Arabian Love Poems's topics - tribe.net

There is no end of speaking about Love...

2008-07-19T02:24:20Z

Whenever Beauty looks,
Love is also there;
Whenever beauty shows a rosy cheek
Love lights Her fire from that flame.
When beauty dwells in the dark folds of night
Love comes and finds a heart
entangled in tresses.
Beauty and Love are as body and soul.
Beauty is the mine, Love is the diamond.

I swear, since seeing Your face,
the whole world is fraud and fantasy
The garden is bewildered as to what is leaf
or blossom. The distracted birds
can't distinguish the birdseed from the snare.

A house of love with no limits,
a presence more beautiful than venus or the moon,
a beauty whose image fills the mirror of the heart.

~Rumi~

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 6 replies

one thread has been deleted

2008-07-16T00:13:50Z

Friends,
I felt it better to delete that recent thread titled "For Astrid" after I was told that our tribe "could use a little drama". I had been pondering this move before already. Now our dear friend Andrew is gone too, and the idea is to get back to just enjoyiing Arabian love poems and things related to this culture. ; ) Feel free to mail me for questions if you have any.

Astrid

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 0 replies

Ben seni severim/Si verias a la rana (a discovery)

2008-07-08T19:36:37Z

I marked a song on my Sephardic album because it had a bellydance rhythm, and now I discovered that it is the renaissance age version of the Turkish hit "Ben seni severim, cok seni severim" (I love you, I love you so much) !!

Here are the old Spanish lyrics I dug up:

Ben seni severim
Çok seni severim

Si veriyaş a la rana
Asentada en la oryana
Friendo sus buenas fritas
Espartiendo a sus ermanikas

Si veriyaş al raton
Asentada en el kanton
Mundando sus muezizikas
Espartiendo a sus ermanikas

Si veriyaş al gameyo
Asentada en el tablero
Mudando sus buenas filas
Mas delgadas ke sus kaveyos

(I will try to translate this later, the first two lines are in Turkish, the rest is in Spanish! Maybe somebody can help, this would be faster?)

and here is the Turkish version:

Ben seni severim
Çok seni severim
Ben seni severim
Çok seni severim
Bayılırım sarışına
Gözü üstümde olsa da
Ama hepsi gibi o da
Kanar böyle boş yalanlara

Bayılırım esmerlere
Öyle hemen aldanmaz
Uğraştırır gece gündüz
Dilim yine yalan söyler
Bayılırım güzellere
İçim gider benim hepsine
Zaman olur yakalanırım
Yalan koşar imdadıma

here is one of the classic versions (from a Sephardic Valentine's day concert)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoGDYqzAyhg

here is the Turkish hit that I got on a CD from Ahmet Luleci for dancing once:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nupegwdvu1U&feature=related

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 4 replies

About the sky

2008-07-07T21:35:01Z

My lover asks me:
"What is the difference between me and the sky?"
The difference, my love,
Is that when you laugh,
I forget about the sky.

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 7 replies

To a Persian Reed Blown About by the Wind

2008-07-02T21:02:06Z

Look at the reed
rocked by the wind
bending over our wine cups.

Was the dew she drank
not enough,
and she must now
wave her plumes about
in search of wine?

The way she moves
her slender waist
pleases the eyes
and the soul.

Let's give her a drink
from our glasses.
Since she is tipsy,
we can forgive her
for kissing us on the head.

Abu l-Hajjaj ibn 'Utba
(13th century) Sevilla

Arab Andalusian poem

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 4 replies

Undress yourself

2008-07-02T20:04:59Z

Undress yourself
For centuries
There have been no miracles.
Undress yourself,
I am mute,
And your body knows all languages.

Nizar

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 5 replies

Night of Love (from Arab Andalusia)

2008-07-02T07:51:10Z

a poem by Ibn safr al-Marini (around 12th century)

Night of Love

When the sun bowed low
before leaving us
I made her promise to visit me
like another sun
the moment the moon
started its nocturnal voyage.

And she came like bright dawn
opening a path through the night
or like the wind
skimming the face of the river.

The horizon all around me
breathed out perfume
announcing her arrival
as the fragrance precedes a flower.

I went over the traces
of her steps with my kisses
as the reader goes over
the letters of a line.

While night slept
love was kept awake
by her reed waist, dune hips
and face beautiful as the moon.

Part of the night I spent
embracing her
and part kissing her
until the banner of dawn
summoned us to leave
and our circle of embraces was broken.

Oh fateful night!
Hold back the hour of sundering!

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 10 replies

Cup and Rose

2008-06-30T20:55:11Z

Did I post this yet? Maybe I did. But it happened again...

I went to the coffeehouse
intending to forget
our lov and bury
my sorrows, but
you emerged
from the bottom of my
coffee cup,
a white rose.

by Nizar

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 6 replies

Dance on an Oriental carpet...

2008-06-03T15:55:17Z

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UgcQnkxxDQ

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 2 replies

Puncha, puncha la rosa huele (another Sephardic love song, in Spanish and English)

2008-06-03T15:25:21Z

Puncha, puncha la rosa huele
que el amor muncho duele.
Tu no nacites para mi:
presto alexate de mi.

Acodrate d'aquella hora
que yo te bezava la boca.
Aquella hora ya paso,
dolor quedo al coracon.

Montanas altas y mares hondas,
llevame onde 'l mi querido
llevame onde 'l mi amor,
el que me de consolacion.

Si otra vez me queres ver,
sale afuera te havlare.
Echa los ojos a la mar:
alli me puedes encontrar.

Pungent, pungent is the
rose's perfume
when love suffers great sorrow.
You were not born for me:
quickly, get away from me!

Do you remember the time
when I used to kiss your mouth?
That time has passed,
sorrow remains in my heart.

High mountains and deep seas,
lead me to my darling;
lead me to my beloved
who would console me.

If you wish to see me once more,
come outside to speak!
Cast your eyes at the sea:
There you will be able to find me.

see:
http://www.classicsonline.com/catalogue/product.aspx?pid=6188 for music samples and downloads

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 0 replies

dancing Arabic love songs

2008-05-28T15:52:24Z

This is me, a week after I discovered my love for the voice of Nour Mehana.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oweWJRUIHQ

Could someone please translate the lyrics of Aala Dameeti for me? My Arabic friend here listened to it when we shared my i-pod, and when I asked him what it is about, he smiled, pretended to wipe a tear from his eye, and said:"It means something like 'I loved you and you broke everything'." I did not know that when I danced, just picked up on the deep feeling in the song. Aziza wrote me some great comments on my profile.

And here is the drum solo following and another Mehana song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCT7Jrh7S8o&feature=related

What is this song about, Wadeeni ya Leyl?

your not very humble moderator, keeping you guys entertained in here, I hope. ; )
Astrid

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 9 replies

The Sensation

2008-05-26T20:35:01Z

Hear, hear!

Seeing you;
The sensation

Touching,
Gently,
Those shoulders,
The tentative fetish creation

Smelling you
The aroma of your passion fruit
And its secret taste of the creation

Whispering you
The hush-hush song of
Attraction and devastation

Love&respect
Shervin

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 0 replies

"A fire moth am I"/ Pervane- a Kurdish love song!

2008-05-19T15:38:02Z

10. Pervane

Pervaneyim Pervane
Ahuzar oldum ateşe
Perim deydim tenine
Yandım kavruldum

Döndüm döndüm
Nice döndüm
Ahuzar oldum da döndüm

Aramam derman derdine
Görünmez yüküm gözünde
Perim değince tenine
Oynar yüreğim içinde
Oynar direğim içinde

Pervaneyim pervane
Gözlerim hep tanyerinde
Kızıla dönsün artık küreyi Alem
Kızıla dönsün karanlık gece
Yansın yansın da kavrulsun
Çıranın içine dönsün

Aramam derman derdine
Görünmez yüküm gözünde
Perim değince tenine
Oynar yüreğim içinde
Oynar direğim içinde

Söz Müzik: Mikail Aslan
Solist 1: Ahmet Aslan
Solist 2: Cemil Koçgün

Fire Moth

A fire moth I am,
Mad for fire
Touching your flesh, my fairy
I have been burned and scorched

Turned and turned,
Turned long,
Madly turned.

