Four Poems by Iljas Baker
Homage to ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani
mixing the good fruit with the bad
is the only way to earn a living,
those market traders lie.
but the Grey Falcon says:
go directly to the orchard,
select only the good fruits
from the tree
and let the bad fruits fall
and rot
‘Abd al-Qadr al-Jilani, a renowned Sufi and eponym of the Qadiriyya order, was born in 1077 in al-Jil in what was then Persia. He is widely known by the epithet The Grey Falcon (al-Baz al-ashab), which signifies his absolute faithfulness to his Lord. A slightly different version of this poem was published in Iljas’ recent collection of poems “Peace Be Upon Us”, Lote Tree Press, Cambridge, UK.
The Return
light becomes sound
and surah Ya Sin
drifts out
of a window left ajar
there’s
a potent warning
word of a bountiful garden
and
an unassailable truth
soon they will disperse
in twos or threes or more
say their salaams
under a starlit sky
and a cold waning moon
they cannot know
if their prayers will be answered
but they never doubt
the unassailable truth
of
the Return
Ya Sin is the thirty-sixth chapter of the Qur’an and is often recited in the presence of the dying and the deceased.
You Never Ask
He who knows his Self, knows his Lord
has multiple meanings
those passed along from thought to thought
come tinged with doubts
the best is revealed only to your essence
in a flash
like lightning
and you never ask was that lightning
A Gazan Sky
ashes fall
—from a Gazan sky
——to remind us
———of other lives lost
————while we are busy
—————finding
——————our own
Iljas Baker is Scottish and lives in Nonthaburi, Thailand. His poetry collection Peace Be Upon Us was published by Lote Tree Press, Cambridge, UK at the end of 2022. His poems have appeared widely in poetry anthologies and journals and are always about essential things.
14 August 2024 @ 11:48 am
It should have stated at the beginning that these four poems were recently published in Beshara magazine, July 2024. The notes were requested by the poetry editor of that magazine.
The magazine is above all concerned with unity in the contemporary world. It describes itself as an “independent, non-profit publication which aims to provide a platform for intelligent and thought-provoking material embodying a unifying perspective. Its concern is not with one particular field of activity, but with unitative ideas and initiatives as they arise in many different areas of contemporary thought.” See https://besharamagazine.com