Words of Paradise (Sacred Wisdom) (Hardcover)

~ Raficq Abdulla (Translator) "Music opens our hearts and surely ensnares..." (more)
Key Phrases: border details, Shams-e Tabriz

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Sublime verses from a great world mystic and modern bestseller--enriched for the first time ever by the art of his own time and culture

We are drunk on love, blatant with hope and adoration of the beloved..." In such passionate lines complemented by exquisite Persian miniatures, Words of Paradise weds word and image to convey the essence of the thirteenth-century scholar-poet Rumi, of whom The New York Times has said: "Not since the popularity of The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran in the 1960s has a poet made such a dent in American culture." More than fifty of Rumi's most intimate and lyrical poems, in a new translation that reflects the intoxication of the ecstatic state, are complemented by medieval miniatures from the legendary Khalili collection of Middle Eastern art in London.

Here are Rumi's love lyrics to the Shams of Tabriz--the inspirational, mysterious dervish who came into his life unbidden, forged with him a deep spiritual union, then abandoned him and left behind a yearning that Rumi transfigured into the divine Beloved. Here also are passages from Rumi's great didactic epic, the Masnavi-ye Ma 'navi, with its countless interweaving tales and mystic teachings. Prefaced by a discussion of Rumi's life and philosophy, Words of Paradise is a perfect introduction to Rumi and Sufi mysticism--and a lavishly produced, richly decorated gift book in the tradition of Viking Studio's The Message of St. Francis and Vision. Art lovers and latter-day seekers will want it always at hand.

About the Author

Rumi, or Jalal ad-Din arRumi (1207-1273), was a great Sufi poet and mystic. His major work was the Masnavi-ye, an exposition of Sufi wisdom in approximately 27,000 couplets.

Raficq Abdulla, a poet and writer, has written programs for British television and radio, including a series on the life of Muhammad. He lives in London.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 109 pages
• Publisher: Studio; 1 Amer ed edition (April 10, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670889350
• ISBN-13: 978-0670889358
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,876,725 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Delicious Taste from Rumi's Cup of Love, April 19, 2000

By A Customer

A delightful book which stands out through the beauty of its art work, and even more through the power of its poetic vision. Raficq Abdulla has brought this 700-year-old poet and mystic to life in a way which speaks to those who are seeking an experience of Rumi's spirituality, but equally those who delight in the sheer sensuousness of his erotic imagery. Although the poems are well grounded in the spirit of Rumi's originals, Mr Abdulla hasn't shied away from interpreting them in a way that is inclusive of his modern audience - notably, the earthly image of the heavenly Beloved is no longer exclusively male, much in keeping with more modern perceptions of the nature of God. Altogether, the poems provide a delicious taste from Rumi's cup of Love.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars spectacularly beautiful expressions of love, December 18, 2006

By	elizabeth benson-udom "writress worder" (danville, california) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Words of Paradise Selected Poems of Rumi (Sacred wisdom) (Hardcover)

in this book of selected poems by rumi, interpreted by raficq abdulla, illustrated with persian and islamic manuscripts and published for the "bargain" aisles of barnes & noble, i found the most extraordinary introduction to islamic poetry.

i am interested in reading more about islam, because i don't understand it at all, and i want to learn more from the poets about the kind of belief system that inspires young men to commit a bloody jihad in the name of allah and the 41 virgins. i will never understand 911, or where that kind of hate comes from, or the perpetuating historical circumstances that continue to fan the flames of hate from arabs toward jews, jews toward arabs, arabs toward america, america toward arabs. i will never understand how the muslims i've met and loved, observed from afar as a friend or neighbor or fellow mom, can be part of the culture of terrorists we take off our shoes at airports because of.... i imagine these terrorists are like the clansmen of my race--ones i would not claim as indicative of my kind of christianity. and since we are at war because of some disagreement among the gods, and the contempt their devotion inspires, i thought i might spend a little holiday time learning what i could from this very beautiful and intriguingly affordable book.

on the whole, this work is eloquent, beautifully illustrated, an extraordinary and in some places highly erotic interpretation of islamic devotion. in abdulla's introduction, he says, "reading rumi's poetry is like making love. we should be ready to lose ourselves in it, as only then will we find the Other, that greater energy which contains us." he is right, of course, the learned man who interprets this extraordinary work, and conveys the author's meaning with a devoted touch.

i could not bring myself to write in this gem of a book due, in part, to the pure beauty of the illustrations, with each page appearing as a piece of art. where usually i regard my scribbling as a way of loving a book better, this edition kept me wanting to preserve the pristine pages. as a consequence, i cannot list for you, as i usually do, all the brilliant lines and passages that affected me so deeply.

