Texts of Islam

Selections from the Poetry of the Afghans: Mīrzā Khān, Anṣārī: The Poems of Mīrzā Khān, Anṣārī

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This is a selection of classical Pashto mystical poetry from H.G. Raverty's 1868 anthology, translated into English, working within the Sufi devotional tradition — the verses are attributed to or invoke "Mīrzā," a persona associated with Mī'ān Ros'hān, the 16th-century founder of the Roshaniyya Sufi movement in Afghanistan. The poems argue that humanity's highest purpose is to awaken to divine unity: God is not distant but nearer to each person than their own self, and those who fail to pursue this knowledge are spiritually dead even while physically alive. A sustained cosmological meditation runs through the work — the speaker marvels at creation (orbiting planets, seasonal cycles, the diversity of color and creature) as evidence of divine omnipotence, then pivots to moral urgency about resisting carnality, worldly temptation, and the devil's snares of wealth and fame. Distinctive to the collection is its recursive self-address: the poet repeatedly names and corrects "Mīrzā," staging the spiritual journey as a public confession of prior doubt and scepticism now overcome. Readers interested in pre-modern Islamic mysticism, Afghan literary history, or Sufi poetry outside the Persian canon (Rumi, Hafiz) will find this an unusual primary source — grounded in the same theological framework but drawing on distinct regional imagery like tribal chess-board metaphors and shoulder-bone divination.

Selections from the Poetry of the Afghans: Mīrzā Khān, Anṣārī: The Poems of Mīrzā Khān, Anṣārī

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