A Muslim Convert Once Before

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   Shaykh Abu al-Fath Ghiyats ad-Din ‘Umar ibn Ibrahim al-Khayyami an-Nishaburi ( q.s. ) wrote:   “And do you think that unto such as you, A maggot-minded, starved, fanatic crew, God gave the Secret, and denied it me? Well, well, what matters it! believe that too.   Old Khayyam, say you, is a debauchee; If only you were half so good as he! He sins no sins but gentle drunkenness, Great-hearted mirth and kind adultery.   But yours the cold heart, and the murderous tongue, The wintry soul that hates to hear a song, The close-shut fist, the mean and measuring eye, And all the little poisoned ways of wrong.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   Richard Le Gallienne, born Richard Thomas Gallien, was the younger lover of Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde.   He was also the first the translate selected quatrains of Shaykh Abu al-Fath Ghiyats ad-Din ‘Umar ibn Ibrahim al-Khayyami an-Nishaburi ( q.s. ) into English, and popularised him in the West.   His translation, which is surprisingly good for someone who had no real training, was published as “Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam”.   It inspired the translation of a great many works into English, including that of Mawlana Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi ( q.s. ) and Shaykh Farid ad-Din ‘Aththar Abu Hamid ibn Abu Bakr Ibrahim ( q.s.) .   Shaykh ‘Umar al-Khayyam ( q.s. ) wrote, in his Ruba’iyyat:   “Allah, perchance, the Secret Word might spell; If Allah be, He Keeps His Secret well; What He hath Hidden, who shall hope to find? Shall God His secret to a maggot Tell?   The Qur’an!   Well, come put me ...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Shaykh Abu al-Fath Ghiyats ad-Din ‘Umar ibn Ibrahim al-Khayyami an-Nishaburi ( q.s. ) wrote:   “Ah Love!   Could you and I with Fate conspire, To grasp this sorry scheme of things entire? Would not shatter it a bit and remolded, Nearest to the Heart’s Desire!”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   Shaykh Abu al-Fath Ghiyats ad-Din ‘Umar ibn Ibrahim al-Khayyami an-Nishaburi ( q.s. ) wrote:   “In spiteful calumny you still persist, Calling me ‘infidel’ and ‘atheist’; My faults I will not deny, but prithee say, If foul abuse becomes a moralist?”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Shaykh Abu al-Fath Ghiyats ad-Din ‘Umar ibn Ibrahim al-Khayyami an-Nishaburi ( q.s. ) said, “Your hand can seize today, but not tomorrow; and thoughts of your tomorrow are nothing but desire.  Do not waste this breath, if your heart is not crazy, since the rest of your life will not last forever.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Shaykh Abu al-Fath Ghiyats ad-Din ‘Umar ibn Ibrahim al-Khayyami an-Nishaburi ( q.s. ) wrote:   “A shaykh beheld a harlot, and quoth he, ‘You seem a slave to drink and lechery’; And she made answer, ‘What I seem, I am, But, Master, are you all you seem to be?’”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Shaykh Abu al-Fath Ghiyats ad-Din ‘Umar ibn Ibrahim al-Khayyami an-Nishaburi ( q.s. ) wrote: “Blame not the drunkards, you who wine eschew, Had I but grace, I would abstain like you, And mark me, vaunting zealot, you commit A hundredfold worse sins than drunkards do.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Shaykh Abu al-Fath Ghiyats ad-Din ‘Umar ibn Ibrahim al-Khayyami an-Nishaburi ( q.s. ) wrote: “These fools, by dint of ignorance most crass, Think they in wisdom all mankind surpass; And glibly do they damn as infidel, Each one who is not, like themselves, an ass.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Shaykh Abu al-Fath Ghiyats ad-Din ‘Umar ibn Ibrahim al-Khayyami an-Nishaburi ( q,s, ) was the teacher of Shaykh Farid ad-Din ‘Aththar Abu Ḥamid ibn Abu Bakr Ibrahim ( q.s. ), the author of Manthiq ath-Thayr and other works.  In 1079, Shaykh ‘Umar al-Khayyam ( q,s, ) calculated the exact length of the year.  Modern science has since discovered that his calculation was off by 0.09 seconds.

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ In the year 1215 CE, Shaykh Farid ad-Din ‘Aththar Abu Hamid ibn Abu Bakr Ibrahim ( q.s. ), a Sufi master, wrote a story about his beloved teacher, Shaykh Abu al-Fath Ghiyats ad-Din ‘Umar ibn Ibrahim al-Khayyami an-Nishaburi ( q.s. ), a poet, a mathematician, and an astronomer, who made tents for his livelihood.  The story goes as follows.   “I went to visit my teacher, ‘Umar Khayyam, in the city of Nishapur.  It was a mild, windy spring day when I entered the city.  The bazaar hummed like a beehive with merchants and customers who were hurriedly coming and going.  There were all kinds of merchants: goldsmiths, pot makers, tailors, butchers, and others.   Suddenly, the melodic sound of minarets calling worshipers to pray vibrated in the bazaar.  All I could hear were the words, ‘God is great, God is great.’  Then instantly, everything stopped.  Silence fell on the bazaar and hung in the air.  Everyo...