Were my heart to split open

 

 بِسْمِ اللّهِ الرَّحْمـَنِ الرَّحِيمِ

While going through classical Islamic literature, one often comes across gems of poetry that touch the heart. The set below is something that really struck me. They are found in s al-Marzubānī’s al-Muwashshaḥ, which places the three couplets under al-ʿAbbās ibn al-Aḥnaf.  Ibn al-Qayyim’s two forms are best treated as devotional reuses or adaptations, not as the original authorship.

 الْيَوْمُ مِثْلُ الْحَوْلِ حَتَّى أَرَى

وَجْهَكِ، وَالسَّاعَةُ كَالشَّهْرِ

إِنَّ الَّذِي أُضْمِرُ عِنْدَ الَّذِي

أُظْهِرُ كَالْقَطْرَةِ فِي الْبَحْرِ

لَوْ شُقَّ عَنْ قَلْبِي قُرِئَ وَسَطَهُ

ذِكْرُكِ وَالتَّوْحِيدُ فِي سَطْرِ

Transliteration

al-yawmu mithlu al-ḥawli ḥattā arā
wajhaki, wa-s-sāʿatu ka-sh-shahri

inna alladhī uḍmiru ʿinda alladhī
uẓhiru ka-l-qaṭrati fī al-baḥri

law shuqqa ʿan qalbī quriʾa wasaṭahu
dhikruki wa-t-tawḥīdu fī saṭri 

 

English translation

Today feels as long as a year until I see your face;
even an hour feels like a month.

What I keep hidden, compared with what I show,
is like a single drop in the sea.

If my heart were cut open, one would read at its center:
your remembrance and the oneness of God, written on one line.

 

Ibn al-Qayyim does not present a new full poem. He reuses the line devotionally, applying “your remembrance” to the Prophet ﷺ and pairing it with tawḥīd, the oneness of God.

A. Version in Badāʾiʿ al-Fawāʾid

The printed Shamela text of Badāʾiʿ al-Fawāʾid gives the wording as: 

 

 لَوْ شُقَّ عَنْ قَلْبِي يُرَى وَسَطَهُ

ذِكْرُكَ وَالتَّوْحِيدُ فِي سَطْرٍ:

لَا إِلٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ، مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ.  

Transliteration

law shuqqa ʿan qalbī yurā wasaṭahu
dhikruka wa-t-tawḥīdu fī saṭrin:
lā ilāha illā llāh, Muḥammadun rasūlu llāh.ﷺ

 

English translation

If my heart were opened, one would see at its center
your remembrance and the oneness of God on a single line:
“There is no god but God; Muhammad is the Messenger of God.”ﷺ

 

 B. Version in Jalāʾ al-Afhām fī Faḍl al-Ṣalāh wa-l-Salām ʿalā Muḥammad Khayr al-Anām

In Jalāʾ al-Afhām, Ibn al-Qayyim gives a slightly different form and then explains it. The relevant wording is:

 لَوْ شُقَّ قَلْبِي فَفِي وَسَطِهِ

ذِكْرُكَ وَالتَّوْحِيدُ فِي سَطْرٍ.

فَهٰذَا قَلْبُ الْمُؤْمِنِ: تَوْحِيدُ اللَّهِ وَذِكْرُ رَسُولِهِ مَكْتُوبَانِ فِيهِ، لَا يَتَطَرَّقُ إِلَيْهِمَا مَحْوٌ وَلَا إِزَالَةٌ.   

Transliteration

law shuqqa qalbī fa-fī wasaṭihi
dhikruka wa-t-tawḥīdu fī saṭrin.

fa-hādhā qalbu al-muʾmini: tawḥīdu llāhi wa-dhikru rasūlihi maktūbāni fīhi, lā yataṭarraqu ilayhimā maḥwun wa-lā izālatun.

 

English translation
 

If my heart were opened, then at its center
would be your ﷺ remembrance and the oneness of God on a single line.

Such is the heart of the believer: the oneness of God and the remembrance of His Messenger ﷺ are written within it; no erasure can reach them, and nothing can remove them.