Behold! the angels said:
"O Mariam! Allah has chosen you
and purified you -
chosen you above the women
of all nations."
~ The Qur'an 3:42
This year on 25th December on his site Ecstatic Exchange, American poet Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore shared a beautiful poem by the title: Five Short Meditations on the Virgin Mary. This poem was commissioned by Abdal-Hakim Murad for his essay appearing in the compendious volume, Mary, the Complete Resource, edited by Sarah Jane Boss and published in 2007.
Along with the poem, the poet who is also an initiate in the Sufi Path shared a personal experience related with Mother Mary, may God bless her soul. Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore's experience shared is reposted here:
Walking in the woods as is my wont in the morning
June 9th 2005 Philadelphia Pennsylvania after strong storms and
all the trees dry now creaking in the heat and humidity
thinking of this poem
thinking of Mary peace be upon her
walking along the trail wondering to myself about the
Sufi Tariqa of the Mariamiyya
I suddenly hear a crack like horrendous thunder seemingly from
far away but look up above me in time to see a
huge bough break from the top of a tall tree with a giant screech and
hurtle down toward me at seemingly supersonic speed
I step aside yelling “Allah!” automatically heart thumping
and the heavy branch crash-lands exactly where I
stood a split second before and breaks into four or five
raw pieces cracked and shattered and me shocked and grateful
thanking Allah over and over thanking Him with all my being
my position just under it one split second before happily
not there for it to
crash onto me now safe and sound at the side of the trail
I wonder at the force of it as I continue now to wonder
Allah’s full and Awful Power exposed to me direct from the
core of the universe as if sky and earth and mortality itself were
opened up in the blink of an eye
and my life actually only a literal hair’s breadth away
from death
At the Thursday night Sufi meeting I describe it in detail
to Baji our Pakistani shaykha and first thing she asks is
“What were you thinking just before the bough broke and fell?”
and when I tell her I was thinking of the Virgin Mary
she says without a moment’s pause
“Just as Allah protected and saved Mariam
so Mariam protected you
and saved you!”
~ credit / about Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore
# Related:
* Islamic views of Mary
* Mother Mary in Sufism and Maryamiyya Sufi Tariqa
* Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore
* Mother Mary in Qur'an
COMMENTS