I do not seek a cure for your sorrow
I am no burden to you
When I touch your flesh, my fairy
My heart shakes inside
I am all shaken inside

A fire moth I am
My eyes on the daybreak all the time
Let the sphere just turn into red
Let turn into red, the dark night
Let it burn and burn
Turn into the core of fire

I do not seek a cure for your sorrow
I am no burden to you
When I touch your flesh, my fairy
My heart shakes inside
I am all shaken inside

Lyrics + Music: Mikail Aslan
Singer : Ahmet Aslan
Solist 2: Cemil Koçgün

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJEB8MXLUls

or the same song, sung by a woman, Aynur:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14IwkNB3tLs&feature=related

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 1 reply

I am missing you in silence (So furious about this) /Susarak Özlüzorum (Işte buna bıçak çekiyorum); Kurdish

2008-05-19T14:55:00Z

The rain is falling in front of my window and my mind is far away in Kurdistan...

Susarak Özlüyorum (Işte buna bıçak çekiyorum)

Sözcüklerim varmıyor uzaklarına
Birer birer düşüyor bütün öpmelerim
Ağır yenilgiler alarak …

Adresinde yokluğunu kıyamet bilerek
Sadece susarak özlüyorum seni

Hiç tanımadan, ne garip …

Sadece susarak özlüyorum seni
Hiç tanımadan, ne garip
Sense uzak, çok uzakta
Bir deniz gibisin resimlerde

Dokunsan Dersim olur, göçerim mecburen
Duydum çok sonradan, adın önemli değil
Acın aynı tadı veriyor …

Adresinde yokluğunu kıyamet bilerek
Sadece susarak özlüyorum seni
Hiç tanımadan, ne garip …

Işte buna bıçak çekiyorum
Şimdi adı yok, hiç bir sevgilinin
Zaman zaman değil şimdi
Yalnız benmiyim bu ahir zamanda
Derviş mekanına aşk ile cağıran
Bu ahir zamanda …

Şiir: Fadıl Öztürk
Söz Uyarlama: Ahmet Aslan
Müzik: Ahmet Aslan
Solist 1 2: Ahmet Aslan

I am Missing You in Silence (So Furious About This)

My words cannot surpass the distance between you and me
All my kisses fall down, one by one
Harshly defeated...

Doomed by your absence at your address,
I am missing you just by my silence,
Unacquaintedly, how strange...
Just by my silence, I am missing you
And you so far away
Like a sea in a picture...

If you happen to touch, I will be Dersim and bound to depart.
Much later I have heard, your name does not matter,
This sorrow gives the same taste...

Doomed by your absence at your address,
I am missing you just by my silence,
Unacquaintedly, how strange...

I am so furious about this
Now, no name of any lover, present
Time now is not time.
Am I the only one in this end time
Who calls with love to this Dervish place?

In this end time...

Poem by: Fadil Ozturk
Lyrics: Ahmet Aslan
Music: Ahmet Aslan
Singer: 1 + 2 Ahmet Aslan
Vocal: Ahmet Aslan

listen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hHJuDfkqLk

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 1 reply

A Letter From A Stupid Woman

2008-05-12T09:31:34Z

The poem that i am about to share with you is not a love peom in the typical sense, well not in the way i see it, but i belive that Nizzar's love, and respect, and sympathy for Arabic Women drove him to risk alot of critisism from his contempories, in writting the following poem.

A LETTER FROM A STUPID WOMAN
( a letter to a man)

My dear Master,
This is a letter from a stupid woman
Has a woman before me written to you?
My name? Lets put names aside
Rania, or Zaynab
or Hind, or Hayfa
The silliest things we carry my Master, are names

My Master:
I am frightened to tell you my thoughts
I am frightened if i did, that the heavens would burn
For your East, my dear Master.
Confiscates blue letters
Confiscates dreams from the treasure chests of women
Practices suppression upon the emotions of women
It uses Knifes...
and Cleavers...
to speak to women
and butchers spring and passions
and black plaits
And your East, dear master
Manufactures the delicate crown of the East
from the skulls of women

Don't criticize me, master
If my writting is poor
For i write and the sword is behind my door
And beyound the room is the sound of the wind, and howling dogs
My Master!
'Antar al Abys' is behind my door!
He will butcher me
If he saw my letter
He will cut off my head
If i spoke my torment
He will cut my head off
If he saw the sheerness of my clothes
For your East, my dear Master,
surrounds women with spears
And your east, my dear Master
elects the men to become the Prophets
and buries women in the dust.

Don't become annoyed!
My dear Master, from these lines
Dont become annoyed!
If i smash the complaints blocked for centuries
If i unsealed my consciousness
If i ran away.........
From the domes of the Harem in the castles
If i rebelled against my death......
against my grave, against my roots......
and the giant slaughter house.......
Don't become annoyed, my dear Master
If i revealed to you my feelings
For the Eastern man
Is not concerned with poetry, or feelings
The Eastern man-and forgive me for my insolence-does not understand women
but over the sheets

I am sorry my master, if i have insolently attacked the Kingdom of Men
for the great literature of course-
is the literature of men
And love has always been the allotment of men.....
And sex has always been a drug sold to men

A senile fairytale, the freedom of women in our countries
For there is no freedom,
Other than the freedom of men....

My Master
Say all you wish of me, It does not matter to me
Shallow...Stupid...Crazy....Simple minded.
It does not concern me anymore...
For whoever writes about her concerns
in the logic of Men is called
A Stupid Woman
and didn't i tell you in the beginning that i am a stupid woman?

Nizzar Qabbani
translated by Diaa Hadid

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 7 replies

About Sea Love

2008-05-10T21:50:38Z

I am your sea
Do not ask me
About the upcoming voyage.
All you need to do is
Forget your earthly instincts
Obey the law of the sea
Penetrate me like a mad fish,
Split the ship,
The horizon,
My life
Into pieces.

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 7 replies

Saeed en nas (Nour Mehanna lyrics)

2008-04-25T16:45:03Z

I am taking sort of an educated guess here. I have discovered a singer whose songs I absolutely love and they are so perfect for dancing Oriental style, each and every one of them that I have heard. He is also from Syria, his looks are nowhere as ravishing as Kazem's but his voice.... He used to be a Koran singer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AS-YPG-PW4

Nour Mehanna

Here are the lyrics for this song which I believe, is another love song. Would someone please be so kind to translate this one for us, I have been all over the internet and this is the only page I could find, all in Arabic script. Now, I am not intending to transform our tribe into another bellydance lyrics transation tribe, I am just trying to add another poem here...and would like to know if his words are as great as his voice. Help, please ! Thank you.

يا سيد الناس و سيد قلبي
سلمت خلاص لهواك قلبي
بالله عليك ترحمني عنيك و ابعتلي لو نظره يا سيدي
و انا دايب و بقلبي شاريك من يوم ما ايديك لمست ايدي
مشغول بهواك و منايا رضاك
و نهار و را ليسل و انا يستناك
لافي جمال زي جمالك ولا في الدلال زي دلالك
آه يا سيد الناس و سيد قلبي
سلمت خلاص لهواك قلبي
من شوقي بدوب ولا قادر اتوب
دا هواك غلاب و لا قادر وانا المغلوب
لافي جمال زي جمالك ولا في الدلال زي دلالك

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 6 replies

Love Compared

2008-04-24T21:18:27Z

I do not resemble your other lover's, my lady
Should another give you a cloud, i
will give you rain.
Should he give you a lantern, i
will give you the moon.
Should he give you a branch, i
will give you the trees
And if another gives you a ship
I shall give you the journey

By Nizar Qabbani

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 7 replies

On Entering the Sea

2008-04-23T16:13:27Z

Love happened at last,
And we entered God's paradise
Sliding
Under the skin of the water
Like Fish.
We saw the precious pearls of the sea
And were amazed.
Love at last
Without intimidation....with symmetry of wish,
So i gave....and you gave
And we were fair
It happened with marvelous ease
Like writing with jasmine water,
Like a spring flowing from the ground

BY Nizar Qabbani

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 3 replies

Dialogue

2008-04-22T14:36:44Z

Do not say my love was
a ring or a bracelet.
My love is a seige,
Is daring and headstrong.
Who, searching sail out to their death.
Do not say my love was
A moon
My love is a burst of sparks

By Nizar Qabbani

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 1 reply

Astrid

2008-04-20T07:41:30Z

if u ever need help with spanish translation - castellano - is my mother tongue so...here i am, whenever i have a bit of time, i'll do it!

xxxxxx

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 8 replies

My Love (do not ask me)

2008-04-19T14:13:13Z

Do not ask me, the name of my love
I fear for you, from the fragrance of perfume
contained in a bottle, if you smashed it,
drowning you , in spilled scent.

