my hajj , Written By Muhammad Ali Ghafoor,

My Hajj

I put off my raiment and wrapped myself

In the white linen shroud of the dead

In my own home, I sought to destroy my sense of self

And embark upon a journey towards you,

My Lord

'I am present, and at your mercy' I shouted for all to hear

You must have smiled thinking of the irony of my shouting now

What has always been true

And my every step was towards you

Merciful One

But not every step was away from me

For there is no 'me', oh absolute one

There is only you

I basked in the thought of your presence

As I, like the first of us made by your hand

Encircled your house in wonder

And how could I doubt your affection for me

My Lord

When you drew me near to your home

That blessed spot right underneath your throne

I touched its walls and clung to it in submission

And I asked with tears in my eyes

'Can you see me?'

'Will you save me?'

And I'm sure you must have smiled to yourself again

In loving exasperation, My Lord

At the naiveté of my plea

The gentle breeze of a desert's winter

Felt like a caress across my back

That you called me to your abode

Is it not enough to make even a deaf man weep-

With joy, in gratitude for the melody of your love?

I was there- in the center of centers, in the core of all that truly matters

Knowing all this, how could I ask if you would save me?

For it was for this very purpose that I had been called

And even the greatest of fools could see

That you behold every black jagged thorn

That you pull from my heart

And that you behold the radiant purity of my thoughts

When I try to come closer to you

And that you can easily pierce into me to see

That smallest particle of sentience

In the center of my centers buried so deep inside that

It could only be the truth

And the truth is that there is no ‘me'

My Lord

There is only you

In the midst of my journey towards you

I lay for a day in the hallowed plain

To which you would once again call us

Enshrouded now as I shall be then

In the mantle of the dead

The day waxed long and the sun lingered low

Men and their shadows fell prostrate

Grinding their foreheads into the dust

And at each other's feet

Underneath your blue-black shroud of clemency

Thickening into dusk, I saw written in the sky

Your name and the name of the Beloved

And thus day fell into night

And your mercy cascaded down

A blessing so relieving

Like cool dew falling on parched grass

During the most unforgiving of summer months

What ode could I write, oh Lord

In admiration of the poetry within your design?

Of this divine paradox in our existence

Of sending the mercy of the Beloved

In a land so merciless

This land, my lord, is one where no crops grow

Where water is more precious than many a life

Yet so richly you've endowed it!

There was water being spilled like

It was naught but blood

Rice and wheat scattered like stones and dust

Like they were naught but the bone of the Faithful

And the Fateful

Where heat and cold are both our enemies

And both warmth and shade places of respite

In the mosque of the Messenger

I wrote upon countless hands in musk, the beloved's name

Hoping that the love he represented

Would somehow seep into their very veins

And that those hands would rise for

Justice and virtue and goodness

For you, my Lord

For you are our God

And you are The God

And you are my God

And you are the only God

All in perfect symmetry

Your poetry transcends all life

It permeates our reality My Lord

For You are the only reality

If only we bother to see

And if only we bother to remember

To find you by losing ourselves

To die in order to truly live

To be slaves in order to be free

To win the greatest of victories in

The Surrender

Written By Muhammad Ali Ghafoor,

It is the wonderful Poetry
I love it . It depict the real scene of Haj .
May Allah bless you Ameen