Muezzin

SUFI86_MASTER_ART_FILE-4DEC2013MH.inddby Charlotte Heckscher

Most people go to Egypt to see the pyramids, but I believe I have come here for the rare pleasure of sitting at a café in Khan al Khalili,

where Naguib Mahfouz wrote his Nobel-winning novels about ordinary life in Cairo, to sip hibiscus tea and take notes. I’ve packed a book in my suitcase and into its margins I’ve copied the same seven lines over and over till I can recite them by heart.  But the book isn’t Mahfouz, its Rumi.  The lines are:

Lo, I am with you always,

You promised that,

And when I realized it was true

My soul flared up.

 

Any unhappiness comes from forgetting,

Remember, and be back close

With the Friend.

 

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