By God, if you even croaked a letter
Lilacs would pile up on the paths

Do not look for it here in my chest
I have let it to run with the sunset

You can see it in the laughter of the doves
In the flutter of the butterflies
In the ocean, in the breathing of the dales
and in the song of the nightingale
in the tears of winter, when winter cries
in the giving of a generous cloud

Do not ask me about his lips....as elegant as the sunset
And his eyes, ashone with purity
And his waist, the sway of a branch
Charms....which no book has contained
Nor described by a literates feather
And his chest, his throat, enough for you

I won't breathe his name, my lover

By Nizar Qabbani

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 6 replies

Hafiz strikes again

2008-04-18T17:17:56Z

Drops upon this surface push ripples out
Away from the thoughts that begin this all
Touching everything along their way and in their wake
Until repelled by a shore, left to rebound and return to an eventual outward calm.

Conflicts abound under a placid surface
Brought to bear by currents past
That are swirling beauty to and fro
winds of thought that deceive peace,
belaying that which can not last

And through it all, a leaf has lost it's limb
To wander aimlessly through the air
Coming to rest upon a placid surface
Beginning again a new without any cares

Until another drop descends from heavans above
To disturb the still surface of the pond
Drowning thoughts in chaos, a leaf keeps moving on. ~ Hafiz

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 1 reply

Akrahoha, Kathem al Saher

2008-04-18T12:34:32Z

Do we have this already? I have seen it around before but since I don't have the English, I can't really tell. I can only guess from all the rave reviews about the lyrics in the youtube comments. Can somebody please translate this for us?

Akrahoha: Akrahoha wa ashtahy wasalha
Wa inny ahib, ahib korhy laha
Waheb haazal loum fi ainiha
Wazouraha int zowart qowlaha, akrahoha
x2
Ainun, ka aeen ezzi'ib mahtala
taafat akaazeeb ulhawa howlaha
Qad sakan al junoon ahdaaqaha
Wa atfa'at thowrat'ha aqlaha
x2
Akrahoha wa ashtahy wasalha
Wa inny ahib, ahib korhy laha
Waheb haazal loum fi ainiha
Wazouraha int zowart qowlaha, akrahoha
Ashak fi shaky itha aqbalak
Baakiyat sharrihat thalaha
Fa'in tarafqat biha astakbarat
Wajararat daahaka thailaha
x2
An anqatny kasarat adlaai
Wa afraghat ala fimy ghallaha
x2
Yahebaha haqdy waya taalama
Wadidto in towaqtoha qatlaha
Akrahoha wa ashtahy wasalha
Wa inny ahib, ahib korhy laha
Waheb haazal loum fi ainiha
Wazouraha int zowart qowlaha, akrahoha

Arabic Text:
أكرهها وأشتهي وصلها
وإنني أحب , أحب كرهي لها
أحب هذا اللؤم في عينها
وزروها أنت زورت قولها , أكرهها
x2
عينٌ , كعين الذئب محتالة
طافت أكاذيب الهوى حولها
قد سكن الجنون أحداقها
وأطفأت ثورتها عقلها
x2
أكرهها وأشتهي وصلها
وإنني أحب , أحب كرهي لها
أحب هذا اللؤم في عينها
وزروها أنت زورت قولها , أكرهها
أشك في شكي إذا أقبلت
باكية , شارحة ذلها
فإن ترفــقــت بــهــا أستكبرت
وجررت ضاحــكة ذيلها
x2
أن عانقتني كسرت أضلعي
وأفرغت على فمي غــلــّها
x2
يحبها حقدي ويا طالما
وددت إن طــوقــتـها , قــتــلـهــا
أكرهها وأشتهي وصلها
وإنني أحب , أحب كرهي لها
أحب هذا اللؤم في عينها

here is the video- In Venice ! Bellissima Venezia, ti amo!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHbP8ENOJu0

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 3 replies

Qabbani with sound

2008-04-17T19:16:13Z

this is a clip from a movie that was made about Qabbani. The actor is not him but I think, he is playing the young Qabbani, and the woman in the audience must be his love. Maybe someone could tell us what he is reading?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztzdedDBuFs&feature=related

here is the same poem sung by Kazem al Saher. Now if Nizar was as ravishingly handsome as Kazer I would...; )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHbP8ENOJu0&feature=related

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 10 replies

Does Rumi count?

2008-04-17T14:06:14Z

I know he's persian but....

Only Breath
.
Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu,
Buddhist, sufi, or zen. Not any religion
or cultural system. I am not from the East
or the West, not out of the ocean or up
from the ground, not natural or ethereal,
not composed of elements at all. I do not exist,
am not an entity in this world or the next,
did not descend from Adam and Eve or any
origin story. My place is placeless, a trace
of the traceless. Neither body or soul.
I belong to the beloved, have seen the two
worlds as one and that one call to and know,
first, last, outer, inner, only that
breath breathing human being
- Rumi

And this one made me gasp, i just found it...

Love is reckless; not reason.
Reason seeks a profit.
Love comes on strong,
consuming herself, unabashed.

Yet, in the midst of suffering,
Love proceeds like a millstone,
hard surfaced and straightforward.

Having died of self-interest,
she risks everything and asks for nothing.
Love gambles away every gift God bestows.

Without cause God gave us Being;
without cause, give it back again.

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 11 replies

And I do not protest

2008-04-17T13:27:15Z

Why you?
Why you alone
of all women
change the geometry of my life
the rhythm of my days
steal, barefoot,
into the world of my everyday affairs
and lock the door behind you,
yet I do not protest?
Why is it
I love precisely you,
desire precisely you,
choose precisely you,
and let you twist me
round your little finger
singing
smoking
playing cards,
yet I do not protest?

Why?
Why do you strike out all the ages
stop the motions of the centuries
kill the women of the tribe
within me
one...by one
and I do not protest?

Why?
Why do I give you, of all women
the keys to my cities
that have never opened their gates
to any tyrant
have never raised their white flags
to any woman
and I ask my soliders
to welcome you with anthems,
with waving kerchiefs
and victory crowns
and, to the sound of music and bells ringing
I declare you
before my citizens
a Princess for life?

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 5 replies

I will tell you: I love you when...

2008-04-16T18:27:14Z

I will tell you: I love you
When all old love languages die
And nothing remains for lovers to say or to do
Then my task
To move the stones of this world
Will begin.

I will tell you: I love you
When I feel
That my words are worthy of you
And the distance between your eyes
And my notebooks disappears,
I will say it when I am able
To evoke my childhood,
My horses, my troops
And my cardboard boats
And able to regain
The blue time with you
Upon Beirut's shores
When you were tired,
Shivering like a fish between my fingers,
And I covered you
With a sheet made of summer stars.

I will tell you: I love you
When I am cured of my schizophrenia
And become a single person.
I will say it
When the city and the desert inside me
Are reconciled,
When the tribes leave my blood,
When I will be free of the blue tattoo
Engraved in my body,
Free of old Arab remedies
Which I tried for thirty years
And which told me
To lash you eighty times
For being a woman.
Perhaps I will not say:
I love you.
It takes nine months
For a flower to bloom,
The night suffers a great deal
In giving birth to a star,
Humanity waits one thousand years
To produce a prophet,
Why don't you wait then
To be my lover.

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 24 replies

My kingdom of little things

2008-04-16T16:35:46Z

My kingdom of little things
Ended with you
I no longer possess things alone
Arrange flowers alone
Or read books alone
You came between
My eyes and my paper
Between my mouth and my voice
My head and my pillow
My fingers and my cigarette.

