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Pause for Poetry: In conversation with Rakaya Esime Fetuga

In Search of a Poetry like Prayer, and Prayer like Poetry – Yahia Lababidi

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from Light Steps - A Poem on the Seerah of Prophet

from Light Steps - A Poem on the Seerah of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ by Ali Scully

Link in bio @lotetreepress
#muslimpoetry #muslimbookstagram #sufipoetry #muslimbookshelf #mawlid#prophetmuhammad #seerahseries #islam

from Light Steps - A Poem on the Seerah of Prophet

from Light Steps - A Poem on the Seerah of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ by Ali Scully

Link in bio @lotetreepress
#muslimpoetry #muslimbookstagram #sufipoetry #muslimbookshelf #mawlid #prophetmuhammad #seerahseries #islam #muhammadﷺ #islamicquotes

Join us on 28th September at 1pm BST for a poetry

Join us on 28th September at 1pm BST for a poetry book reading of Peace Be Upon US by Iljas Baker. Sign up to our FREE EVENTS using the link in our bio @lotetreepress to attend.

“In this sublime book Iljas Baker gives us a glimpse - in poetic form - of his spiritual journey through Buddhism, the spiritual exercise of Subud, and Islam. Many of the poems use Chinese and Japanese poetical forms, especially Haiku, Haibun and Tanka, but express somewhat uniquely an Islamic rather than a Buddhist worldview. The presence of some examples of the world-famous calligrapher Haji Noor Deen’s Chinese interpretations of Islamic calligraphy adds a beautiful and complementary graphic element to the subtle marriage of East Asian literary forms and Islamic spirit to be found in this book.
Iljas’s poems and poetic artistry demonstrate the universality of Truth which, being Absolute, can and must manifest in every culture and in every art form, and both penetrate and embrace human life from the most mundane to the most exalted.”
-Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, Founder and President of Cordoba House

VEILS
on a late evening walk
to still
the wheel of thought
the sweet spicy scent
of tree jasmine
the sound of
water falling
a bright crescent moon
and a shining star
are all laid out before me
and behind these wondrous veils
are the many Names of God

Iljas Baker was born in Scotland and now lives in Thailand where he is a retired university professor. His first book of poems Peace Be Upon Us was published by Lote Tree Press in Cambridge UK in 2023. His poems have also appeared in three anthologies, namely The God’s Eye, We Humans, and, most recently, A Kaleidoscope of Stories: Muslim Voices in Contemporary Poetry and in numerous poetry journals. He writes about essential things and his writing is inspired principally by an inclusive, compassionate interpretation of Islam and the practice of the Spiritual Exercise (Latihan Kedjiwaan) of Subud, which originated in Indonesia. He is married with a daughter and a son and two grand-daughters.

from Light Steps - A Poem on the Seerah of Prophet

from Light Steps - A Poem on the Seerah of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ by Ali Scully

Link in bio @lotetreepress
#muslimpoetry #muslimbookstagram #sufipoetry #muslimbookshelf #mawlid#prophetmuhammad #seerahseries #islam

Seven Heavens by Abdul Kareem Stone in A KALEIDOSC

Seven Heavens by Abdul Kareem Stone in A KALEIDOSCOPE OF STORIES - Muslim Voices in Contemporary Poetry

SIGNS OF THE UNSEEN by Iljas Baker 1 one hun

SIGNS OF THE UNSEEN by Iljas Baker

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one hundred birds sing their invitation to prayer -

dawn’s most precious gift

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Indian cork trees
perfume my late evening walk –

vast sky, no thought

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shimmering lights float on the river’s still surface -
 a tree cricket sings

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last night’s bright moon
faint now in the morning sky -

ah, this turning world

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see how time passes –
all are among the losers

except the muslim

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vast sky full of stars
and the unceasing ocean

coming and going

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Indian cork trees
perfume my late evening walk –

vast sky, no self

Join us on 28th September for our upcoming online poetry book reading of Peace Be Upon Us by Iljas Baker. Sign up for our FREE EVENTS to attend. Link in bio @lotetreepress

This month in Lote Tree poetry membership we are w

This month in Lote Tree poetry membership we are writing an elegy for the Prophet ﷺ. What are some of the effects that his life and his character have had on the world and on the ummah?

In the poetry membership you receive monthly poetry writing prompts and can share your poem in the community space and submit it for inclusion in our upcoming poetry anthology.

Link in bio @lotetreepress to join us!

When I saw his lights shining forth, In awe I cove

When I saw his lights shining forth,
In awe I covered my eyes with my palms,
Afraid for my sight because of the beauty of his form
I was scarcely able to look at him
The lights from his light are drowned in his light
His face like the rising of the sun and moon
A soul of light in a moon-like body
As a mantle woven from luminous stars
– Ḥassān ibn Thābit 
Poetry in praise of the Prophet ﷺ starts in his lifetime, with examples attributed to his official poets, Ḥassān ibn Thābit, ʿAbdallah ibn Rawāḥa and Kaʿb ibn Malik.

