The Whisper of God : Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore, American Muslim Poet - Sufi Illuminations Journal 2008

                            The Whisper of God

                      Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore

                There are many depths to silence   And it may be the deepest is most audible

                                             ---- note scribbled 11/20/2005

             The whisper of God becomes fainter as our             

                                                       Ears become more acute

                                     Until we can hear it in the slightest thing

                                     Each hoop of which or wheel of which

                                                           Sings out a Name     

                                     One of the Ninety Nine or all of them at once

                                   As this world dissolves like a watercolor on glass  

                                      Into its constituent puddles of special color

                                           Or the silent ocean of its single sound

                                      The happy donkey rubbing its back in the grass

                                    Rolling in it like a barrel with legs in air while his nearby    

                                        Two companion horses nobly stand and nibble

                                       Each slight sound now amplified as everything

                                     Else becomes amplified and horrors switch places

                                       Back and forth with blisses as the wooden

                                     Horses go round and round inexorably forward

                                       If we stop to listen the ten thousand things

                                      Call out God’s Names above the general din

                                         And within the gears and pulleys of the  

                                           Din itself all those Names at once

                                          Compounding their elegant sound

                                         When we lean in and listen closer at the

                                       Grate of this world’s prison we may hear both

                                      The breathing and whispered monologue of its

                                                   Main intimate: ourselves’ self

                                              Standing in a steam of darkness with

                                                   Only its face in the light

                                    The Holy Names in full splendor speaking for us

                                         Until even our bones respond with their

                                             High-pitched marrow flutes

                                    “Come out” they say in His inimitable Voice

                                            As the silent sound descends

                                   The spaces between bars become sudden song

                                      Differentiate the miniscule inflections in a 

                                   Mouse voice in the “aye aye sir” obedience of an ant     

                                           In the radio waves from a distant planet

                                      The sound that speaks to us from God’s Throne

                                          To each differentiated individual of us

                                          Toiling on the wheel or listening in the

                                                   Tall grass between trees

                                                     Until the sun goes down 

                                                     Whistling in happy tune

                                 Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore, American Muslim Poet   

                                      4/10/2006 ( from Coattails of the Saint )

  Source: Sufi Illuminations: A Journal Devoted to the Study of Islam & Sufism, Vol.4, No.1 Spring 2008, Published by Naqshbandiya Foundation for Islamic Education (NFIE)