Of course
I do not complain
Of your living inside me
Or your interfering with the movement of my hands
Of the blinking of my eyes
Of the speed of my thoughts
The fig trees
Do not complain of housing too many birds
The cups do not complain Of holding too much wine.

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 6 replies

A new theory on the origin of the world

2008-04-14T20:57:55Z

In the beginning...there was Fatima
After that the elements were formed
fire and earth
water and air
And then came the names and languages
summer and spring
morning and evening
After Fatima's eyes
the world discovered
the secrets of the black rose
and then....a thousand centuries later
other women came.

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 1 reply

La galana y el mar (sefardi, trad.)

2008-04-14T20:52:05Z

This sung reflects the custom that the bride is guided to the pre-nuptial ritual bath in a 'miqwe', where she is submerged, bathed, and dresses in a ceremony. The woman of the family accompany her, and the mothers of the bride and the groom are honored. Obviously only women participate this part that is celebrated with meals, sweets and songs like this one. - The song may be sung also at other occasions of the seven-day wedding celebrations.
The 'canela' and the 'bimbrillo' reflect sexual symbols.

from the CD "Al Andaluz Project, Deus et Diabolus", made in ....Germany !

Lyrics:

Ya salió del mar la galana
ya salió del mar.

La novia se viste de amarillo,
ya se fue con su marido.
La novia se viste de colorado
ya se fue con su velado*.

Ya salió del mar ...

Entre el año y salga el mes
como esta novia, blanca es.
Entre el mes y salga el día,
como esta novia, vendrá parida.

Ya salió del mar ...

Esta palomita de buen linaje:
¿Cómo vos la diera su señor padre?
¿Cómo vos la dieran los sus hermanos?
Andando y añidiendo en los ducados.

Ya salió del mar ...

Ya salió de la mar la galana
con un vestido
al* y blanco
Ya salió de la mar.

Entre la mar y el rio,
mos creció un arbol de bimbrillo*.
Ya salió de la mar.

Entre la mar y la arena,
mos creció un arbol de canela.
Ya salió de la mar.

Raices 1-3, Morante 4-6 (Salónica)
* al - de color rosa
* velado - marido
* bimbrillo - membrillo

English version:

Now the graceful maiden gets out of the sea
She comes out of the sea.

The bride wears a yellow dress
She goes to her husband.
The bride wears a red dress
She goes to her groom.

She comes out of the sea …

Between a year and a month.
Our bride, how white she is
Between a month and a day,
Our bride, she will bear a child.

She comes out of the sea …

A little pigeon from a good family
How is your father?
How are your brothers?
Walking between the ducats.

She comes out of the sea …

Now the graceful maiden gets out of the sea
With a dress
In white and pink.
She comes out of the sea …

Between the sea and the river
There grows a quince tree.
She comes out of the sea …

Between the sea and the sand
There grows a cinnamon tree.
She comes out of the sea

Deutsche Übersetzung:

Schon steigt die Schöne aus dem Meer,
schon steigt sie aus dem Meer.

Die Braut erscheint so golden
schon ist sie mit Ihrem Bräutigam.
Die Braut erscheint so rot,
schon ist sie mit Ihrem Bräutigam.

Schon steigt sie aus dem Meer.

Zwischen einem Jahr und einem Monat
wie unsere Braut, sie ist weiß
Zwischen einem Monat und einem Tag
wie unsere Braut, sie wird gebären.

Schon steigt sie aus dem Meer.

Die kleine Taube aus gutem Hause
Wie ist der Herr Vater?
Wie sind die Brüder?
Schreitend zwischen den Dukaten.

Schon steigt sie aus dem Meer.

Schon steigt die Schöne aus dem Meer,
mit einem Kleid
in rosa und weiß.
Schon steigt sie aus dem Meer,

Zwischen dem Meer und dem Fluß
wächst ein Quittenbaum.
Schon steigt sie aus dem Meer,

Zwischen dem Meer und dem Ufer
wächst ein Zimtstrauch.
Schon steigt sie aus dem Meer,

from:
http://dbs-win.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/sefarad-scripts/Lyrik.pl

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 1 reply

Por la tu puerta- For that door of yours... (Sephardic kantiga)

2008-04-14T13:20:22Z

from "The Sephardic experience", vol. 2 Apples and Honey , CD
The Renaissance players
www.harmonies.com

I passed your door and found it
locked- so I kissed the lock
it was as sweet as if
I had kissed your cheek.

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 0 replies

I learn by reading your body.

2008-04-11T21:55:43Z

From the introduction to "Arabian love poems" by Bassam K. Frangieh, the translator:

Qabbani saw in women a revolution and a means of liberation for both men and women. He linked women's rights with the war for social liberation in the Arab world, maintaining:"Unless we stop considering women as sex objects, there will be no liberartion. Sexual repression is the biggest problem in the Arab world." He called for an end to the game of love behind closed doors:"I have moved my bed to the open air and I have written my love poems on trees in public parks... to put an end to secretive and marshal laws imposed on the body of the Arab woman and make love legitimate." "People who are obsessed with sex", he wrote, "cannot write, think, or undertake any civilised achievement." Thus, he was convinced that sexual repression is one reason behind the economic backwardness of the Arab world, and that any revolution concerned solely with an individual's thoughts and not with his or her body is only half a revolution.

I learn by reading your body

When I was expelled from the tribe
For leaving a poem and a rose
At the door of your tent,
The age of decay began,
An age familiar with grammar and syntax
But ignorant of femininity,
An age guilty of
Erasing women's names
From the nation's memory.

Oh, my love
What kind of a nation is this?
Dealing with love like a policeman
Considering the rose
A conspiracy against the system
Considering the poem
A secretive leaflet.
What kind of a nation is this?
Taking the shape of a yellow locust
Crawling on it's belly
From the ocean to the Gulf
From the Gulf to the ocean,
Speaking like a saint in the daytime
Getting drunk over a woman's navel at night.

What kind of a nation is this?
Deleting love from it's curriculum
The art of poetry.
The mystery in women's eyes.
What kind of a nation is this?
Battling each rain cloud,
Opening a secret file for each breast,
Filing a police report for every rose.

You amaze me
Like a child's toy
I feel civilized because I love you
Before you, time did not exist
After you, it split into pieces
Do not ask why I'm with you
I want to be rid of my backwardness
Escape my Bedouin ways,
I want to sit beneath a tree,
Bathe in spring water,
Learn the names of the flowers.

I want you to teach me the first knowledge
Of reading and writing on your body
Whoever does not read
The notebooks of your body
Will remain illiterate
All his life.

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 7 replies

from: Kabir, The guest is inside you

2008-04-08T11:13:47Z

Friend, please tell me what I can do about this world
I hold to and keep spinning out!

I gave up sewn clothes, and wore a robe,
but I noticed one day the cloth was well woven.

So I bought some burlap, but I still
throw it elegantly across my shoulder.

I pulled back my sexual longings,
and now I discover that I am angry a lot.

I gave up rage, and now I notice
that I am greedy all day.

I worked hard at dissolving the greed,
and now I am proud of myself.

When the mind wants to break its link with the world
it still holds on to one thing.

Kabir says: Listen my friend
there are very few that find the path!

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 0 replies

Do we have Hafiz here yet?

2008-04-06T15:49:03Z

"If the scent of her hair were to blow across my dust when I had been dead a hundred years,
my mouldering bones would rise and come dancing out of the tomb." ~ Hafiz

Namaste everybody!!

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 2 replies

Siete anos andare/ For nearly seven years...

2008-04-02T14:52:55Z

A Sephardic poem, sung by the "Renaissance players, Winsome Evans" on
The Sephardic experience, volume 2, Aplles and honey (music clip following below)

Siete anos andare
por una linda dama
no me la dejan ver
por puertas y ventanas
Me dize la gente
que m'haga romero, vaya a su puerta
com'un forastero.
"Alevante hija,
d'este lavradero.
Dalde la limosna
y este forastero."
"Yo le do la limosna,
el m'aprieta el dedo.
"Yo no vide malo
com'a'ste romero!"
Avio el capoti,
se la jevarija.
Guay de la su madre
si la hija a se quedarija!
Sale dan pregoneros
por la asienderiya!
"Quen vido a la rosa
con la flor encima?"
"Ya vimos a la rosa sin la encima."
Guay de la su madre
si la hija a se quedariya!

