Background

The path of love is very interesting and as of yet it seems to be the most influential thought on my poetry. I first began my journey at the period when I began connecting with poetry when I listened to some of Rumi’s poems. Back then, however, I didn’t understand what he meant by love.

I remember listening to a line where he said ‘love is the astrolabe of Gods mysteries’ and immediately I thought what you’re probably thinking now, what on earth is an astrolabe? What is this way that he is describing love? What is love according to Rumi. Hence began a 2 year journey studying this concept.

A few years and a bunch of books, lectures and correspondence with Rumi experts like Dr Omid Safi later, I discovered that Rumi (and the Islamic Sufi scholarly tradition which has built up in the persian speaking world) views love as an attribute of God. A cosmic force that is spread out in the world and the aim of these people was to connect with this force that acts as a transformative purifying process in peoples lives.

Its a force that connects you with God, helps you establish justice on the earth and a force that ‘leads people home’ as Dr Omid Safi would say. A force that takes you back to God. I was struck by this unique but popular tradition which I had absolutely no idea about coming from the UK from a Somali background.

It was only during my time in the Netherlands, where I met so many different communities across the world where I stumbled across this well thought out tradition. I had a game-mentality towards the world. My mind was influenced by materialism and (until now in the UK) I noticed that people in the western world, particularly the UK, judge themselves based on their outward external successes. This was all set to change because of the mystics.

My Thoughts

This tradition has certainly shifted my perspective and the way that I look at the world around me. I’m still new to studying the works of the Islamic mystical poets but it is certainly very interesting. I had what I would describe as a mystical experience. I felt this feeling, the best way to describe it would be to say that in one moment I felt the total harmony of my life with the world around me.

Emotionally I felt like my heart was opening up and this was helped by the beauty of the Netherlands and having a side job as a delivery driver in a country where you could bike around on designated bike lanes and enjoy the view of the nature. I had this incredible appreciation for life and my intuitive powers were heightened. These feelings have remained.

Thereafter I turned inwards and after a few years I discovered who I was although for a long time the inward journey was painful. After sometime I understood myself, why I did previous actions, what led me here and how I began to forgive myself as well for my mistakes.

The path of love, as explained by the Persian mystics was appealing because they spoke of such experiences which I was undergoing. They discussed the realities of the world and they stressed the importance of loving other human beings. At this period I first came across humanism as well.

This had a profound effect on the way I viewed power structures in society. In the way I viewed people and power. I realized that I needed to become more human which was what the mystics said but it was something I was unaware of. There is so much dehumanizing going on around the world and it was something I was used to.

I even dehumanized myself. There was a period where I thought (and many young men must think the same) that my worth came from my results. That I had to be perfectly strong and successful for my parents, siblings, friends and the community. There was no room for vulnerability of weakness. Its no wonder why I ended up getting burnt out when I was younger.

For a while I rejected this thought. I would say for two reasons, one because it was unlike anything I have ever read before so it challenged my paradigm and two because I believed that in life I must be strategic and rational. Once I realized that these poets displayed intellectual sophistication and were extremely creative I realized that I couldn’t put them in a wrong box.

They were intellectual poets and thought leaders. The world would be a better place if it is led by love. The best leaders are leaders who are compassionate and justice in society is the most loving thing someone could do. The military generals/politicians I had read about until then were ruthless and disconnected from their human side.

I agreed with them from a intellectual level. As a poet I admired the beauty they created in their verses and it touched me. They displayed knowledge, precision, skill and sophistication. I ended up looking up to them. Unity, spirituality, justice, mercy were all things the world needed.

So after realizing I was on board from an intellectual level I thought about how I felt regarding them. Deep down, my intuition felt positively about them. Now intuition is complex but for a million different reasons I knew why they were correct and my intuition calculated it quickly and that’s why I was so drawn to them. From an emotional angle, I was connected with them as the beautiful verses of love rippled through my heart.

From a strategic angle, being a poet of love is also the ‘right chess move’ in the external world. We are all sick and tired of egos, individualism and this society that worships the self. We are tired of the unsophisticated debates that we see on TikTok about gender and race. The people want to see beauty, compassion and love emanating or coming in the form of a poet. I know this in my bones. So as a poet, the path of love is the path to take.

To connect with people, organizations and the world from this clear paradise. This strategic heaven where the world makes sense, where my thoughts are clear and where my intuitive powers are active. Thank you for reading this blog post.