Abu-said Abil-Kheir

If you keep seeking the jewel of understanding
By Abu-Said Abil-Kheir(967 - 1049)
English version by Vraje Abramian

If you keep seeking the jewel of understanding,then you are a mine of understanding in the making.If you live to reach the Essence one day,then your life itself is an expression of the Essence.Know that in the final analysis you are thatwhich you search for.
Shaikh Abu-Said Abil-Kheir was one of the earlier Sufi poets. He lived more than two centuries before Jelaluddin Rumi yet, like Rumi, much of his mysticism follows a similar path of annihilation in divine Love.Abu Said's poetry ranges from the ecstatic and celestial, to struggles with abandonment. His poetry has an immediacy and even a sort of devoutly wry petulance that can draw comparisons with the great Bengali poet, Ramprasad.Abu Said referred to himself as "Nobody, Son of Nobody," to convey the mystic's sense of having completely merged or disappeared into the Divine, leaving no trace of the ego behind.
He lived in Mayhana in what is modern day Turkmenistan, just north of Iran and Afghanistan in Central Asia