Islam is one of the world’s great religions and over the centuries one of its strongest voices. For peace. For tolerance. For the realisation that we are all in this world together. Whatever our individual beliefs much of its teachings are wise words for us all.

As Islam moved from its Arabian heartland to a wider geographic area, its core message remained albeit adapted to different lands, to different ears. Poets were ever eager to provide an alternate way of delivering the ‘message’ in beautiful verse. Their simplicity was embracing, their ornateness a humble offering to greater forces.

The poems here are both profound and wide-ranging.

They give verse to thoughts that still preoccupy mankind as central to their message of love and humility. Civilisations may come and go, rise and fade, but culture and its arts linger on in oral histories and the written word.

The contribution of these Mystic or Sufi poets comes in many forms.

They view the world in ways that give us pause to reconsider our own. Obviously, translations come in many shades and hues, and even if the translator colours the original meaning of the poem, the essential truths remain.

In this volume we have gathered many of the most celebrated of these ancient and classical verses by poets of the caliber and brilliance of Rumi, Kabir, Hafiz and many others. Their wise words illuminate much of what we search for.