“Waraqah min kitmb al-Andalus” (A Leaf from the book of al-Andalus), he
builds on a famous muwashsha.by the Andalusian poet and writer from
Granada, Lismn al-Dln Ibn al-Khaylb (d. 1374), who was reportedly betrayed
by his former student and colleague, the poet Ibn Zamrak. Lismn al-Dln Ibn
al-Khaylb’s prelude runs as follows: “May the rain cloud be bountiful to you
when the rain cloud pours, / O time of love union in al-Andalus!”^33 ‘Abd
al-‘Azlz al-Maqmli.finds in the betrayal and also in the experience and caliber
of Lismn al-Dln Ibn al-Khaylb something akin to his own life and experience.
Disappointed and forlorn, he advises his heart “to be alone in the void of
your sadness / In the alphabet of your rejection / to be a master in your
vices.”^34 He concludes, “Do not reach the river unless you are alone / Offer
fear the greenness of your eyes...And do not wait for somebody in the dis-
tant horizon.” The canticle turns into an elegy of the self, for the last words
run as follows: “Wait for the coming of death in this gloomy wilderness.”
Sufism and transgression
Sufism of the first generation in the eighth century may not offer poetic
patterns for subsequent transgression or transposition, but its language and
mode are transgressive in the first place. Its burgeoning into a discourse that
belies standardization sets the ground for deviational poetics and easily offers
its power therefore to modernist experimentation. Although many readers
associate the upsurge of Sufism in modern poetry with such figures as
Xalm.‘Abd al-Xabnr and Adnnls, the Iraqi critic, ‘Azlz al-Sayyid Jmsim, wrote
an early article on this issue in 1966, as a critique of the poem “Xalmyln
al-‘Ajam” (The Sultans of Non-Arabs) by the Iraqi poet ‘Abd al-Ra.mmn
Yuhmmzl(b. 1943).^35 Jmsim argues that this poem is divided into six “admo-
nitions/ beneficial pieces of advice” or Sufi offerings; each fm’idahspeaks for a
Sufi station,^36 but in context of twentieth century Sufism. These Sufi offer-
ings imply no reciprocity, and become, therefore, a meeting ground whereby
“neo-Sufism” (a term coined by Jmsim, p. 163), “is proud of the illuminations
of the early Sufis while keeping a distance. In this very distance emerges the
paradox; and as science intervenes, things get complicated and a battle takes
place.”^37 The critic thinks the poet deliberately relies on Sufism, to escape
engagement not only in contemporary Iraqi politics, but also in love, or
allegiance. In other words, the critic traces a deliberate deviational design
that makes use of the celebrated Sufi AbnYa zld al-Bisymml(d. 261/874 or
264/877–878), with his exerted effort to be “the smith of his own self,”
liberating the self from every obstacle that might separate it from God. Such
exertion enabled him to “shed” the Anm(I) in fanm’, obliteration, as “snakes
their skin.” Reaching this stage of ecstasy, the Sufi Shaykh gave way to
hisshaya.mt, accelerated utterances that drew orthodox criticism of Sufism.
Yuhmmzlmakes use of these hybrid and ecstatic utterances in his poem,
CONCLUSION: DEVIATIONAL AND REVERSAL POETICS