In My Soul

In
my soul
there is a temple, a shrine, a mosque, a church
where I kneel.

Prayer should bring us to an alter where no walls or names exist.
Is there not a region of love where the sovereignty is
illumined nothing,

where ecstacy gets poured into itself
and becomes
lost,

where the wing is fully alive
but has no mind or
body?

In
my soul
there is a temple, a shrine, a mosque
a church

that dissolve, that
dissolve in
God.

~ Rabia al-Adawiyyah

_____

From ‘Love Poems from God’ by Daniel Ladinsky.

Rabia al-Adawiyyah of Basra, Iraq, was a famous Sufi Saint, who was noted for her asceticism and many legends have been told about her life. Her concept of divine love was that God should be loved for His own sake and not out of fear.