Seeks they spirit to be gifted
With a deathless life?
Let it seek to be uplifted
O’er earth’s storm and strife.
Spurns its joys—its ties dissever;
Hopes and fears divest;
Thus aspire to live forever—
Be forever blest!
Faith and doubt leave far behind thee;
Cease to love or hate;
Let not Time’s illusions blind thee;
Thou shalt Time outdate.
Merge thine individual being
In the Eternal’s love;
All this sensuous nature fleeing
For pure bliss above.
Earth receives the seed and guards it;
Trustfully it dies;
Then, what teeming life rewards it
For self-sacrifice!
With green leaf and clustering blossom
Clad, and golden fruit,
See it from earth’s cheerless bosom
Ever sunward shoot!
Thus, when self-abased, Man’s spirit
From each earthly tie
Rises disenthralled t’ inherit
Immortality!
— Sufi Poem