For nearly seven years,
regarding a beautiful lady,
I have not seen her
through doors or windows.
People tell me
to dress as a pilgrim,
go knocking on her door
as a stranger.
"Get up, girl,
leave that needlework!
Give alms
to this stranger!"
"I am giving him alms,
and he squeezes my fingers.
Never have I seen such a villain
as this pilgrim!"
He opens his cloak,
and leads her into it.
How unfortunate the mother
if her daughter does not return home!
And what an outcry
in the neighbourhood!
"Who has seen the rose,
freshly blooming?"
We have seen the rose
no longer freshly blooming.
How unfortunate the mother
if her daughter does not return home!

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 6 replies

coming up next is... (more drums, please...)

2008-04-02T10:02:32Z

.... a drum solo for you ! You rock !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnQnQmv8qTE

enjoy
your moderator

aplogies for the lousy camera work, I never know what people are going to do with my camera when I give it to them... Last time I had to edit 5 minutes of film in rotating perspective. This time the guy hit the focus button somehow and made everything blurry. Which also has a nice effect, in a way. And he sat at my feet. ; ) I am not perfect at this dance yet either, but anyway, I am having a ball...

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 0 replies

La Serena- a Sephardic song

2008-04-01T06:30:22Z

Si la mar era de leche
Los barquitos de canela
Yo me mancharla entera
Por salvar la mi bandiera

Si la mar era de leche
Yo me haria un pexcador
Pescaria las mis dolores
Con palavricas d'amor.

En la mar hay una torre
En la torre hay una ventana
En la ventana hay una hija
Que a los marineros ama.

Dame la mano tu Palomba
Para suvir a tu nido
Maldicha que durmes sola
Vengo a durmir contigo.

Calm

If the sea was milk,
the boats of cinnamon,
I would quite dip in
to save my banner.

If the sea was milk,
I would be a fisherman,
I would fish for my sorrow
with words of love.

In the sea is a tower,
In the tower is a window,
In the window is a girl
that loves sailors.

Give me your hand, my dove,
to come up to your nest.
Unlucky are you that sleep alone,
I am coming to sleep with you.

from the CD "Sephardic Romances" , Ensemble Accentus, Thomas Wimmer

*canela=cinnamon
is the beautiful colour of the skin

leche=milk
is the same for white skin

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 0 replies

We are FIFTY MEMBERS on Arabian love poems tribe ! How do we celebrate this?

2008-03-30T16:45:59Z

Please post your ideas on how to make the most of this occasion !
What you don't know: my friend Sharaf from Bahrain (we met on the bellydance lyrics translation tribe) had the idea to create a new tribe when I told him that I love Nizar Qabbani's poetry, and have some of his books in English and I thought, there might not be enough people around who know this poet to really form a tribe...

Hurray ! Mashallah! lelelelellele !

And the fiftieth member is... (drums please...)

my friend Tania Luiz from Portugal who teaches bellydance in Kyoto and I have met her !! (You are supposed to throw her up into the air three times now.) ; )

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 3 replies

Dialogue

2008-03-30T07:02:28Z

They ask me who I love
I have not seen her face. Although
for twice ten centuries I've loved her
her name I do not know.

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 2 replies

Couldn't help myself, :)

2008-03-29T03:32:43Z

I look for my heart
and find it in your
house.

I search for my soul
and find it in your
hair.

Whenever I am
thirsty, I drink
water.

I see in it
only the image
of Your Face.

~Rumi

Love is the dancing cry of the soul, calling the body to worship
Like a shining whirlpool, or a spinning mayfly
So is love among the skies.

I leap across the mountaintops, madly singing the song of all songs
I float through the ether, intoxicated, thrilled
I think only of your love, your calling to me
And I dance the thousand dances of love, all returning to you.

It is not the play of children, nor the detached unity of wise sages
Unreal! Unnecessary!
Where is the beauty?

When I, like a glowing comet, may flash around your sun
Laughing, singing, with the joy of loving you!

Wine makes drunk the mind and body
But it is love which thrills the soul
When I approach you, I feel the mad pounding of love
The singing wonder
The joy which opens blossoms on the trees of the world.

Come to me, and I shall dance with you
In the temples, on the beaches, through the crowded streets
Be you man or woman, plant or animal, slave or free
I shall show you the brilliant crystal fires, shining within
I shall show you the beauty deep within your soul
I shall show the path beyond Heaven.

Only dance, and your illusions will blow in the wind
Dance, and make joyous the love around you
Dance, and your veils which hide the Light
Shall swirl in a heap at your feet.

~Rumi

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 1 reply

Fragments from the "Qasida in the Rhyme of Nun"

2008-03-28T18:55:08Z

by Ibn Zaydun (1003-1070), Cordoba

By the way, the Golden Age poems are from "Poems of Arabic Andalusia" and lyrics of Sephardic music, and I think, they are originally all in (Castilian) Spanish. How many of you understand Spanish? (I have the lyrics in Spanish)

Now we are far apart
one from the other
my heart has dried up
but my tears keep falling.

In losing you my days
have turned black.
When I was with you
even my nights were white.

It's as though we never spent
that night together
with no third presence
save our two selves made one,

a night our lucky star
caused even gossips
who would spy on us
to turn away their eyes.

We were two secrets
held by the heart of darkness
until the tongue of dawn
threatened to denounce us.

*****************************************
My heart hurts when I write this. It always astonishes me that people who lived a thousand years ago, in another country, a different culture, a different religion, felt about love exactly the same way as we do now

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 6 replies

Your perfume...

2008-03-28T16:07:41Z

Every time you traveled
Your perfume asked me about you
Like a child
Asking about the return of it's mother.
Imagine,
Even perfume
Knows banishment
And exile.

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 0 replies

Magda elRumi

2008-03-26T22:11:22Z

This is another of Nizar's beautiful poems sung by a famous Lebanese Singer called Magda ElRumi.
The english translation is there -just click on the Icon
http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=HYmit2cBTXQ&feature=PlayList&p=FC433A7E5C2C3D0D&index=9

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 7 replies

more on the story of love...

2008-03-26T20:38:23Z

This is not Arabian, but then, love is almost the same, everywhere...
From "The Kamasutra, a tale of love"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5l4FRFSO-E&feature=related

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 3 replies

I am accused of being like Shahrayar

2008-03-26T20:30:26Z

I am accused of being like Shahrayar
By my friends
By my enemies,
Accused of collecting women
Like stamps
Like empty matchboxes
That I pin up
On the walls of my room.
They accuse me of being narcissistic,
Sadistic,
Oedipal,
Of being disturbed
In order to prove
They are educated
And I am deviant.

Nobody, my love
Wants to listen to my testimony,
The judges are biased,
The witnesses are bribed,
I am pronounced guilty
Before I testify.
Nobody, my love,
Understands my childhood,
I belong to a city
That does not love children,
That does not recognise innocence,
That never in it's life
Bought a rose or book of petry.
I belong to a city whose hands are rough
Whose heart and emotions are hard
From having swallowed nails and pieces of glass.
I belong to a city whose walls are made of ice
Whose children have frozen to death.

I am not apologising to anyone.
It is not my intention to hire a lawyer
To save my head from the rope.
I was hanged
thousands of times
Until my neck was used to hanging
And my body was accustomed to riding in ambulances.

It is not my intention to apologise.
I do not want an innocent verdict
From anyone,
But I want to tell you alone my love
In a public hearing
And in front of all those who tried me
For possessing more than one woman,
For hoarding perfumes, rings and combs
During times of war.
I want to say:
I only love you,
And I cling to you
Like the peel clings to a pomegranate,
Like the tear clings to the eye,
Like the knife clings to the wound.

