Jalal ad-Din Rumi

>Afghanistan.

Did you know that the Taliban writes poetry?

They don't accept us as humans,
They don't accept us as animals either.
And, as they would say,
Humans have two dimensions.
Humanity and animality,
We are out of both of them today.

We are not animals,
I say this with certainty.
But,
Humanity has been forgotten by us,
And I don't know when it will come back.
May Allah give it to us,
and decorate us with this jewellery,
the jewellery of humanity,
For now it's only in our imagination.

(...)

The Troubled Shepherd

Your flute’s song is nostalgic,
O shepherd, troubled with the world’s civilization.
As you spend the nights by yourself in the dusty desert,
Your business is the song with flute, O shepherd.
Your old hair and dusty beard look very heavy,
O shepherd unaware of time.
May Allah make the world disappear, the jackal that would trouble you,
O shepherd, away from home from months.
May your songs’ poems not run out on the journey,
May you not be hungry in the desert, my dear.
Who will tend to your cracked feet and rough hands?
You haven’t seen any blessing or comfort, O vagrant shepherd.
Shoemakers are tired of pounding nails into your shoes,
You didn’t find new shoes, O shepherd without beauty.
You seem to have understood the secret of mortal life,
O disbeliever in the world of materials, shepherd.

(...)

At your Christmas, Bagram is alit and bright;
On my Eid, even the rays of the sun are dead.
Suddenly at midnight, your bombs bring the light;
In our houses, even the oil lamps are turned off.

(...)

Thunder

I am looking for whishes in the darkness of life
I am looking for my hopes mixed in among the soil.
The treasures of my whishes disappeared over time,
That's why, like Majnun: I am looking for deserts.
Affected by lukewarm tears,
I became a sea of mourning; I am looking for storms.
My feelings became upset with the feelings of other citizens
I am looking for a cure for the mind's thunder.
The courtyard of my love was ruined in the earthquakes of the time,
I am now wondering, looking for other courtyards.
The garden of my imagination was baked in the oven of cruelty,
I am looking for pain in imagination.
I, Ebrat, either went mad or have eaten hashish,
I am looking for flowers in thorns.

(...)

London Life

There are clouds and rain but it doesn’t have any character;
Life has little joy or happiness here.
It’s bazaars and shops are full of goods,
These kinds of goods don’t have a value.
Life here is so much lost in individuals that
Brother to brother and father to son, there is no affection.

Their knowledge is so great that they drill for oil in the depths of the oceans
But even this knowledge doesn’t t give them a good reputation.
I see their many faults and virtues with my own eyes, but what can I say?
O Sa’eed, my heart doesn’t have the patience to bear this.

A time is coming, a change is coming,
A revolt of white banners is coming*.
A white caravan of turban-wearers is coming from all directions
(…)
I dreamed last night that Evening was handcuffed,
Dawn was standing in front of it with its sword.

..............

PRAYER

Humble these wolf-like humans;
Humble these dogs in human clothing

(…)

My throat is full of the bitter smoke of gunpowder

(..)

Due to this crazy world of yours,
Craziness is biting at my neck;
In the past it was the role of the wild beast.

But now humans bite humans:
They are not content with their dignity.
Out of ingratitude they bite the sky.

They power made them forget Your power.
The rich bite the poor;
Show your power to them.

Show the fires of hell
To the scorpions of the world;
Show the house of the dragons to them.

(…)

You have spread this carpet of earth,
You have raised the sky without pillars,
You have no defect.

This whole world isn’t more than a mosquito to you;

(…)

You gave this tongue to me
With which I now ask: what is this, God?
Some are so wealthy.

Some are even in need of shrouds,
Some swim in rivers of wine,
Some others’ drinking water as their hearts’ blood.

Some lamps can run on water,
Others cannot be lit with oil and are put out.
My God! Don’t be upset with me, I apologize.

You know what you do, but the reason I cry is that
Your enemies are covered with blessings.
How long can I be proud of my hunger?

(…)

Fulfill this one wish of mine, O God,
My compassionate, my merciful God:

This difference among humans,
That one is on the earth and another in the sky,
Take this away with your power or take

My conscience, my feelings.

EMPTY SHELL

I thought it was an eagle but it turned out to be a crow;
Man wasn't made from him, and turned out neutral.
I trained him with the love of my heart;
I wanted to make a heart out of him, but he came out like lungs.
I held him with a great weight among the community;
He turned out just as light as a pack of straw.
He toyed with the jihadi resolve;
But it seems he turned out like the Russians.
He dances for US dollars,
We have said his fortune turned out sinister.
Khalis does not complain from anyone else;
The bullet in his own pocket turned out to be just an empty shell.

..............