another difficulty i face is in telling you about the individual poems--as they are unnamed. there is, however, scripture like notations at the bottom of each passage. one i particularly love, for the universal story of acceptance of all religions, is mathnavi ii, 3668. with deference to the author, rumi, and his interpreter, abdulla, i will retell this one work here:

o friend do you see this sky-planted
tree of knowledge, you who know?
see how high, how generous
the rich tapestry of shade from it flows,
the merciful vein of water as great
as life-giving as pliant as the ocean.
but in your ignorance you see only
the opaque husks, the futile motions
of forms, for you fail to drink from
the fountain-head of the one: you only see
the names which crush and crowd
the traffic of your senses--sun and tree
capricious lake dressed in silver, growling clouds
heavy with thunder -- make their entry
as auspicious names, glinting facets
of the diamond of the one again and again
countless words and notions kissing
the fine compliant air like a curtain of rain.
the One may be father to you, to me another,
to yet another a new-born son,
he is justice and wrath, mercy and vengeance,
revelation of faith, cherished. he runs
like a river through the fertile eden
of particular forms disposing of dancing names,
all this show seems sundry different, contradictory,
paradoxically it's all the same;
made up of a million prancing disruptions
which our credulous minds deceive
as we chase the froth of names as truth and destination
to the end of life and only believe
in what we see and say, we miss the mark,
the salt which makes us thirst we cannot conceive
of in what is inconceivable - so why tie yourself
so closely as your blood with seductive labels
only to be sullied, taken apart, besmirched,
gulled and clogged like dung-filled stables?
travel lightly o friend with your enchanted senses,
take careful stock leaving names behind
so you may be guided to the pity and pith of things
where resides the One; there your heart you'll find.
we quarrel and coral our faiths in walled enclosures
of demeaning words, those preposterous names.
but only pierce the surface of your eyes, see
beyond your blinding sight, bathe in his eternal flame.


this, beyond the love-making poems of devotion that remind me of the bible's song of solomon, beyond the whirling dervish poems and the access they open up for me to the ecstatic experience of the devoted, beyond the loss and loneliness poems of being human, here, without the beloved god...this poem gives me access to the thing i, too, believe. all the gods are the one big creative force that gives us all life. if we could just quit trying to label that one god, and quit fighting about who's brand and version of the one god is better than another, perhaps, perhaps, perhaps, we could take a closer look at our humanity and find it is the same, too.

i know this is simplistic. i know this is too easy. i know what i'm saying is naive and just like a girl...and it is. just like a girl who grows up to be a woman who grows up to have children she loves, to want as i want my children to be able to live in a world with muslim mothers who love their children, and jewish mothers who love their children, and hindu mothers who love their children, and buddhist mothers who love their children and to entrust, to all our children, the love of our particular devotions, too. and for those devotions to be seen as a spectacularly beautiful expression of love--and never to be used to start wars our children will have to fight by spilling each other's blood.

anyway, this beautiful book gave me a better glimpse at something--and in it, i found a place to begin to try to reach toward understanding. of course politics is not poetry...and this whole war torn world is again at the mercy of the righteous and devoted. devotion, in any religion, is always beautiful in words...just not always in the world. in this book, islam is conveyed through rumi, as something beautiful.

5.0 out of 5 stars "Paradise" is a paragon!, March 28, 2008

By	Allegra Donna "Dope S" (Louisiana) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Words of Paradise: Selected Poems of Rumi (Hardcover)

"Words of Paradise: Selected Poems of Rumi" is a must read for lovers of poetry in general, Rumi in particular, and of Middle Eastern artwork. The text, illustrations, paper quality and various notations in "Words of Paradise" make it a paragon of bookbinding. "Words of Paradise" features fifty-six works by Rumi, interpreted by little-known Raficq Abdulla. Adulla's interpretations are masterful, lyrical, respectful and utterly beautiful. Without being prohibitively long and academic, the various non-poetic sections (Introduction, Notes about the Poems, and About the Manuscripts) wonderfully contextualize and situate these works in Rumi's own life, in the atmosphere of 13th century Persia, and in the literature of the Islamic world. Unlike a textbook, they bracket the book and do not intrude on the text of the poems with footnotes and superscripts. The cover jacket and title page advertise that this book is "Illustrated with Persian and Islamic Manuscripts". Nearly all of the book's 109 pages are gorgeously illustrated and were chosen because they are related to the poetry on the page. Rumi has achieved mass-appeal and the market is flooded with Rumi books. These beautiful illustrations are one of the main reasons for purchasing this particular book. What it lacks in volume of text, it compensates with illustration and the already-mentioned "About the Manuscripts" section gives insight into the scrupulous time and care that was taken to pair the texts with the illustrations. Of course, Abdulla's interpretations are not lacking. His treatment of Rumi's works is not second to the more well-known Rumi translator Coleman Barks. This book is a more than worthy addition to one's bookshelf whether it is one's first or fifth encounter with Rumi. Rumi's works were a labor of love, so was the creation of "Words of Paradise: Selected Poems of Rumi" for Raficq Abdulla and the team at Frances Lincoln publishing company.