I was there, sitting…

I was there, sitting in a corner of your life, observing your comings and goings, your painful falls, your leaps of joy and hope.  I was there, sitting in a corner of your life, observing you live as a small child, cry like an adult, suffer like a human being… 


 


 


I saw your solitude, I would have liked to be your brother.  I would have liked to know everything about you, to understand you, to accompany you, to listen to you, to speak to you…  I would have wanted to feel you, to feel you deeply, to forefeel you.  I was sitting in a corner of your life, sad for your sadness, powerless… strong out of my love.  I would have liked to be your brother.  I saw your solitude. 


 


 


I was sitting and I saw your prayers, I heard them without always having understood them.  You did not talk about yourself expect through others: you prayed the poor, the oppressed, the abandoned.  You prayed them as much as you prayed for them.  I was sitting in a corner of your life, I saw your solitude… I would have liked to be your brother. 


 


 


A stranger… that does not like what the people like and that the people end up liking.  It was this teaching, of course, and we loved you so, so much… and your solitude.  I prayed to understand, cried of not grasping.  I observed your comings and goings sitting in a corner of your life


 


 


A passer-by.  You were a passer-by, a brother, a friend.  I knew nothing of your pains, nothing of your joys, nothing of your wounds.  Nothing of you.  I was sitting in a corner of your life, I would have liked to be your brother and I met your solitude… I remembered the hermit’s story who knew and said nothing.  That companion of Moses who refused the questions. He taught him patience and humility, the question without the response, togetherness and solitude, doubt and certainty, love and detachment… 


 


 


I was sitting in a corner of your life, I observed you.  I had a thousand question, you had but one answer.  I wanted to speak, you were speaking the silence.  You were so near and yet so far.  I looked for your being and you taught me the meaning.  Saint Augustine distinguished between two sufferings; you taught me two loves.  I liked not knowing how to love you for I learned to love beyond this love. No one is enough for anyone, isn’t it?…  In a corner of your life, I observed this love.


 


 


You loved.  I loved you.  I observed your prayers, I leaned closely to the whispers: We ask You for Your Love, the love of those whom You love, deeds which will allows us to attain Your Love… and you cried and you smiled.  I was sitting in a corner of your life, I would have liked to be your brother, I saw your solitude, I liked your freedom. 


 


 


I liked your strength and I pray that He welcomes your fragility.  No one, ever, is enough for anyone.  I remained there, sitting, in a corner of your life. 


 


 

9 تعليقات

  1. Assalamu alaykum…

    very emotional…a scholar or a teacher or who he may be…
    if you were his apprentice, you, our teacher, the silent lessons are all we’d hope to once learn.

  2. Thanks Brother Tariq,

    Thanks for this beautiful poem of yours.It’s so inspirational. The fragrance of your words soothe my heart and brought a freshness into the deep of my soul.

    Noorani.

  3. 19 June 2005 is the aniversary of the death of Dr Ali Shariati one of the founders of modern islam, after jamaleddin afghani and allame eqbal. when i was reading your poem, i remembered him and remembering his teachings i repeated, « I would have liked to be your brother, I saw your solitude, I liked your freedom ». many thanks for your nice and deep poem,
    for those who do not Shariati this site might be helpful, see a poem on the site «  »One », in front of it, « Zeros » to infinity! »

    http://www.shariati.com/

  4. Thankyou Dr. Ramadan for sharing that intense soliloquy with us. It such a brave and tender gesture that shows that rather than pontificating from some ivory tower, unfeelingly filled with judgments, you engage passionately in humanity’s struggles and dilemmas. It makes us feel you are one us and feel our pains and sorrows, suffer the same ‘thousand shocks that flesh is heir to’. So many times our leaders are filled with a cold legalism which unless mediated through the heart becomes almost inhuman. Isn’t the litmus test of anyone truly religious compassion? You inspire us to continue on the road to spiritual evolution and deepen our imaan, which like a living flower of deep hues, needs to cultivated to be a continous and miraculous growth. Jazakullah.
    sarah,sydney

  5. Thank you dearest brother Tariq. I still can’t read it without crying my eyes out. I have a hard copy of it and hope to one day run into you so you can sign it for me.

    Please come back to London,soon.

    Wa salaam.

  6. I recently discovered your site in relation to my search for comprehensive understanding in the midst of a very saddening development lately…what a blessing to read the words of a human being who combines a very sharp eye as to the political mechanisms in the world of today with a profound spiritual love for existence.

    /Isabelle
    February 2006

  7. baraka Allaho fiek and May Allah write it down in your sahiefaat.

    Please try to visit us in Belgium if you have the possibilities.

    Best regards.

    Ali

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