You can find out more about Poetry in Praise of the Prophet ﷺ from the Companions in our on-demand video lesson. Join our Membership for £5.99/month to access this class and more in our exploration of the poetic traditions of the Muslim world.

Link in bio @lotetreepress

from Light Steps - A Poem on the Seerah of Prophet

from Light Steps - A Poem on the Seerah of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ by Ali Scully

Link in bio @lotetreepress
#muslimpoetry #muslimbookstagram #sufipoetry #muslimbookshelf #mawlid#prophetmuhammad #seerahseries #islam

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Join us on 31st August for this inspiring free onl

Join us on 31st August for this inspiring free online talk on the logic of love in Muhammad Iqbal & Rabindranath Tagore by Dr. Hina Khalid. Link in bio @lotetreepress . If you can’t attend live sign up for a ticket to receive a replay of the event. You can support our work by adding a donation to your ticket.

In this talk Dr. Hina Khalid will explore the theologies of two major philosopher-poets of the Indian subcontinent – Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938) and Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941). More specifically, she will focus on their understandings of love as a cosmic principle which binds the divine reality, the finite world, and the human being in dynamic and creative symbioses. We will see how, for both poets, love is not a fleeting fancy or a subjective impulse but constitutes the very heartbeat of creation itself.

Hina Khalid completed her BA, MPhil, and PhD in Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Cambridge. Her doctoral dissertation offered the first comprehensive comparative study of the metaphysical and aesthetic visions of Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938) and Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941). She is particularly interested in the possibilities of comparative theology across Islamic and Indic traditions, and in the ways that shared devotional idioms have formed in and across the Indian subcontinent.

The Muwashshah Poetic Form of Al-Andalus We are c

The Muwashshah Poetic Form of Al-Andalus

We are currently exploring the poetic traditions of al-Andalus in our poetry membership, focusing this month on the Muwashshah, which was a popular form of poetry that influenced European troubadour poetry, also spreading to North Africa and other parts of the Muslim world where it is still sung to this day. This month we are exploring the history, context and poetic form of the Muwashshah, and looking at a devotional Muwashshah written by Ibn Arabi.

Join our poetry membership and explore the poetic traditions of the Muslim world with us!
Link in bio @lotetreepress

Instagram post 17869208772132066

Instagram post 17869208772132066

Amir Khusrau was an extraordinary figure from 13th

Amir Khusrau was an extraordinary figure from 13th century Delhi who made pivotal contributions to the development of South Asian poetic, linguistic, musical and mystical traditions. He was both a royal chronicler who wrote panegyric poetry and historical epics at the courts of successive rulers, and a devout disciple of Chistī Sufi master Niẓām ud-Dīn Awliyā, dying just six months after him and being buried next to him.

Although he frequented the courts of princes and sultans, he was interested in the circumstances and languages of the common people, and his work shows a love for the city of Delhi and the natural environment and flora and fauna surrounding it. His poetry experiments with combining the living poetic heritage of the Islamic world, which he was very well versed in, with the courtly and folk traditions of the land of his birth which lay within the Sultanate of Delhi. In this way he acted as a sort of cultural bridge, an iconic embodiment of the hugely creative cultural fusion emerging from the bringing together of the artistic heritage of South Asia and that of the Muslim world.

We explore the life and work of Amir Khusrau in the on-demand video “Amir Khusrau - the Father of Urdu Literature”, now available in our membership. Join us on our journey as we explore the poetic traditions of the Muslim world! Link in bio @lotetreepress

Amir Khusrau, born in the Delhi Sultanate in 1253,

Amir Khusrau, born in the Delhi Sultanate in 1253, is known as the Father of Urdu Literature and the Father of Qawwali. He is a cultural icon known for his legends, folktales, riddles and witticisms. His prolific poetry brought together the courtly and spiritual poetic traditions of the Muslim world with the cultural milieu of his motherland - this fusion and cultural exchange leading to new creativity and forms of expression. In this workshop we look at some of his work and then consider the possible synergism of combining our own disparate literary heritages and the multiple identities that we often straddle as Muslims in the west to write a piece of poetry representing cultural fusion.

Sign up to our membership for £5.99/month to access this workshop and more. Link in bio @lotetreepress

Join our membership for £5.99/month to access the

Join our membership for £5.99/month to access these lessons and more. Link in bio @lotetreepress

New on-demand session exploring the lives and vers

New on-demand session exploring the lives and verses of early Sufi poets together with their historical context, including the sources of early Sufi thought and the debates around the controversial statements made by some Sufis, now available in our membership. Join us on our poetry caravan as we explore the poetic traditions of the Muslim world! Link in bio @lotetreepress

We explore more about the life and verses of Rabi’a Al-‘Adawiyyah and other early Sufi poets in on-demand sessions in our membership. Join us on our journey through the poetry of the Muslim world! Link in bio @lotetreepress

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