An excerpt from "Death Before Dying"--Sufi poetry from the 17th century

My Granny Nanny Darling (yes–that is the name by which my grandmother prefers to be addressed) and I exchange letters, books and poems from time to time.  I shared with her some Bedouin poetry that I had come across in my grad school research and she shared the below excerpt from The Sufi Poems of Sultan Bahu 1628-1658.  Sultan Bahu was a Sufi saint and prolific writer.  I love the poem below--it captures beautifully many aspects of Sufism but also the prospect of facing death at the end of life.  He remains one of the most popular poets in India and Pakistan today.

Neither am I Sunni nor am I Shi’a–my heart is bitter with both

of them.

All long, dry marches came to an end when I entered the sea

of mercy.

Many nonswimmers tried and lost; a few climbed the other bank.

They made it across safe and sound, Bahu, who clung to the

guide’s hem.

From “Death Before Dying” 

More links:
Sufi Poetry Blog

Some of my favorite poetry books:

50 Shades of Islam: the Rise of Morocco's Democratic "Islamarchy"

BONUS LINK:  My entire (so far) grad school notes collection can be found here. 

Below is a paper I wrote recently on Islam in Morocco.  Here's a snippet.  As are most things, it's a work in progress.

"Failing to acknowledge the critical role of Islamism in Morocco ignores the role Islam plays as the connective tissue between all of its institutions. A democratic Islamarchy is a version of Islamism that is more palatable to Western democracies than Islamism itself in any other country. For as long as there is a pro-western authoritarian king in place, the public at large can extol the Islamists’ parliamentary rise, confident that King Muhammad will never allow the “one vote, once” phenomenon to occur, and confident that legislature will remaining an echo chamber—loud at times but void of power and prone to royal manipulation and division."

50 Shades of Islam: the Rise of Morocco's Democratic Islamarchy