' I Am Grace '...

Sophia (feminine aspect of God) calling to the soul:

Dearly beloved I have called you so often and you have not heard me.

I have shown myself to you so often and you have not seen me.

I have made myself fragrant so often and you have not smelled me.

Savorous food and you have not tasted me.


Why can you not reach me through the object you touch?

Or breathe me through sweet perfumes?

Why do you not see me?

Why do you not hear me?

Why why why?


For you my delights surpass all other delights

and the pleasure I procure you surpasses all other pleasures.

For you I am preferable to all other good things


I am beauty. I am grace.

Love me. Love me alone. Love yourself in me, in me alone.

Attach yourself to me.

No one is more inward than I.


Others love you for their own sakes.

I love you for yourself.

And you, you flee from me.


Dearly beloved, you cannot treat me fairly,

for if you approach me it is because I have approached you.

I am nearer to you than yourself, than your soul, than your breath.


Who among creatures would treat you as I do?

I am jealous of you over you. I want you to belong to no other,

not even to yourself. Be mine. Be for me as you are in me, though you are not even aware of it.


Dearly beloved let us go toward union.

And if we find the road that leads to separation we will destroy separation.

Let us go hand in hand. Let us enter the presence of truth,

Let it be our judge and imprint its seal upon our union forever.


-- Ib'n al-Arabi