers
to that single Beauty.

The Beloved's Loveliness owns a hundred thousand faces; gaze upon a different fair one in every atom; for She needs must show
to every separate thing
a different aspect
of Her beauty.