I want to say
If only this one time
That I am not a disciple of Shahrayar,
I am not a murderer
And have never melted women in sulfuric acid.
Rather, I am a poet
Who writes in a loud voice,
Who loves in a loud voice.
I am a child with green eyes
Leaning on the gate of a city
That does not recognise childhood.

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 3 replies

Lalla, "The jasmine garden"

2008-03-25T22:49:47Z

I, Lalla, enter the jasmine garden,
where Shiva and Shakti were making love.

I discovered them,
and what is this
to me, now?

I seem to be here,
but really I'm walking
in the jasmine garden.

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 6 replies

A Star Without a Name

2008-03-25T22:10:25Z

When a baby is taken from the wet nurse,
it easily forgets her
and starts eating solid food.

Seeds feed awhile on ground,
then lift up into the sun.

So you should taste the filtered light
and work your way toward wisdom
with no personal covering.

That's how you came here, like a star
without a name. Move across the night sky
With those anonymous lights.

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 7 replies

Out of my desire you have no life

2008-03-25T01:03:28Z

Out of my desire
You have no life
I am your time
You have no meaning
Beyond the reach of my arms.
I am all your dimensions,
Your corners and your circles,
Your curves and lines.
The day you entered
The forest of my chest,
You entered freedom.
The day you left,
You became a slave,
Bought by the leader of the tribe.

Nizar Qabbani

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 2 replies

Lalla, "Let them throw their curses"

2008-03-24T18:32:43Z

Let them throw their curses
If inside, I am connected
to what's true, my soul
stays quiet and clear.

Do you think, Shiva worries
what people say!

If a few ashes fall on the mirror,
use them to polish it.

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 0 replies

Kazem el-Saher - I Love You كاظم الساهر - وإني أحبك Wa Inny Uhiboki

2008-03-24T17:26:56Z

Kathim el-Saher - I love You

I love you, but I fear my implication in you, my attachment to you and my oneness with you.

Experience taught me to avoid falling in love with women and the chopping waves of the seas. But I still love you.

Let me fill in for you a cup of tea, you are legendarily beautiful this morning .
Let me translate to you some of what the seats are saying to welcome you. Let me put in words what the cups are thinking of your lips.

Did you like the tea? You still make do with one piece of sugar like you used to? But for me, I make do with looking at your face which needs no sugar.

Let me say to you in all languages, those you know and those you don't know, I love no one but you.

Let me look for words that can tell how much I love you.
Let me think, miss, cry and laugh on your behalf. Let me shorten the distance between imagination and reality to nothing.

************
Let me call your name with all vocatives. Let me sing your name for you to be born in my lips.

Let me build a kingdom of love for you and crown you its queen, and I be its greatest lover.

كاظم الساهر - وإني أحبك

وإني احبك .. لكن ..
أخاف .. أخاف التورط فيكِ .. التعلق فيك ِ .. التوحد فيكِ

وإني احبك

فقد علمتني التجارب .. أن أتجنب عشق النساء ...
وموج البحار .. وإني احبك

دعيني اصب لك الشاي .. أنت خرافية الحسن هذا الصباح

دعيني أترجم بعض كلام المقاعد وهي ترحب فيكِ
دعيني اعبر عما يدور ببال الفناجين وهي تفكر في شفتيكِ

أأعجبك الشاي ؟؟
وهل تكتفين كما كنتِ دوماً بقطعة سُكر؟!

أما أنا
فأفضل وجهك من غير سكر ..

دعيني اقول بكل اللغات ولا تعرفين

أحبك انتِ
احبك أنتِ

دعيني افتش عن مفرادت تكون بحجم حنيني إليكِ
دعيني افكر عنكِ .. وأشتاق عنك ِ .. وأبكي واضحك عنكِ
والغي المسافات بين الخيال وبين اليقين ..

دعيني انادي عليكِ بكل حروف النداء ..
لعلي اذا ما تغنيت باسمكِ من شفتي تولدين

دعيني اؤسس دولة عشق ..
دولة عشق تكونين انت المليكة فيها ..
وأصبح فيها أنا أنا أنا ... أعظم العاشقين

وإني أحِبُكِ

كلمات : نزار قباني
توزيع : د / فتح الله أحمد

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaxymOAGUb8

lyrics: Nizar Qabbani

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 0 replies

Lalla, "Enlightenment absorbs this universe"

2008-03-24T17:03:23Z

Enlightenment absorbs this universe of qualities.
When that merging occurs, there is nothing
but God. This is the only doctrine.

There is no word for it, no mind
to understand it with, no categories
of transcendence or non-transcendence,
no vow of silence, no mystical attitude.

There is no Shiva and no Shakti
in enlightenment, and if there is something
that remains, that whatever-it-is
is the only teaching.

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 0 replies

on Sephardic poetry

2008-03-24T01:41:57Z

The Sephardic poetry
Poetry was linked with music
images

Sepharad music and dance
Poetry was first of sacred argument: among the lyrical genres emerge the particular liturgical poem called piyut, which reached its peak between 10th and 15th centuries. Still nowadays, in Synagogue, at school or at home, for each event sacred or festive of life, Sephardis sing the right liturgical poems piyyutim and pizmonim, and/or the prayers bakkashot performed in Synagogue by professional cantors. The profane poetry, like the Cancionero Judeo-Español, is different: often composed in ladino language, it sings themes of human life, love, nature. The older texts are precedent to 15th century, based on melodies that resents of Moorish influence and flamenco, and are performed without instruments. Through the centuries, different other songs and styles enriched the core of romances and the different local Sephardites communities began to collect and to print the compositions: as the collection made by Najara that in 1587 published in Safed (nowadays Israel) the collection Zemiroth Israel, becoming the most popular collection of songs between Sephardis. Another famous transcription was made by a non-Hebrew, the Venetian composer Benedetto Marcello in his Estro poetico-armonico. Another corpus poetical is constituted by the complas, compositions of para-liturgical character in long strophes metrically variables. Weddings were the occasions to transmit traditional Sephardi repertories: music, singing and dances accompanies each moment of the marriage. The repertories, in old Castilian, comprehends “songs to the bride”, “of the ritual bath” and “for the dressing of the bride”. In ex-Ottoman empire territories there are songs for the parturient performed by a woman on the little frame-drum pandero.

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 4 replies

from Lalla, "Naked song"

2008-03-23T20:17:58Z

Lalla was a female poet in Kashmir in the 12th/13th century. Kashmir is part of the Indian subcontinent and now admistered by India, Pakistan and China. In the 14th century, Islam was the dominant religion in Kashmir. The Muslims and Hindus of Kashmir lived in relative harmony, since the Sufi-Islamic way of life that ordinary Muslims followed in Kashmir; complemented the Rishi tradition of Kashmiri Pandits. This led to a syncretic culture where Hindus and Muslims revered the same local saints and prayed at the same shrines[citation needed]. Famous sufi saint Bulbul Shah was able to persuade the king of the time Rinchan Shah who was prince of Kashgar Ladakh, through his intellectual power to adopt Islamic way of life and the foundation of Sufiana composite culture was laid when Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists were co-existing in the atmosphere of love and brotherhood.
Some Kashmiri rulers, such as Sultan Zain-ul-Abidin, were tolerant of all religions in a manner comparable to Akbar.

So it seems that in Kashmir there was a similar state of affairs regarding religion as during the Golden Age in Andalusia where Christians, Moslems and Jews coexisted peacefully. The Sephardic poems and music are from this era in Andalusia.

from the introduction to "Naked song": "Lalla means 'darling' and she certainly is beloved in Kashmir. It is said, there are only two words that mean anything in Kashmiri, Allah and Lalla. The rest is just language.

So here is the first poem by Lalla that I am going to post, even though this is a Kashmiri poem, not an Arabian one. It can be taken as a love poem, but as a love poem to God.

Whatever your name, Shiva, Vishnu,
the genius who inspired Scheherazade
saviour of the Jains, the pure Buddha,
lotus born God, I am sick. The world
is my disease, and you are the cure,
You, you, you, you, you, you, you.

