Ya Badi, Ya Qawi, Ya Rahman
You spoke
and we became.
Will You help us tame
these desires
You implanted in us?
You know our limitations
and our skill;
everything originates with You.
So show us the purpose of these faults we find
that break our concentration in Your Love.
So much to learn,
we find our way only with Your help,
You who imagine all the intricacies
of Compassion
that might fill our hearts.
Seeing someone struggle
reminds us of our own.
We are nothing
without Your Brilliance
that shines through
all the cracks
in our armor;
amour is essential,
not these defenses
we employ
to shield ourselves
from Your expansion and contraction—
even sheets of ice
dissolve
when Your spring arrives,
and cherry blossoms
burst in the orchard,
and we are overwhelmed
with the flood of Your Beauty,
Ya Badi,
Ya Wahhab,
Ya Wadud.
~ Camille A. Helminski, “Love’ville,” 2017
Ya Badi, O Skilful Creator, Originator,
Ya Qawi, The Source of All Power,
Ya Rahman, O Infinitely Compassionate One
Ya Wahhab, O You Who Overcome Us with Your Infinite Giving,
Ya Wadud, O Infinitely Loving One
The Originator is He/She of the heavens and the earth:
and when He/She wills a thing to be, He/She but says unto it, “Be” – and it is. . .
Indeed, We have made all the signs manifest unto people who are endowed with inner certainty.
[2:117-118]
Limitless is He/She in His/Her glory,
and sublimely exalted above anything that people may devise by way of definition:
the Originator of the heavens and the earth!
[6:101]
Say: “Travel through the earth
and see how God originated creation.
Even so will God create again,
for God has power over all things.”
[29:20]
O children of Adam! Indeed, We have bestowed upon you from on high
garments to cover your nakedness, and as a thing of beauty:
but the garment of God-consciousness is the best of all.
Herein lies a message from God, so that people might take it to heart.
[7:26]