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Mystical Experience of Baba Kuhi
Baba Kuhi of Shiraz (~980 – 1050) was an Iranian Sufi poet-mystic. He traveled extensively in search of stories concerning Sufi shaikhs and their sayings, and he spent many years in retreat and prayer in a mountain cave just north of Shiraz. Of his works, a book on Ḥallāj (a Persian mystic) called Bedāyat ḥāl al-Ḥallāj wa nehāyatohu has survived.
The following excerpt from a poem by Kuhi describes his mystical experience:
I opened mine eyes and by the light of His face around me
In all the eye discovered – only God I saw.
Like a candle I was melting in His fire:
Amidst the flames outflanking – only God I saw.
Myself with mine own eyes I saw most clearly,
But when I looked with God’s eyes – only God I saw.
I passed away into nothingness, I vanished,
And lo, I was the All-living – only God I saw.
Quoted by F.C. Happold in Mysticism: A Study and an Anthology.
Photo Credit: Baba Kuhi from http://english.tebyan.net.
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