Shaikh Abu Sa'id Abul-Khayr (967-1049) came from Turkmenistan and is considered by some as the Father of Persian Sufi Poetry. Farid ud-Din Attar referred to him as his spiritual teacher.
The main focus of his poetry is liberation from the I, which he considered the only cause of separation from God and to which he attributed all personal and social misfortunes. He believed that to enter the realm of the Beloved Friend was impossible to achieve through personal effort alone. One also needed divine grace and the guidance of an illuminated Sufi.
If you do not give up the crowds
you won't find your way to Oneness.
If you do not drop your self
you won't find your true worth.
If you do not offer all you
have to the Beloved,
you will live this life free of that
sweet pain which makes it worth living.
~
If you are seeking closeness to the Beloved,
love everyone.
Whether in their presence or absence,
see only their good.
If you want to be as clear and refreshing as
the breath of the morning breeze,
like the sun, have nothing but warmth and light
for everyone.
~
Be humble.
Only fools take pride in their station here, trapped in
a cage of dust, moisture, heat and air.
No need to complain of calamities,
this illusion of a life lasts but a moment.
~
Suppose you can recite a thousand holy
verses from memory.
What are you going to do
with your ego self, the true
mark of the heretic?
~
To your mind feed understanding,
to your heart, tolerance and compassion.
The simpler your life, the more meaningful.
The less you desire of the world,
the more room you will have in it
to fill with the Beloved.
~
The best use of your tongue
is to repeat the Beloved's Name in devotion.
The best prayers are those in
the solitude of the night.
The shortest way to the Friend
is through selfless service and
generosity to His creatures.
~
Those with no sense of honor and dignity
are best avoided.
Those who change colors constantly
are best forgotten.
The best way to be with those
bereft of the Beloved's qualities,
is to forget them in the
joy of silence in one's corner of solitude.
~
Let sorrowful longing dwell in your heart,
never give up, never losing hope.
The Beloved says, "The broken ones are My darlings."
Crush your heart, be broken.
~
Beloved, show me the way out of this prison.
Make me needless of both worlds.
Pray, erase from mind all
that is not You.
~
Have mercy Beloved,
though I am nothing but forgetfulness,
You are the essence of forgiveness.
Make me needless of all but You.
~
Every time your head touches the ground in prayer,
remember, it is to remind you to put down that load of ego
which bars you from entering the chamber of the Beloved.
