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Imam Khomeini (R.A.) A Great Poet
Imam Khomeini (R.A.) was a person who, by his auspicious presence in the world of coercion and deception, voiced the theme of awakening. He showed the way to those who had gone astray, serving from the decanter of love to those who thirst for truth.
Centuries passed and the dormant earth remained expectant until the ‘alma mater’ of times graduated a son such as [Imam] Khomeini (R.A.), a guide to the path of truth and a demonstrator of the path of love and religion.
Islam had remained covered under the veils of deception imposed on it by tyrants and rulers dispensing coercion and cruelty. These enemies of human happiness and salvation had concealed the beautiful face of Islam, until the rise of a man through a power, which arose from faith in the Almighty, and his own true devotion.
He taught Muslims the true face of Islam and how, through uprising and valiant ‘jihad’, Islam could be saved from the pestilence in which it was engulfed.
Why was Imam Khomeini (R.A.) elevated to such a station, and how had he become the bright, shining sun? Truly, if this were not the case, the rulers of the East and the West, and their lackeys would not have undertaken such an extensive challenge to an epic man!
The cause for so much honor and dignity is that Imam Khomeini (R.A.) was assimilated in ALLAH (SWT) and the divine religion of Islam. Martyr Ayatollah Seyyed Muhammad Baqer Sadr has said “Melt away in Imam Khomeini even as he melted away in Islam.’’
“ Oh for the heart-raptured lover
Rapture’s all that’s in thy wine
For me save this rapture alone
What else has this life’s confine?
If they are a heart-raptured lover;
Put soon then thyself aside
Twixt you and him there’s none.
But wall of your self-pride.’’
That is how Imam Khomeini (R.A.) has acknowledged life and all that has being and existence. He considered man’s worth in his seeing nothing but ALLAH (SWT), and he interpreted man’s liberality to mean that he be tied to the beloved’s tress and ringlet, and see nothing nor be mindful of anything save the One and Only Divinity.
“I have shunned my self love,
So do I now exist?
O have your gracious look at me
This insignificant gist.’’
In the course of his blessed life, by his pen and tongue, Imam Khomeini (R.A.) presented to humanity all that he had received from the divine source of grace.
He wrote books, preached sermons, wrote messages and, by his everlasting will and testament, penned the final chapter of his guiding life. In all these, the Imam (R.A.) tried to speak in the language of the people or his audience.
In his divine mystic, peripatetic journeys, Imam Khomeini (R.A.) had gained access to secrets that were concealed from others. Some of those secrets found manifestation in the guardianship of this noble personality.
Others are reflected in his ardent, passionate and stirring odes and lyrical poetry.
Imam Khomeini’s (R.A.) poetry is indeed the hidden secret between him and that ‘’Unique Friend, ‘’ the One for whose love the Imam lived.
“O for the day
That I burn like a lover
Always for Him, and gaze
At His sweet face
In drunkard’s daze.’’
If he tolerated derision by the ignorant, if he traded his pride, it was for Islam and ALLAH (SWT). If he waged ‘jihad’, that too was to please the Lord.
From one point of view, the poetry of Imam Khomeini (R.A.) is a compendium of all aspects of his personality. His turbulent spirit visited all corners and horizons; the light of his character radiated to all stations.
The Imam’s poetry comprises his only unspoken secret for which there was no audience in this world, for only words could withstand the weight of such unfathomable mysteries. Words are a divine blessing for mankind: ALLAH’s (SWT) relation with men is through words.
Words were a ‘well’ for him in which to put his head, and whisper his hidden secrets. This is how Imam Khomeini’s (R.A.) verses found form and how he occasionally composed some poetry
The poetry of Imam Khomeini (R.A.) was Gnostic in expression and meaning, and as his mystic personality was infinite, his lyric poems and odes have multiple strata; each reader enjoys this ocean of insight and meaning according to his capacity for understanding.
Due to its depth and wealth of meaning derived from Islam, one of the characteristics of Persian [Farsi] Gnostic poetry is that meanings do not only appear on the surface of words. In fact, mystic words and terms are all used figuratively, and their real meanings are hidden. Man can better understand reality through an allegory.
In the Holy Qur’an wherever the Almighty speaks of heaven and hell, He uses names of objects men can recognize, such as palace, tree, stream, beautiful woman, silk cloth, honey, fire, etc., all for the better comprehension of the reader. Matter, however, does not, like this world, bind the Hereafter. Things that exist there differ from things that exist here on earth. So as this world is figurative in relation to the Hereafter, these objects are used allegorically.
