Who is Shaykh Jami'u VI

ANNOTATED TRANSLATION OF HIS POEM ON BISMILLAH
1. By the secret of Bismillah illuminate our hearts, and give us a legitimate and purified sustenance.
2. The all-Hearing, the all-Seeing, O the Originator! Bestow on us knowledge by the secret of the exalted names.
3. The King, the Glorious, O the one who makes things clear, make clear for us all knowledge together with their meaning.
4. He is Allah, the Omnipotent, the Opener and He is our Lord. Open for us the gate of knowledge wherever we are.
5. The Kind, the Grateful, (Appreciative) the Independent enrich us, the Opener, the Provider, the Generous, be charitable to us.
6. The Kind, the all-Aware, the Guide, guide us, be kind to us by facilitating all difficulties and give us all our needs.
7. Your guidance is a right path and take us from Divine presence of annihilation to Divine presence of abiding.
8. You are Allah, O the Beneficent, the Provider for the whole world, quickly provide for us a provision from unexpected side.
9. You cover Your Essence with the light of majesty, so that the eye of your creation can not grasp Your Essence.
10. The Merciful, the Generous, the One who makes things easy guide us, and cause us to land at the divine presence of exalted holiness.
11. The Protector, the All-Wise, the One who knows our secret, teach us the Divine of Prophet Muhammad.
12. The Restorer who restores missing things, restore to us the knowledge of reality(esoteric knowledge) of the friends of Allah.
13. Your command is between Kaf and Nun, bestow on us a great treasury wherever it is.
14. Illuminate us with the light of Majesty and glory, and completely blind the eyes of wrong doers.
15. I ask for your help over the enemy and totally dilapidate the house of the assaulters.
16. Subject to me the hearts of people both black and white, by the mystery of Allah's great name...
17. The Watcher, the severe in punishment, destroy our enviers, O the Overwhelming, kill our enemy with your sword.
18. The Tender one, the Bountiful, the Guardian and utterly disperse the enviers.
19. The Ever-living, the Self-subsisting, O the raiser of heaven, take us to the high station and be generous to us.
20. The Abaser, humiliate our enemy by your irresistible power, the life taker, take their lives by epidemic.
COMMENTS
On the authority of Shaykh Khidir, the youngest son of Shaykh Jami'u Bulala, I am directed to give an annotated translation of one of his works for the benefit of his admirers.
The piece is the original manuscript of Shaykh written in his handwriting, for to take pen and express one's idea in writing is one of the rare gifts bestowed by Allah to some of His favourites. To some extent, the Shaykh was spiritually inspired into writing.
Though the Shaykh did not give a title for this poem(Qasidah), but the composition suggests that it was composed with the chronological arrangement of the alphabets of Bismillah Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim. Contrary to the popular notion that the verse has 19 number of alphabets, the madi(elongation) on the mim of Ar-Rahaman depicts it has 20. This was taken note of by him. The date of its composition is also not given, but some of his loyalists opined that it was written in the late 70's.
The poem have both moral and spiritual impacts as deduced from its meanings. At the beginning, the Shaykh supplicated with some of the selected attributes of Allah for His blessing. The poem is overwhelmed with spiritual undertones. The Shaykh primarily composed it for supplication. Certain Sufi themes were detected in the odes like Illumination of the hearts, divine presence, fana, baqa, Allah's great name etc(watch out for the expantiation of these in my book).
Suffice it to say that writing poem of this nature is not peculiar to Shaykh Jami'u alone. A careful exposition of works of Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse, Shaykh Abubakr Atiq, Shaykh Gibrim Ad-Daghari, Shaykh Rabiu Adebayo follow the same pattern.
However, poets may bring up argument that the work did not follow thorough ode scrutiny, nevertheless, adequate perusal will reveals that the man was divinely inspired to write. This to some certain extent suggests that Shaykh was a learned man who contributed his quota to knowledge.
***PS
May Allah have mercy on Shaykh Jami'u for affording us this and may Allah reward his children for granting permission for its publication. My appreciation goes to my friend, Mallam Gidado AbdulRasheed who assisted me in the translation. For more on the spiritual usage of the poem, contact me personally or any staunch loyalist/cleric affiliated to Shaykh Jami'u Bulala. My subsequent series will be on his karamat(miracles). Watch out!!!


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

My Ziyarah Chronicles (2)

My Ziyārah Chronicles (4)

My Ziyarah Chronicles (3)