For how long will I sit and yearn, for how long will I wait?
For how long will I pray and sing, how much longer in this state?
For days and nights your name’s on my lips, flowing with my every breath
Waiting for your visit, sublime, with relief for my distress.
But each morn I awake visionless, another day without sight
And each night I drift, yearning to gaze lovingly at your Light.
If sins blind the eye of the heart, then visionless shall I remain
But if your mercy encompasses all, then your vision shall I attain.
What’s to offer of precious gifts from one so deprived as me?
What’s to present to you that’s not from your generosity?
From you and to you, and even still you kindly accept
Such is your grace and beauty, so please show your blessed face.
Lacerated, shattered, blackened from shameless sins
But you’re the mender, you’re the doctor, you’re the medicine!
Gaze upon us, O Taha, with glances that mend and heal
Saturate us with your Light, that through you we see real as real.
O best of those who circled the ancient House of the Divine
O Chief of Prophets, Messengers, Saints, and all of creation combined.
They say, ‘Do this,’ ‘Read that,’—as if they’re tricks to lure you in;
Pray I shall, but with knowledge that you choose the where and when.
Secretly I hope that with this ode you will appear
In my dreams with your healing gaze, but the veiling I still fear.
But delay is not denial, so with the begging I shall endure
And when you appear I shall stand humbly, hoping for your cure.
If beholding you is reserved for those with eyes of purity
What hope is there for us, bereft of your gazes and security?
But if your vision, sublime and holy, reaches the sinful who yearn
Then rejoice we must—but due to your grace, not from what we earn!
Far be it for you to leave those who ask for your largess
Empty-handed, denied, deprived of your gentle caress.
A gaze and a touch, a smile and a prayer, removing all that ails
From souls sullen and tarnished, that without you are destined to fail.
Vessels of prayer, longing, and yearning—us Allah has made
Receive us, O Mustafa, and escort us to your loving shade
How fortunate your Companion Ubay, on whose chest your hand
Struck with love, removing his doubt, for Allah, Sublime and Grand.
O Taha, we ask of you, imploring from the depths of our souls
To gaze upon us with mercy, for our sins have taken a toll.
May Allah, your Lord and Master, sent on you eternally
Plentiful prayers and peace abiding, on you and your Family.
Your noble Folk and House whom you called the Saving Ark
And upon your Companions, the stars of guidance, who illuminate the dark.