The Snare Of Love Poem by Mystic Qalandar

Those who fell into love's snare
and surrendered without fear
rose from the floor of selfhood
and drifted through the skies of nothingness.

In their hearts
no fear remained, nor desire—
only stillness:
the stillness
from which the first sound was born.
For love awakens
all that is other than God.

Those who burned
in the light of the Radiant Face—
when their hearts turned to ash,
from that same ash they rose again,
like the phoenix, to play love's game anew.

When I drank the fire of love by name,
I found every being breathing love.

The King of Love, the Simurgh,
on Mount Qaf,
bound my soul with the chain of beauty.

I—once a royal hawk of longing—
beheld the truth of the Simurgh,
and in that seeing,
the secret of eternity was revealed.

The Simurgh is none other than myself.
Within my depths,
in every fold of my being,
echoes the call: "Am I not your Lord? "
And each breath answers, "Yes, "—
blooming like a flower of light.

In that darkness,
I found the root of radiance.
In that poison, the sweetness of life.
In that captivity, the horizon of eternity.

By the oath of your tresses, O Beloved—
within this bondage,
I have found perfect freedom.

My soul no longer rests
upon the shoulders of the morning breeze;
it moves to the rhythm of your shadow.

These very tresses, this very chain—
this is my Ka‘bah,
this is my God.

—November,3,2025