Fakhr al-Din ‘Irāqi

Jalal Brian Heery, Ph.D.

Fakhr al-Din ‘Irāqi, a prolific Persian poet and Sufi master, was born in Hamadan in Persia in 1213. By the time he was seventeen, he had advanced his studies in Islam, and intellectual sciences and had begun teaching others.^[1] It was during these years that he met a group of qalandar Sufis and decided to travel with them throughout Persia and India.  They stopped at Sheikh Baha’uddin Zakariyya Multani’s khaniqah on their journey.  Sheikh Baha’uddin (d. 1267-1268) was a Sufi master whose teaching was focused on piety and the pursuit of knowledge; recognizing ‘Irāqi’s potential he decided to take him under his guidance and ultimately gave him his khirqa (cloak) as a sign of permitting him to teach and hold gatherings.

After Sheikh Baha’uddin’s passing ‘Irāqi set forth on a journey with some of his companions. They made their way to Oman, and then to Mecca to complete the pilgrimage. Eventually, ‘Irāqi traveled far North to Konya in Turkey, where he met his second teacher, Sheikh Sadruddin Qunawi (d. 1274)^[2].  During that time, Qunawi’s teaching was focused on Ibn al-‘Arabi’s (d. 1240)^[3] Fusus al-hikam [The Seals of Wisdom], and ‘Irāqi was able to attend Qunawi’s gatherings and teachings. ‘Irāqi, using his insight into the mystical teachings and mastery of the poetic form, began to compose a mixture of prose and poetry to express what he had learned during those times attending Qunawi’s teachings.  These became the basis for ‘Irāqi’s most famous work Lama‘at (Divine Flashes). ‘Irāqi remained a devoted student of Qunawi for many years until Qunawi’s passing in 1274.  Three years later when ‘Irāqi was in his mid-sixties, he left Rum and traveled southwest to Cairo, Egypt.  Shortly after, he set out eastward, settling in Damascus, Syria. At seventy-eight, ‘Irāqi passed away and was buried in the Salihiyyah cemetery in Damascus.^[4]

‘Irāqi, in the prologue to the Lama’at, writes about the Divine Names and how their presence within him, allowed him to act as a mirror radiating pure Essence.  In flash fourteen of the Lama’at, ‘Irāqi mentions the station of the Two Bows’ Length which references the night journey of the Prophet Muhammad in the Qur’an as he ascended toward God. This joining of the unseen and the seen, the immortal and the cosmic, the unchanging source and the ever changing forms, and yet all are unified, part of the same whole.^[5] ‘Irāqi draws our attention to a line spanning across a circle that for a brief moment allows us to see the circle as two arcs, yet with brilliant insight he reminds us that the line does not exist, this world of perception and what we think we see and feel is, in fact, nothing, it is not real, it is not eternal, the lover and the beloved are in fact one.

‘Irāqi’s Diwan is filled with Sufi mystical, lyrical, and musical, poetic forms expressing the wisdom of both sober and ecstatic dimensions of Sufi understanding. One of his most well-known ghazals was composed while he was absorbed in a chilla and rather than meditating in silence ‘Irāqi was singing a ghazal that came to him and shortly after it was being sung in the local taverns.^[6] The spontaneous, artful, playful, creative, ingenuity, and wisdom wrapped in the melody, images, beauty, and meaning of the ghazal is evident to people at all stations of the spiritual path and remains alive today, eight hundred years after it was first sung.

In his writings, ‘Irāqi expresses the sobriety of the school of Baghdad and the intoxication of the school of Khurasan. “Actually, every person who has realized the truths of Sufism fully and has entered the Garden of Truth has experienced both intoxication and sobriety.”^[7]  ‘Irāqi in flash four of the Lama’at quotes Junayd (d. 919),^[8] one of the sober Sufis, complaining about conversing with God for decades and having others think he was speaking to them, ‘Irāqi utilizing his mastery of the poetic form, prose, poetry, rhythm, and piercing insight reminds us that the speaker, the listener, and the message are all one.

‘Irāqi writes in his Lamaʻat:

I asked the magnificent beauty: Whose beloved are You (God)?

My own, He said, as I am the One and I am the Only One

I am the love, I am the lover, and I am the beloved

I am the mirror, I am the beauty, and I am the very eye that Sees.[9]

^[1] For more information see Fakhruddin ‘Irāqi, Divine Flashes, translated by William C. Chittick and Peter Lamborn Wilson, (New York:  Paulist Press, 1982), 33-34.
^[2] John Cooper, “Rumi and Hikmat: Towards a reading of Sabziwari’s Commentary on the Mathnawi,” in The Heritage Of Sufism: Classical Persian Sufism from its Origins to Rumi (700-1300), vol 1, ed. Leonard Lewisohn (Oxford, England:  Oneworld Publications, 1999), 415.
^[3] Annemarie Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions of Islam (Chapel Hill, NC:  University of North Carolina Press, 1975), 7.
^[4] For more information see Fakhruddin ‘Irāqi, Divan of ‘Irāqi, translation with Introduction by Paul Smith (Victoria: New Humanity Books, 2023) 332.
^[5] For more information see Nahid Angha, Shah Maghsoud:  Life and Legacy (San Rafael, CA:  IAS Publications, 2021), 166.
^[6] For more information see E.G. Browne, Literary History of Persia 1902-1024, vol 3, (Cambridge, London: Cambridge University Press, 1969), 126-127.
^[7] Seyyed Hossein Nasr, The Garden of Truth (New York:  HarperCollins, 2008), 179.
^[8] Seyyed Hossein Nasr, “The Rise and Development of Persian Sufism,” in The Heritage Of Sufism:  Classical Persian Sufism from its Origins to Rumi (700-1300), vol 1, ed. Leonard Lewisohn (Oxford, England:  Oneworld Publications, 1999), 3.
[9] A poem from Lamaʻat by Fakhr al-Din ʻIraqi in ‘Ataullah Tadayyun, “Shur-va-hayajan dar khaneqah-i meyhani,” in Jalvahay-i tasawuf va-irfan dar Iran va-jahan (Tehran: Intisharat-i Tehran, 1374/1995), 161. The poem is translated into English by Nahid Angha, Ph. D.