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 10 replies

re: Allah and Lalla- "Who is Allah", an article by Abu Iman ar Rahman Robert Squires

2008-03-23T18:35:28Z

Who is Allah?
by Abu Iman 'Abd ar-Rahman Robert Squires
http://www.muslim-answers.org/allah.htm
Some of the biggest misconceptions that many non-Muslims have about Islam have to do with the word "Allah". For various reasons, many people have come to believe that Muslims worship a different God than Christians and Jews. This is totally false, since "Allah" is simply the Arabic word for "God" - and there is only One God. Let there be no doubt - Muslims worship the God of Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and Jesus - peace be upon them all. However, it is certainly true that Jews, Christians and Muslims all have different concepts of Almighty God. For example, Muslims - like Jews - reject the Christian beliefs of the Trinity and the Divine Incarnation. This, however, doesn't mean that each of these three religions worships a different God - because, as we have already said, there is only One True God. Judaism, Christianity and Islam all claim to be "Abrahamic Faiths", and all of them are also classified as "monotheistic". However, Islam teaches that other religions have, in one way or another, distorted and nullified a pure and proper belief in Almighty God by neglecting His true teachings and mixing them with man-made ideas.
First of all, it is important to note that "Allah" is the same word that Arabic-speaking Christians and Jews use for God. If you pick up an Arabic Bible, you will see the word "Allah" being used where "God" is used in English. This is because "Allah" is the only word in the Arabic language equivalent to the English word "God" with a capital "G". Additionally, the word "Allah" cannot be made plural or given gender (i.e. masculine or feminine), which goes hand-in-hand with the Islamic concept of God. Because of this, and also because the Qur'an, which is the holy scripture of Muslims, was revealed in the Arabic language, some Muslims use the word "Allah" for "God", even when they are speaking other languages. This is not unique to the word "Allah", since many Muslims tend to use Arabic words when discussing Islamic issues, regardless of the language which they speak. This is because the universal teachings of Islam - even though they have been translated in every major language - have been preserved in the Arabic language.
It is interesting to note that the Aramaic word "El", which is the word for God in the language that Jesus spoke, is certainly more similar in sound to the word "Allah" than the English word "God". This also holds true for the various Hebrew words for God, which are "El" and "Elah", and the plural form "Elohim". The reason for these similarities is that Aramaic, Hebrew and Arabic are all Semitic languages with common origins. It should also be noted that in translating the Bible into English, the Hebrew word "El" is translated variously as "God", "god" and "angel"! This imprecise language allows different translators, based on their preconceived notions, to translate the word to fit their own views. The Arabic word "Allah" presents no such difficulty or ambiguity, since it is only used for Almighty God alone. Additionally, in English, the only difference between "god", meaning a false god, and "God", meaning the One True God, is the capital "G". In the Arabic alphabet, since it does not have capital letters, the word for God (i.e. Allah) is formed by adding the equivalent to the English word "the" (Al-) to the Arabic word for "god/God" (ilah). So the Arabic word "Allah" literally it means "The God" - the "Al-" in Arabic basically serving the same function as the capital "G" in English. Due to the above mentioned facts, a more accurate translation of the word "Allah" into English might be "The One -and-Only God" or "The One True God".
More importantly, it should also be noted that the Arabic word "Allah" contains a deep religious message due to its root meaning and origin. This is because it stems from the Arabic verb ta'allaha (or alaha), which means "to be worshipped". Thus in Arabic, the word "Allah" means "The One who deserves all worship". This, in a nutshell, is the Pure Monotheistic message of Islam. You see, according to Islam, "monotheism" is much more than simply believing in the existence of "only One God" - as seemingly opposed to two, three or more. If one understands the root meaning of the word "Allah", this point should become clear. One should understand that Islam's criticism of the other religions that claim to be "monotheistic" is not because they are "polytheistic" in the classic sense, but because they direct various forms of worship to other than Almighty God. We will discuss the meaning of worship in Islam below, however, before moving on it should be noted that many non-Muslims are unaware of the distinction between simply believing in the existence of only One God and reserving all worship for Him alone. Many Christians are painfully unaware of this point, and thus you often find them asking how Muslims can accuse the followers of Jesus, peace be upon him, of being "polytheists" when they were all "monotheistic Jews". First of all, it should be clarified that the word "polytheist" doesn't really sound right in this context, since to many it implies simply believing in the existence of more than one God. So in an Islamic context, "associators", "man-worshippers" or "creature worshippers" might be more accurate and appropriate terms - especially since Christians believe Jesus to be both "100% God and 100% man", while still paying lip-service to God's "Oneness". However, as we're previously touched upon, what is really at the root of this problem is the fact that Christians - as well as the members of other religions - don't really know what "monotheism" means - especially in the Islamic sense. All of the books, articles and papers that I've read which were written by Christians invariably limit "monotheism" to believing in the existence of "One Sovereign and Creator God". Islam, however, teaches much more than this.
Suffice it to say that just because someone claims to be a "monotheistic" Jew, Christian or Muslim, that doesn't keep them from falling into corrupt beliefs and idolatrous practices. Many people, including some Muslims, claim belief in "One God" even though they've fallen into acts of idolatry. Certainly, many Protestants accuse Roman Catholics of idolatrous practices in regards to the saints and the Virgin Mary. Likewise, the Greek Orthodox Church is considered "idolatrous" by many other Christians because in much of their worship they use icons. However, if you ask a Roman Catholic or a Greek Orthodox person if God is "One", they will invariably answer: "Yes!". This lip-service, however, does not stop them from being "creature worshipping" idolaters. The same goes for Hindus, who just consider their gods to be "manifestations" or "incarnations" of the One Supreme God.
Everyone should be aware of the fact that throughout the long history of the "Abrahamic Faiths", there have people who, while believing in "One God", have adopted beliefs and practices that completely nullify their claim to "monotheism". This is the Muslim view of Christians. We're well aware of the fact that they claim belief in "One God" with their lips, but this doesn't mean that they don't nullify their claim in other ways. This is because many people simply haven't been taught everything that Pure Monotheism entails. From an Islamic point of view, "monotheism" can be nullified in many ways. For example, simply believing that it is permissible to rule by Western "liberal" and "democratic" laws in lieu of the Divinely Revealed Law of Almighty God makes one a "polytheist". Certainly, a person who does such a thing, whether Jewish, Christian or Muslim, doesn't ever believe that there is another Almighty Creator and Sovereign Lord. However, for all practical purposes, such a person has taken another "god", whether they choose to admit it or not. In this way they are associating partners with Almighty God (Arabic: shirk), and thus become a "polytheist" in a practical sense, regardless of their lip-service to "monotheism". This holds true even if the person doesn't believe what they are doing is "worship". For example, Roman Catholics who pray to the Virgin Mary will staunchly deny that they are "worshipping" her. They instead call it "adoration" or some other watered-down term. However, from an Islamic point of view, what is worship if not this? Islam teaches that prayer and supplication are the marrow of worship, so if one directs their prayers to an intermediary (even if the pray is "ultimately" meant for God), then what is left of worship? Additionally, how can someone who believes in Almighty God follow man-made laws instead of God's Law, without admitting that they've begun worshipping other than God? Do they know better than God?
Additionally, the Old Testament makes it perfectly clear that making a "graven image" of any created thing (not to mention ones which are supposed to "represent" Almighty God) is prohibited. Please see Exodus 20:4-6, Leviticus 26:1 and Deuteronomy 4:16, 23, 25, 5:8 and Nehemiah 9:6 for some statements in regards to this point. Without addressing the issue that Christians commonly violate the unambiguous commandment not to even "make" representations of anything that is in the "heavens above or on the earth beneath", these verses not only teach that worshipping idols is prohibited, but also that Almighty God is eternally distinct from His creation and thus nothing in His creation can represent Him. To believe otherwise is to be a de facto idol worshipper - even if one claims belief in one, and only one, "True God". In Exodus 20:4-6 and Deuteronomy 4:16, Almighty God - who is a "Jealous God" - makes it perfectly clear that He is distinct from His creation.
