My heart had various longings, But since I laid my eyes on You, they’ve all become one.
Those I used to envy has envied me, and I became the lord of mankind, since you became My Lord.
My loved ones and enemies only blamed me on my love for You out of their oblivion to the magnitude of my affliction.
I left everyone to their world and their religion busy with my love for You, oh my world and my religion.
You lit two fires in my liver: One between my ribs and the other between my guts.
كانـت لقلبي أهواءٌ مفرّقــة فاستجمعَتْ مـُذْ راءَتـْك العين أهوائي
فصار يحسدني من كنت احسده وصرتُ مولى الورى مُذْ صرتَ مولائي
ما لامَني فيك أحبابي وأعدائي إلّـا لغفلتهم عن عُظـمِ بَلوائــــي
تركتُ للناس دنياهم و دينهـم شغلاً بحبـّك يا ديني ودنيائــــي
أشعلتَ في كبدي نارين واحدة بين الضلوع و أخرى بين أحشائــي
قصيدة “كانَت لِقَلبي أَهواءٌ مُفَرَّقَةٌ”؛ الحسين بن منصور الحلاج
Dina Al-Mahdy: Award-winning Writer and Translator 
Thank you Dina for sharing Al-Hallaj’s profound words. They cut so deep, and take me beyond the comings and goings of the mind and life – straight to the timeless, deathless.
How wonderful that this is so, so many centuries later, and in such a different culture as when they were first spoken!
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