Today's Beautiful Gem: `Interpreter of Desires'
by Muhyyuddin Mohammed Ibn al-'Arabi.

"Within my heart, all forms may find a place,
The cloisters of the monk, the idol's fane,
A pasture for gazelles, the Sacred House
Of God, to which all Muslims turn their face:
The Tables of the Jewish Law, The Word
Of God, revealed unto His Prophet true.
Love is the faith I hold, and whereso'er
His camels turn, the one true faith is there."

Elsewhere he wrote:

"All beings belong to God's family,
Men accuse each other of idolatry and heresy,
Because they stop at the skin
And form their inadequate conceptions.
They imagine God in different ways,
But God has all forms and He has no form;
He is in reality beyond form.
Men conceived diverse credos of God,
But I, I have at the one time all the credos."

Note: Ibn al-'Arabi (1165-1240) was born in Spain and resided
in Seville. He travelled widely in Iraq, Asia Minor and eventually
died in Damascus. Many theologians of his time were shocked
by his rapturous discussions of the incarnation of God in man, and
the identification of man with God. He wrote: "It is through man
that God knows Himself and makes Himself known. Man is the eye
of the world by which God contemplates His creation." The first
verse was translated by Margaret Smith and the second one probably
by Najib Ullah.

Om s'aantih: Peace! - J. K. Mohana Rao

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