Ode to Wine and The Path of the Righteous

Sufi poet-mystic Ibn al-Farid tried to describe the state he experienced—closeness to Being, the One, God.

The depth of his experiences, the thoughts expressed in Ibn al-Farid’s poems, and the emotional tension permeating his verses determined their uniqueness. That’s why they are rightly considered masterpieces of medieval Arabic poetry.

The best-known cycles of Ibn al-Farid’s poems expressing his mystical searching are “The Ode to Wine” and “The Path of the Righteous” (or “The Great Ode”).

“The Ode to Wine” is a hymn to wine, immersing a person in a state of detachment from worldly thoughts and cares. In Sufism, wine is a constant symbol of mystical ecstasy—“spiritual intoxication.” It is brought by the “Cupbearer,” who is none other than God Himself. Therefore, wine, the Cupbearer, and intoxication, as well as the grapevine, become poetic symbols of the Sufi “path.”

“The Great Ode” or “The Path of the Righteous” is a unique phenomenon in world poetry, psychology, and esotericism. For the first time, the experiences of a person becoming a saint are conveyed in poetic form. A person is one of the phases of the Spirit’s development. Just as a caterpillar transforms into a cocoon, and the cocoon into a magnificent airy creature—a butterfly—so too must a person, before reaching the peak of perfection, pass through several stages of development. Some of these phases are familiar to us: a child becomes a teenager and then an adult. But very rarely does the inner being—essence—grow at the same pace as the outer being, the personality. Only in a very small number of people does the growth of essence reach maturity. And then, the “butterfly” appears— the saint.