A Watchman Stands Guard – Abdur Rahman’s Corner

Peace, one and all…

The powerful words on an unknown poet.

As if a watchman stands guard over my [innermost] thoughts,
while another one is watching over my sight and my tongue.
Since I saw you [for the first time], whenever my eyes see
something that displeases you, I say [to myself]:
‘[the watchmen] must have spotted me’.
Not a single word addressed to someone other than you
Has come out of my mouth
Without my saying to myself, ‘They must have overheard me’
And not a single thing about someone apart from you has occurred to me
Without them restraining me away from [it].
The speeches of sincere friends have made me sick,
And I have withheld from them my sight and my tongue.
It is not renunciation that turns [me] away from them,
Rather, I see only you wherever I turn’

Quoted in al-Qushayri’s Epistle on Sufism