The Quest Lyrics
As a show of love and fidelity, to my beloved, so sublime
I sought to give the most beautiful gift, that had ever been seen in our time
I searched and searched in all the lands, for that very special gift
I trekked the valleys of the earth, and the mountains, and the cliffs
And all the while i kept saying, “Sall Allahu `ala Muhammad”
Praying that Allah would
Unveil the gift to me
So many things I saw in the earth, which with beauty were endowed
But when I drew close to pick them up, I was spoken to from a cloud
“Why to the presence of the sun, do you take a candle frail?”
“Why to the ocean deep and blue, do you take a water pail?”
And all the while I kept saying, “Sall Allahu `ala Muhammad”
Praying that Allah would
Unveil the gift to me
Despair would’ve got the better of me, had I not turned to my lord
He sent mevlana to my help, and hope was then restored
Mevlana came to me and said, “Take this advice, my son
The gift you seek you’ll never find, except with your beloved one”
And all the while I kept saying, “Sall Allahu `ala Muhammad”
Praying that Allah would
Unveil the gift to me
He said “if she is, to your own eye, the most beautiful one around
Greater in beauty than her own image, such a thing shall never be found”
“Take to her this mirror do, and make your poem terse”
“Make your gift a better gift, with a couplet from my verse”
And all the while I kept saying, “Sall Allahu `ala Muhammad”
Praying that Allah would
Unveil the gift to me
He cleaned my mirror of mud and grime, and etched in with his hand
The verse I quote before my own, a verse with wisdom grand
So praise Allah, and peace and blessings do send on his chosen one
Praise him again for a “nader” gift he unveiled to a lowly one
And all the while I kept saying, “Sall Allahu `ala Muhammad”
Praying that Allah would
Unveil the gift to me
“My heart like a mirror is silent and speaking in the hands of an amazing mirror holder, for when moment by moment there shines in the mirror an amazing figure of beauty.”
– Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi, The Mathnawi
Language
English
Songwriter
Nader Khan
Inspiration
A song based on the quoted couplet by Maulana (Mevlana) Jelaluddin Rumi. This song was first conceived of as a poem. Its tune is based on a Turkish song that I’d heard being performed by Tevfik Baba and The Jerrahi Society of Canada at a nasheed concert many years ago in Toronto.