Readers who swoon within the love-intoxicated poetry of Rumi must read the poetry of Shaikh Abil-Kheir. This renowned but little-known Sufi mystic of the 10th century preceded Rumi by over two hundred years on the same path of annihilation into God. He referred to himself as --Nobody Son of Nobody his expression of the reality that his life was subsumed in the Divine, and that the individual self had disappeared in the heart of God: Under this cloak is nothing but God. Introduce me as Nobody, Son of Nobody.' These are 195 short selections translated from the original Farsi. These poems deal with the longing for union with God, the desire to know the Real from the False, the inexpressible beauty of Creation when seen through the eyes of Love, and the many attitudes of heart, mind and feeling that are necessary to those who would find the Beloved--The Friend--in this life.