The core of Gnosticism is love. When love comes to the fore, a lover and a beloved enter the picture: when the poet speaks of a lover whose heart has been burned by love’s fire, he is impelled to use whatever metaphor, allusion, and such figurative terms as exist in his language.
The poet has no other elements available to him: he is obliged to make use of external and real elements for stating and expressing internal concepts, thus spanning a bridge between matter and sense, exterior and interior, real and figurative.
The process of the creation of the world is also in this manner. Man’s progressive course from the world of matter to heaven, from material to moral and beyond matter towards perfection takes place in similar fashion. If it weren’t so, man’s movement and the progression of the world toward perfection would all be meaningless.
“How crave I from my love’s hand
To drink a cup of wine
O with whom to share this secret
Where to take this grief mine I gave away life in hope
That I could see the Friend’s face
‘Am butterfly making rounds of lamp
‘Am seed burning in fireplace.’’
Who is there to understand the depth of these words? The Imam was being consumed in the heat of divine love; he was feeling the ecstasy of that wine which ALLAH (SWT) has promised His true servants in Heaven. For such a man this world is nothing but a cage; his world is to join that ‘Friend’. The criterion for his attachment to objects is love for ALLAH (SWT). Whatever has a color and aroma like that of the ‘Friend’ is beautiful to him; anything that is reminiscent of the ‘Friend’ is beautiful to him; anything that is not reminiscent of the ‘Friend’ is redundant to him.
Even the mosque, the minaret, the school and books, if they were without Him and His ardent love, are null and void. That is because in a monotheistic theory like this nothing is real except Him. Whatever can serve as a bridge to the ‘Friend’ must be adhered to, and whatever cannot serve in this way is null and void and must be relinquished.
‘’… I have set my face towards Him who created the heavens and the earth…’’
‘’In school I did not find to read
Any book to be from the Friend
In minaret it was bard to find
The voice to be of Him to tend
In Love of books I could not see
That veiled Beauty’s face
The destination’s trace
In idol house my life’s span
Was wholly spent in vain
In rival’s gathering I saw
Neither remedy nor pain
The lover’s ring must I now join
Haply to find solace
From the rose garden of the Beloved
A pleasant breeze or a trace’’
He who is fascinated and captivated by His face shuns anything that is not of Him. He disowns the ‘I’s and the ‘we’s. He avoids the circles of friends. Rivals, and searches for a refuge away from all these, to be alone with Him.
It is at this point that the Imam says:
Keep the Tavern’s door open
For me, night and day
Farewell seminary, farewell mosque
Let me go my way’’
And:
‘’With wine O my love
Fill up this cup of mine
Let not my honor grow
Let not my name shine.’’
Even knowledge and Gnosticism becomes a barrier for him who sees and seeks nothing but the Truth (HAQ) and wants to tear this veil. Because knowledge and Gnosticism are only Holy if they are a road to Him.
“Knowledge, mysticism leave them aside
They lead not to the wine house
As in the place where lovers reside
Falsehood cannot find a spouse.”
And:
“I did find the spiritual world
As I fell in love with the sweet
All I read and heard before
Was false and counterfeit.”
While all regard Gnosticism as the only path to reach Him, the Imam is so pantheistic or monotheistic that he sees even Gnosticism as a barrier. Imam Khomeini’s (R.A.) poetry is stormy and effervescent. While it is romance, it is replete with the spirit of nobility. In loving ALLAH (SWT), he is brave and fearless. He carries his own gallows and like Mansur (Hallaj), cries out: “An-al haq “ (I am the Truth  Even if he be hanged.
“ I have shunned my self love
Now truth is none but me
I, too, will see the gallows
As Mansur did see.”
We are entangled in plurality while the mole of the Beloved’s lip, the mole that is the central point of Being’s domain and the focal point of monotheism, captivates him. We are sickly because of our carnal desires while he is befuddled by the Friend’s ‘eye’ and insight, which sees through the secrets of all that is apparent and all that is concealed. If that ‘eye’ shows favor to a person, that person shall become ensnared, enthralled and enraptured. The unreal, untrue objects ensnare us. We do not see the Truth. We do not comprehend the beauty of the Friend.
We are beset by the idol of self or carnal desire, and the worldly idols we ourselves have created. He is captivated by that unique idol, the one and only Friend and Master. We are concerned with thoughts of our shame and dishonor while he is free of all that is lust and shame.
We are caught in the meanings of words and the interpretation of terms, while he is beset by love to see the beauties of the Friend. He shed the veil of existence. Attained union with the Friend, and saddened us by his ascension. We see the world of matter, while he is in HEAVEN.
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