ABOU BEN ADHEM LOVED HIS FELLOW MEN

ABOU BEN ADHAM  LOVED HIS FELLOW MEN 

Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!)
Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,
And saw, within the moonlight in his room,
Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom,
An angel writing in a book of gold:—
Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,
And to the presence in the room he said,
"What writest thou?"—The vision raised its head,
And with a look made of all sweet accord,
Answered, "The names of those who love the Lord."
"And is mine one?" said Abou. "Nay, not so,"
Replied the angel. Abou spoke more low,
But cheerly still; and said, "I pray thee, then,
Write me as one that loves his fellow men."

The angel wrote, and vanished. The next night
It came again with a great wakening light,
And showed the names whom love of God had blest,
And lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest.

This a poem written by Leigh Hunt 

WNEN YOU LOVE GOD THEN ONLY YOU CAN LOVE OTHERS EQUALY 
To be a really good spiritual person, it is more important to love other people than anything else .The angel in  the poem appears to be concerned with asking whether people are religious, but in fact it turns out that God is not concerned with that but what  God likes is that  Ben Adhem loves his fellow men, and this is what God wants him to do rather than following other forms of religion. Instead of God, Ben Adhem  loves his fellow men .This love of fellow people leads to God’s blessing.
The angel carries not only the message of Abou’s placement on the list in the golden book, but the message that people worthy of God’s love, blessing, and pathway to heaven are the ones who don’t have superficial faith in a deity, but a faith that proves a perpetual kindness to people.When you love God then only can you love others equally .

WHO IS ABU BEN ADAM ?
He is one of the most prominent earliest ascetic Sufi Saint .Abu Eshaq Ibrahim ibn Adham  of Arab descent was born in Balkh .He was King of Balkh who renounced his throne for a spiritual kingdom and wandered to live a life of complete asceticism, earning his bread in Syria by honest manual toil until his death in c.165 AH (782 AD). According to Arabic and Persian sources Ibrahim ibn Adham received a warning from God through Khidr  ( a righteous servant of God who possesses great wisdom or mystic knowledge) who appeared to him twice ,following which Ibrahim abdicated his throne to take up the ascetic life .He is described in the Kashf-al-Mahjub, written by Ali Hujwiri (Data Ganj Bakhsh), as "unique in this path; the chieftain of his contemporaries, and a disciple of al-Khidr."



LOVE  ONE AND ALL EQUALLY 

My love for you oh lord 
Transcends  me to love one and all ,
To bathe in your radiant light  
and make my fellow men's day bright 

Blessed am I in your lap 
holding your fingers in their  gap 
The magic I feel deep inside 
is the  sublime souls delight

Let me be in this  magical trance 
my heart is in a crazy  love dance 
Love for all ,is all that I can see 
For you and all my fellow men and  me 

The Soul smiles in silent love 
Touching new heights  high above 
Let this living dream never end 
your love makes  me transcend .

Transcends me to love one and all ,
All creatures  big  and small ,
For in  all  we see  our beloved thee 
because we are  all the same as  can be .

Pushpa  Chaturvedi