The Waiting Bullet

The moon remains behind the clouds,
The tent is waiting.
Evening is close, someone will come;
The white sign of waiting hangs.
A youth wipes his sweat here,
A cart stands beside him.
There is no chewing gum in the bag;
Wheat is in it now, the bag is standing.
She performed the prayer in a dark room;
A bareheaded old woman is standing.
She has put her hands on the holy Qur’an;
With open hands she is standing.
She wants peace for her supplication;
High on the roof she is standing and praying.
Tiredness passed, the youth became cheerful;
In front of him, a smiling blossom is standing.
A grey dog is standing nearby;
A hungry goat is looking at its feet.
Behind him, a yellow boy is standing;
Dawn is close, a knock on the door.
The youth went out, the group is standing;
It's the gun of the others, the uniform of the others.
A small group of those people are standing;
They take him; the house grows full of noise and shouting.
A bullet stands in every barrel,
Tears are falling on his collar.
The moon is standing at the depth of the water;
Years passed but in this heart
The entire world is waiting, it’s not moving.
Nawa Jan Baheer
September 19, 2008

The world today is better than yesterday,
Tomorrow will be better than today.
Alas, Afghans don’t know how to go forward;
They are slipping backwards into dust.

>Naguib mahfouz is good. Not sure about the translations but reading him was a comfy experience, like reading an Egyptian Tolstoy or something.
meme me on him. I was kangz but I never really read anything egyptian/arabic

Yeah half a century of bombings and proxy wars will do that to a place

he did say arabic not arab. A lot of great persian and central asians wrote their works in arabic. Al-Khwarazmi was from uzbekistan and he wrote in arabic.

One of the reasons he is a good writer is because he wasn't very influenced by arabic literature. He always talked about tolstoy and dosto being influential to him. He loved his country deeply (which is rare for a modern day Egyptian), never left it, not even for the noble prize. He wrote novels about ancient Egypt, popularized the short story form, which was almost alien to arabic lit, memed the quasi-commie president (even though he had communist sympathies) and memed religion in Children of Gebelawi and got fatwa'd.
If you wanna check him out I'd recommend the Cairo Trilogy.

That's like saying Spinoza is a great Latin/Roman philosopher. Sure, arabic happened to be the Lingua Franca at the time, but don't get it mixed up.

Also, my experience is that Persian poetry uses a certain rhythmic economy that is difficult to translate without considerable awkwardness. One of our greatest poets, Ahmad Shamlou, has read aloud most of Rumis poetry. Put it in the background to get an idea of the sonical elements while digesting the philosophical ones. I often fall asleep listening to this.

youtube.com/watch?v=IL5lgbsLbLQ

Is sufiism unironically the greatest religious system in history? It has enough flexibility to cater to rational thinkers and it has enough edge to it to birth mighty warriors. For example, whenever a western philospher converts to islam its always suffism, like Rene Guenon. At the same time 3 of the great houses of the Mongol empire converted to sufi Islam.

Just look at how far the muslims fell once sufism was branded as heretical.

Is his stuff translated in english? My written arabic is at like a 5th grade level kek.
And Nasir was a fucking blight on egypt. Sure king faruq was on the "wrong" side of WWII (he hope le nazis would free him from english occupation) but the shitty semi-communism that nasir forced destroyed the economy for like 50 years. He also got rid of Sudan which was a huge agricultural asset.
Sadaat was ok, fought with the jews a bit and got sinai back from them, but he America too involved with the Egyptian economy, probably because the soviets shafted him so hard when he needed weapons for the 6 day war (that egypt won btw).
But by far the worst thing that Nasir did was give the Muslim Brotherhood a foothold and made it easy for them to make a shit ton of money.
I'm actually planning on moving back once I'm done with grad school. Cuckistan isn't doing it for me anymore, and I refuse to be a wageslave because of student debt.

every religion has pleb elements for masses and mysticism for elites.

How do I get into sufism?

>that he needed for the 6 day war (that egypt won btw)
How so?

I confused the 6 day war with operation badr.
Egypt lost sinai in the former and the army was essentially wiped out, and economy was completely shot from the lack of suez revenu.
Basically sadat's strategy was
"I want us to plan [the offensive] within our capabilities, nothing more. Cross the canal and hold even ten centimeters of the Sinai. I'm exaggerating, of course, but that will help me greatly and alter completely the political situation internationally and within Arab ranks."
Israel had fucking F4 Phantoms (that were so fucking good they're still in use to day) and most of the Egyptian air force was shitty MiG 19's. Still, they were able to storm ber lev and afterwards sadat went full >muh peace and was able to get sinai back diplomatically. Nasir would have pressed on, doubled down after invading sinai and probably would have lost everything. It's really a good thing he fucked off.
Too bad le jews had sadat killed though.

Try pic related