merchandize
(Islamer oi sawda loye)
With Islam as the merchandize
Has come the merchant new!
O ye ill-starred and sinners! Come
And make your marketing anew!
All your life you have merely lost.
Now is the time for you to take the stock.
He gives away Heavenly gifts
For a mere song. No profit he seeks!
The Quran’s ship is full of diamonds.
Pearls, emeralds and precious stones!
Take these away, as you will.
And all your abodes you fill.
For Kalima’s trifle, this merchant gives
Shafa ‘at’s precious gifts
Worth the stocks of seven kings!
Take them quick, whosoever wills!
On the market of Resurrection, those of you
Who would a gainful bargain make?
Should be this merchant’s customers,
And his seal of Shafa’at take!
From Allah’s Arsh he surely strayed
Into the city of Madina on earth.
Muhammad is his blessed name,
And his stock-in-trade: Allah the Great.
The more I take Muhammad’s name
(Muhammad nam jotoi jopi)
The more I take Muhammad’s name
The Sweeter it seems to me.
Who knew before that in this name?
So much of honey could be!
For the honey of this very name,
The bee of my mind doth hum and flirt!
And for the love of this very name,
I have lost my hunger and thirst!
Dearest to me is this name,
Which, like Mainun, I take;
And the nightingale sings
In the rose-bower of my soul
For this name’s sake!
For this very name I roam
And wend my way in life;
For this very name I do discard
Even the kingly throne!
May this name, O God! This blessed name
My mind perpetually pervades!
In my breast the
picture of Ka’ba
(Bokshmey amar Ka’bar Chhobi)
In my breast the picture of Ka’ba.
In my eyes Muhammad the Prophet.
O’er my head, the Arsh of God,
Whose song I sing on the path truly trod!
Majnun was mad for Laili’s sake.
I am mad for the sake of ‘La-ILah’!
The Lovers and Saints know me well
But the unenlightened call me deranged!
In my heart lies the garden of bliss
Where the nightingale always sings.
It’s the mercy of God they want to have.
But the love of God I crave!
In the Mosque of my mind,
A thousand Muazzins cry Azan.
In my mind’s tablet is writ the Quran
Which my soul reads day and night!
The Lady of Paradise my mother dear.
Hasan and Huseyn my tear.
No terror to me is the Day of Judgment
Or the difficult Pul-sirat!
Translation : Mizanur Rahman (late)
