What Hast Thou Done to this Servant's Heart!

The Eternal Painter and Creator of beauties knows well that the balm for a wretched man’s wounds heals only through the presence of a beloved. He knows well by whom a man's troubled mind, second only to the One Creator, finds its ultimate peace.

Oh, my peerless counterpart! The pain has pierced to my very bones. She has so utterly captivated me that even if I were to dwell for ages in Your painted temple, it would be impossible for me to be satiated. Does a human being ever exist upon this earth who grows weary of that which You created and which enchants them? The kings, Sufis, tyrants, and sages of the eras—all came and departed in longing for this eternal madness. Among all the madmen, I am the maddest; I have become the craziest of the crazed.

Would that You had never adorned that beauty with Your exquisite pen to render me thus! My testament is known to all the world and humankind; You Yourself knew this at the moment of creation, and knowingly brought her into being. You alone are the Deity, yet, if I may draw a comparison, You sent another deity down to bring Your servants to their knees in the pursuit of this creation. Did You send her as the manifestation of the "Best of Creators" only to inflame the thirst of love?

I have become so deeply drowned in beauty and lost in her gaze that I have forgotten everyone and everything. Oh, Lord of Beauty! You placed a creature upon earth as a human and Your representative, so that Your creations would beg, serve, and yearn just for a glimpse of her. And You, the Alpha and Omega Painter, what hast Thou done to this servant's heart that I have become like this!

Yes, love! You created love so that in striving to reach Your creation, we might practice the helplessness of devotion and become the most broken of the suffering. Perhaps we shall never arrive, and must live through the agony of unfulfillment.

But is longing nobler than arrival?

No, never! I must arrive.

The city I dwell in is only fragrant when Your creation sprinkles water upon her body; it is then that the entire city becomes perfumed with the scent of her skin. The city I dwell in—her presence within it brings me peace and breathes a new soul into me; for my beloved is there, and that means life, passion, and the fervor to reach out and endure.

Fahim Arezou

May 18, 2026