Endless hours of YouTube binge watching over the weekend led me to a much forgotten, but loved treasure I has originally stumbled upon a few years back. It was a rendition of Bulleh Shah's "Ek Aliph" by Saieen Zahoor. It was as mesmerizing this time around as it was when I first listened to it. I also happened to hear it a few weeks into the violent death of Amjad Sabri, who was one of Pakistan’s most famous and respected musicians, celebrated for devotional songs from a centuries old offshoot of Islam with a focus on mysticism and asceticism called Sufism, of which both Shah and Zahoor hold lineage. The South Asian region in general, has somehow, over the years managed to stray away and eventually loose its rich roots of tolerance. An English translation of "Ek Aliph" will make all of us realize that not much has changed in the human condition between the 17th century and today. I just had to share it.
You read so many books
to know it all,
yet fail to ever read your
heart at all.
You rush to holy shrines to play a part,
Would you dare enter the shrine of your heart
You are quick to attack the evil one,
yet pride is a battle you have not won.
You grab for a star you can control,
yet fail to grasp the light in your soul.
Let the race end, my friend
Stop trying to be the one who knows,
for ‘God is One’ you need to know.
End the race, my friend
God is All we need! God is All!
Follow the wandering dervish!
If you deny the power of all that’s true,
God will not grant strength to you.
We are lost in this river of self,
no boat or streams are of any help.
End the race, my friend
Stop trying to know it all, my friend.
God is All we need! God is All!
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