An intense yearning for the Divine is the prime spiritual state of a true heart.
Like an ocean longs for the shore, like a moth longs for the flame, like a nightingale longs for the rose, we yearn for union in the Divine.
Below are 10 Islamic mystical expressions of yearning…
‘You have infused my being
Through and through,
As an intimate Beloved must
Always do.
So when I speak I speak of only You,
And when silent, I yearn for You.’
—Rabia Basri (718–801)
‘A breast riddled with sorrow do I want,
So I can deeply of my sad love chant.
He that is cut off from his roots and torn away
Will yearn to return to that home someday.’
—Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī (1207–73)
‘Beauty yearned to see itself;
It turned to man to sing its praise.
O how the heart of this mystic
Yearns and longs for your life-giving glance.
How long will You
Your lovers deny?’
—Ḥāfeẓ-e Shīrāzī (c. 1325–90)
‘Though I’m buried in the dust
I yearn for the Beloved, as I must.
The spark of Love did my being set afire,
The ashes smoulder still with Your desire!
Everything is but illusion, like a mirage;
I know I do not exist, yet the doubt persists.’
—Shah Niaz (1742–1834)
‘Longing for the black down of your cheek,
I become earth that has no dust.
Were I to become completely destroyed, I would still speak
Of your cheek and lip.
Were I split down the middle, I would still not sever
Myself from the sword of your glance.’
—Şeyh Gâlib (1757–98)
‘Yearning for you, no trace of me remains,
O Khusrau! Why do you search for the value of your heart inside Love?
Instead, annihilate both Life and Spirit before the altar of Love.
—Amir Khusrau (1253–1325)
‘I wished to tell a candle my heart’s yearning
All that was in my heart was in its burning.
At dawn I wept; the tulip red as blood
Told of a heart on fire, and roots in mud.
The tales nightingales and angels tell
Are but the magic of your glance’s spell.’
—Mehri (14th century)
‘Your beauty overshadows the world’s allure;
It overcomes the desire
To exist, and the universe entire!
Yearning for You and torn apart,
Separation has sundered my heart!
—Farīd ud-Dīn Aṭṭār (c.1145–1221)
‘Do not ask how happy the yearning ones are when they see the place for execution:
It is the fulfilment of expectation when the sword becomes naked.’
—Mirza Ghalib (1797–1868)
‘If the eight paradises were revealed to me and the dominion of both worlds and their environs were given to me, I still would not wish them in place of a single sigh that rises at morning tide from the depth of my soul recalling my yearning for Him.’
—Bāyazīd Bisṭāmī (804–74)
It is said that at one point God yearned in His loneliness and spoke, “I was a hidden treasure and wanted to be known, so I created the world.”
Creator and creation possess a mutual yearning for the other.
The Absolute yearns to be known and we yearn for our home in the Divine.
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