O My Soul
بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ As translated by Shaykh ‘Abd al-Hakim Murad Timothy John Winter, Imam ‘Ali ibn Husayn al-Habshi ( q.s. ) wrote: “Should you not gain your wants, my soul, then be not grieved; But hasten to that banquet which your Lord’s Bequeathed. And when a thing for which you ask is slow to come, Then known that often through delay are gifts received. Find solace in privation and respect its due, For only by contentment is the heart relieved. And know that when the trials of life have rendered you Despairing of all hope, and of all joy bereaved, Then shake yourself and rouse yourself from heedlessness, And make pure hope a meadow that you never leave. Your Maker’s gifts take subtle and uncounted forms. How fine the fabric of the world His hands have weaved. The journey done, they came to the water of life, And all the caravan drank deep, their thirst allieved. Far be it from the host to leave them thirst...