By giving such clear and merciful guidance to human beings, God is establishing a universal and eternal Truth for the benefit of mankind. This eternal Truth is the bedrock of religious guidance, since once people begin to believe that Almighty God mixes with or can be represented by His creation, they can be duped into believing almost anything. Once someone accepts that God has become "incarnate" in His creation, or that someone or something is a "manifestation" - and thus representation - of Him, the floodgates are open and "Truth" becomes a matter of subjective guesswork. Once the first and most basic concept is violated - regardless of how complicated and sophisticated the rationale for it might be - it is very easy to fall further and further away from the Eternal Truth of Pure Monotheism. In the final analysis, it is not a question of whether God is capable of becoming a man, but rather a question of whether one bases their beliefs about God on clear, unambiguous and authentic guidance. Once it is left up to the human mind to decide what Almighty God can and cannot do, the stage is set for misguidance to take root. Human speculation about God only ends up leading to misguidance and despair, since no clear conclusions can ever be reached. For example, is God capable of creating an object so heavy that He is incapable of moving it? If not, does that mean that He is incapable? It is because of misguided questions like this that Islam clearly teaches that mankind should only say about God what He has said about Himself. This means all of our ideas about God must be based on Revelation - not human speculation. In short, the final prophet of Islam - Muhammad - was sent by Almighty God to preach the same Pure Monotheism that was practiced by Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and Jesus - peace be upon them all. This Pure Monotheism means not only believing that there is only One God in existence, but realizing that He is transcedent above His creation and that all worship is due to Him alone.
Before concluding, we should probably address the practice of those Muslims who insist on using the Arabic word "Allah" even when speaking English. Even though this practice certainly is not to be condemned when it is done around those who understand the meaning of the Arabic word "Allah", it is my experience - both during my years as a non-Muslim and my years as a Muslim - that such a practice can (and usually does) breed misunderstanding. It seems that often times, many of the Muslims who use the word "Allah" in lieu of the word "God", even when trying to attract people to Islam, are unaware of the severe misunderstandings that many non-Muslims have about Islam (and the distorted way which Islam has been portrayed in the West). Insisting on using the word "Allah" only fuels the flames of misunderstanding - so there's no good reason to do it. I've often wondered what value some Muslims think that using the word "Allah" adds to the Pure Message that they are trying to convey. ( . . . and I'm still waiting for an answer!) Unfortunately, those Muslims who insist on using the word "Allah" even when addressing non-Muslims who are unfamiliar with Islam and the Arabic language, do both a disservice to themselves and their religion. Unfortunately, this practice is usually based on the false assumption - by a non-native speaker of English - that the word "God" in English is incapable of expressing a pure and proper belief in Almighty God. This is certainly false. If someone says that the English word "God" cannot be used to express the Pure Islamic Belief in Tawhid, they are wrong not because they don't understand Tawhid, but simply because they don't understand the English language. Many people who insist on using the Arabic word "Allah" usually don't realize this, because in reality, they are not so much affirming the word "Allah" as they are rejecting the word "God" as unsuitable - based on incorrect assumptions. For someone to assume that the word "God" presupposes a certain theological point-of-view (such as the Trinity) is simply Wrong - and that's Wrong with a capital "W". To say the word "God" should be rejected because it can be changed into "god", "gods" or "goddess" is illogical because each of these words has a distinctive meaning and a distinctive spelling - at least to someone who knows how to speak English correctly. Using the same logic, I can demonstrate that the root letters "ktb" can be used to form the Arabic words "kitab" (book), "maktabah" (library), "maktab" (office) and "kaatib" (writer), but does that mean that these words have the same meaning? Do Arabic-speaking people go through life confusing libraries with writers and offices with books (both in conversation and in reality)? I think not! This is not to mention the fact that if the Arabic "Al-" was put in front of these words in order to make them definite, confusion would be even less likely! So the logic in both cases is the same, and this is because even though the same letters are used in "God" and "god", these two words have two different meanings in the English language. The capital "G" implies something different than the small "g" - and anyone who denies this simply doesn't know how to speak the English language.
In concluding this point, it should be mentioned that Arabic-speaking Muslims who believe in Pure Tawhid, Arabic-speaking Christians, the idol worshippers of Mecca and (so-called) Muslims who believe in "Wahdat al-Wujud" all use the word "Allah". However, does this guarantee all of them proper belief in "Allah"? Certainly not, because if they have a corrupt concept of "Allah" it doesn't matter what word they use!
This brings us to a more important point: It should be clearly understood that what Islam is primarily concerned with is correcting mankind's concept of Almighty God. What we are ultimately going to be held accountable at the end of our life is not whether we prefer the word "Allah" over the word "God", but what our concept of God is. Language is only a side issue. A person can have an incorrect concept of God while using the word "Allah", and likewise a person can have a correct concept of God while using the word "God". This is because both of these words are equally capable of being misused and being improperly defined. As we've already mentioned, using the word "Allah" no more insinuates belief in the Unity of God than the use of the word "God" insinuates belief in the Trinity - or any other theological opinion. Naturally, when God sends a revelation to mankind through a prophet, He is going to send it in a language that the people who receive it can understand and relate to. Almighty God makes this clear in the Qur'an, when He states:
"Never did We send a Messenger except (to teach) in the language of his (own) people in order to make (things) clear to them." (Qur'an, Chapter 14 - "Abraham", Verse 4)
As Muslims, we think that it is unfortunate that we have to go into details on such seemingly minor issues, but so many falsehoods have been heaped upon our religion, that we feel that it is our duty to try to break down the barriers of falsehood. This isn't always easy, since there is a lot of anti-Islamic literature in existence which tries to make Islam look like something strange and foreign to Westerners. There are some people out there, who are obviously not on the side of truth, that want to get people to believe that "Allah" is just some Arabian "god", and that Islam is completely "other" - meaning that it has no common roots with the other Abrahamic religions (i.e. Christianity and Judaism). To say that Muslims worship a different "God" because they say "Allah" is just as illogical as saying that French people worship another God because they use the word "Dieu", that Spanish-speaking people worship a different God because they say "Dios" or that the Hebrews worshipped a different God because they sometimes call Him "Yahweh". Certainly, reasoning like this is quite ridiculous! It should also be mentioned, that claiming that any one language uses the only the correct word for God is tantamount to denying the universality of God's message to mankind, which was to all nations, tribes and people through various prophets who spoke different languages.
Before closing, we would like everyone to be aware of the fact that some Christian missionary organizations print English literature intended to teach Christians about Islam which say such things as: "Allah is the god of the Muslims" and that "Muhammad came to get people to believe in the god Allah" - implying that "Allah" is some sort of false "god". However, when these same organizations print literature in the Arabic language, hoping to lead Arabic-speaking Muslims "to Christ", they use the word "Allah" for God. It seems that if they were on the side of truth, they would not have to resort to such inconsistencies. And on an even more ridiculous note . . . there are also missionary organizations that exceed this in ignorance (or deceit) by writing books that call on Muslims to give up their belief in "Allah", and instead worship the "Lord" Jesus, "the Son of God". Besides making it abundantly clear that they are outside the community of Pure Monotheism, the people who write such material don't even realize that if they wrote such a pamphlet in Arabic, it would be self-contradictory. This is because in an Arabic Bible Jesus is the "Son of Allah"! If an Arabic-speaking person gave up the worship of "Allah", they would have no God to worship, since "Allah" is simply the Arabic word for God!
Before we conclude, however, we would like to ask our readers to ask themselves what they think the reasons are behind all of these lies? If Islam was just some false religion that didn't make any sense, would so many people, from Western scholars to Christian missionaries, have to tell so many lies about it? The reason is that the Ultimate Truth of Islam stands on solid ground and its unshakable belief in the Unity of God is above reproach. Due to this, Christians can't criticize its doctrines directly, but instead make up things about Islam that aren't true so that people lose the desire to learn more. If Muslims were able to present Islam in the proper way to people in the West, it surely might make many people reconsider and re-evaluate their own beliefs. It is quite likely that Christians, when they find out that there is a universal religion in the world that teaches people to worship and love God, while also practicing Pure Monotheism, would at least feel that they should re-examine the basis for their own beliefs and doctrines.
© 1998, 1999, 2000 - MUSLIM ANSWERS, P. O. Box 1227, Windermere, FL 34786 - U. S.

posted in Arabian Love Poems - 2 replies