Sufi Poetry

Mansoor Shah

Introduction

 

I would like to thank you for reading my work and I am humbly grateful for your time and consideration to see my letters and words in the format of my style of writing. 

I tend to write in a simplistic natural way from my inner thought processes sharing my perceptions of my life’s trials through contemplation.   

Although I see it as a spiritual journey based on my own interpretations of Islamic traditions, I welcome all faiths and non-faiths respectively, I humbly ask forgiveness if I have unintentionally offended any reader. It is not in my intention to misguide or mislead anyone from their own chosen paths or their perspectives.

One of my favourite Sufi writers is Rumi (Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī) and a lot of my poetry is influenced by his approach to these Islamic traditions and other numerous writers such as Saadi Sharazi, Ibn Al Arabi, Omar Khayyam, Hafez-e-Shirazi and Allama Iqbal.

 


Mansoor is an academic and management consultant, has considerable experience in health and social care sector as a practitioner, manager and an academic. He has undertaken a wide range of local and national research projects, consultancies and evaluations in the health and social care fields. He has held numerous posts Senior Research Fellow, Senior Lecturer, Director NHS Mental Health Trust, Management Consultant and has been a Board Director/Trustee on several charities.


Come on a journey with me

Share the ride a realm to see

Stand in submission to go down

Ignore the world swirl around

Ponder thoughts of mind to know 

Limitless of time nowhere to go

 

Through the darkness into light

A cloak of blindless a new sight

Hear the rhythm of a clear sound

Deafness of diversions not around

Just the oneness of senses found

Clinging fragrances all around


He has a keen interest in Sufi writings but draws his attention from the contemplation of the Quran. He uses a simple poetic stanza  intentionally to point the readers to the philosophical interpretations he is striving to make.

He has published following books: 

 


Recent Poems

Stained

 

Colours stained by streaming light through glass

Divergence soulls smiling to your guided pass

How yoiu have sustained patience of time

Striding a journey made difficult to climb

Yet you remembered the spirit of breath

As you reconnected life with first death

Your entry and exit permitted with honour

How gracious is he giving such favour

Well of sleep

 

I fell into a well of sleep

long dark tunnel so deep

My eyes wept with a sigh 

With my heart beating cry

Summoned from high above

Sent to rescue with his love

Under was an angel’s wing

Lifting my soul up to bring

Not my time for just a while

Awakened back with a smile

Where I fell also well known

Where Yusuf likewise thrown

Trying misfortune completed

The deceiver again defeated


The Grand Bazar


Through the gate arrives the caravan from East

Travelled the great Silk Road awaiting the feast

Ladened with goods of silk and spices sweet

The crowds it attracts with merchants to greet

Beggars too cry out in this great Grand Bazar

Raise their alms hands in the name of Allah

There is a fervent of a fragrance filling the air

Attentively silenced by muezzin call of prayer

As the sun makes way to a star glistened sky

Comes the shy moon hovering gracefully by

Thou beloved fill my soul with joy serene

My dreamy eyes of Lotus tears all within

Not these worldly goods I was waiting for

But the barakah blessing my heart to store

 


Oh Shams I have sat patiently out here 

Watching this drop of water slowly sink

I have seen it immerse to only disappear

Please explain reasoning do I need to link

Saddens of enlightenment a tear of my eye

Carries the weight of worlds treasure to pour

Through the depths of hearts veiling blue sky

Falling into waiting pond of love to ever adore 


Queue

Moment of scream you’re born

Enter in this world for sworn

Name whispered into the ear

Confirmed the soul you’re near

Likewise, are in a line of queue

In front or back of many a few

Seconds hours days of measure 

Maybe years of pain or pleasure

Length of path be short or long

Guided with a faith to be strong

Creature protected by its shell

Its family is a temporary dwell

In this journey you may roam

Finally, you will return home


Fallen leaf

 

A leaf has fallen from afar

Way beyond the Sirius star

With swirls spiralled down

Descending to a false throne

 

Sun with its moon pass by

As it breaks up a broken sky

Their tears fall as they cry

Below the barren lands dry

 

The messages of old return

Forgotten ways they yearn

The lanterns once so bright

It barley shimmers its light

 

Settles near the sacred stone

A place rarely left alone

Now clamour a catastrophe

Leaf fallen of a mystical tree

 


Gateway

 

Sacred walls are shrinking

Black stone is hard to reach

Blessed followers are circling

Listening to words of preach

Time relative to where you are

All around the land is sinking

Beaming is the light to the star

Descending branch of beginning

Prostrate to the worshipful Allah

Let windows of your heart be open

Bismillah Allahu Akbar Alhamdulillah

The only words heard and spoken




Grief

 

With a wounded heart I do grief

But in your presence, there is relief 

Hearing the blessings of my mother

This emptiness is like no other

That’s my journey to endeavour

Surely this pain I must endure

Until my return to you once more






Melodic


 My heart is singing a melodic song

With mystical drums beating along

My ears deafened by silent sound

With such noise of rhythms around   

My eyes blinded by a dancing light

With shimmering waves so bright

My tongue so helplessly numbed

With no movement to be dumbed

My veils that protect the inner skin

With sensational feelings within

My real music I have now found

With all my senses I am drowned







Colours


See the worlds colours change

Apart from growing signs of age

Each presence shines its colour

Skies blue with shades splendour

Mountains with snowdrop crests

Oceans with shimmering sunsets

Lands spread out for us to explore

With so many colours to adore

What creation of colours to love

Glory to him the owner high above

Who sends down this colour of light

To guide and protect a path of right


 






Game


A board game you may question to play

A test of knowledge with skills you say

It has its rules of guidance with an order

Together with an opposing competitor

Who will deceive you with many snares

A timed passage of wins, losses and dares

By no means an amusement for just ends

How your free will decides where to send

 


 






Layers


When peeling an onion, you do share

With little drop of tears with each layer

Alike the veils that surround you within

As you remove one by one you will begin

Seeing the light from the darkness apart

Nourishing the very soul of your heart

These layers of light give certain shield

From pains of your journey to be healed 


 


 






Praise


A time to praise the almighty high above

In a submission to our creator, we love 

This is a temporary place where we roam

In preparation to our real journey home



 


 






Compass


Our Earth has two Easts and two Wests

The Sun is ordained on its path as it sets

East and West have a casket of measure

Attracting the greedy in pursuit of pleasure 

Enticing precious glittery of trinkets behold

Another has what can’t be bought or sold




 


 






Rumi


"You are not a drop in the ocean.

You are the entire ocean in a drop"