Poems for the Soul

[Malika]

Troubled Soul

 

By Hassan Radwan

 

When anxieties trouble my soul

and the night is heavy with sorrow

I look up to the heavens

where the angels hover amongst the stars,

 

I feel a gentle embrace so sweet and soft

Calming my mind

and healing my soul

Filling me full of peace and love

 

 

"Oh you whose throne enfolds the heavens and earth"

"Envelop me in your mercy and bring me back to your presence"

 

 

"To walk again in tranquil gardens"

"Wherein is neither suffering nor sickness"

"Nor pain nor misery"

 

 

The sky looks so perfect and beautiful

The stars shimmer while the Moon silently looks down

 

 

The air is fresh and clear,

Reviving my spirit and giving me hope

 

 

Can I believe that the dawn will bring

the answer to my prayers?

And the world will be a different place?

[Malika]

A poem of the soul

 

Imam abu Hamid al Ghazzali

 

..Much I have strained to make my soul obey,

But for whose sin I had not gone astray;

When I would be obedient, it was faint

And showed a strange distaste and unrestraint.

I wrestled with my soul as with a foe,

It bidding me to err, I saying no;

We were as ancient enemies at large.

I put on patience, to withstand its charge;

With troops of tempting it came forth to fight -

What patience could withstand such reckless might? -

Which gave it courage when its courage quailed,

And reinforcement when its forces failed.

Now I succeed, now it, in the affray;

Yet, when we meet, it ever wins the day.

I love it well, but it opposes me

As if I held it not in amity;

It is an enemy I cannot hate,

A memory I can ne'er obliterate.

Blindly it swims upon its sinful sea,

Clutching the hems of its iniquity;

I greatly fear, it it doth still rebel,

Its ruin in this life and, after, Hell!

Wherefore, O Lord, bring its repentance near

And wash away its sins in founts of fear.

If Thou, my God, its chastener shoudst be,

O whither shall it look for clemency?

Be Gracious then, and all its sins forgive;

Thou art its Lord, for through Thee it doth live.