He is God!
Praise be unto Thee, O my Lord, O my Lord! I cry unto Thee
from within the depths of my heart, within mine inmost being, the reality of
mine essence, the very core of my life. I call Thee to mind from mine outward
and mine inward self, from out my very bones and flesh and blood, from my soul
and heart and tongue and pen—aflame with the fire of my love for Thy chosen
ones, frenzied with yearning over Thy greatly favoured ones, those who have
cast away their lives upon Thy pathway and given up their own selves for love
of Thee, and their own blood for desire of Thee. They are the ones who have
made themselves the arrow’s target, who have found sweet the lance-head’s
biting steel, who craved that, for the upraising of Thy Word, their heads be
raised upon the spear-point, and that their hearts be torn apart—out of
adoration for Thy beauty, and yearning for Thy presence, and longing for Thy
love, and in ardently seeking to extol Thy glory, to be drawn unto Thy heaven,
and to be drowned in the sea of devotion unto Thee.
Among these was this youth, comely and sweet, he whom Thou
didst call ‘Alí the Less [1] in the kingdom of names, he whom Thou hast made,
in the kingdom of attributes, to be ‘Alí the Great. [2] For he, O my Lord, when
he did drink from the cup of bestowals at the hands of the cupbearer of Thy
grace, became drunken with the red wine of love for Thee, and there rose, over
the horizon of his heart, the bright rays of knowing Thee. Then was he
enraptured with the wine of desire for Thee, and out of longing for Thee he
sped to the martyr’s field, and following Thy path, he quit the bridal chamber
on his wedding night, he left his cushioned ease and joy for a place of
affliction and pain, and from his rank of honour and esteem was cast down to
the depths of humiliation and abasement.
