Heartbeat - Nouri Sardar (Imam Ali Spoken Word)

‘Heartbeat’ — on the mighty love of Ali (ع).

#imamali #spokenword

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What is that sound? A heartbeat?
Am I alive? I thought I was gone
Have I been resurrected, here beneath your dome?

A revenant. Hugh Glass
I can feel my heart heave
As long as you can still grab a breath - you fight, you believe
I climbed out from the trenches,
battered, wounded, bloodied
‘You still have work to do, my friend,
get back up onto your two feet’

What is that on my heart?
A weight that is too heavy
It’s as if I was dead and was
brought back to life by Ali

A love almost too mighty, oh, the might of piety
Is that my light that I see
again? It’s as if he adopted me
Poetry
Took me under his hand when I knew not of his path
‘Come to me, my child, without the burden of your past
Is that salt water you’ve drunk? Here, let me quench your thirst
You see the secret of all love
is that I am not fourth, but first
This world has brought you pain
Come and feel my embrace
Heartbreak gets heartbroken when it
looks upon my face
For I am the light of God and I light up this whole place
For I am the home sought by the broken and displaced
I’m the father of all orphaned - literal and spiritual
I’m the father of all my lovers — no — I’m the father of all
By the mercy of Allah, your bones bare my love’s weight
I am one of two weighty things - Qur’an and Ahlulbayt
Come to me my child, leave your pain here at my door
How fleeting is your pain while I’m of legend and lore

I felt
his hand comfort me, comfort I found no-where else
Najaf became my city and his shrine became my home
I buried myself there, testifies my grey hairs
The spark in my eyes gone, but that’s what happens when you’re done
When you die before you die then death is what you become
I killed all sense of longing, I killed the idea of ‘belong’
‘Be long’, the road says, yes the road I walk is long
Let go of the story, all that matters is the song
Recite Ali’s praise and be in awe of what you become

I’m sick of it, this life, it’s made me thick-skinned,
I’m sick
I’m a rejectionist, perfectionist
Above it all, you can’t test this
Love for me is a state of bliss
Worlds apart, love is art,
for me love is limitless
If my light is too strong for you
Then take a moment and reflect on it
You mirror man, I mirror God
You’re lost in this world, I’m one step above
I’ve lost my mind, my mind is gone
But without my mind my heart is strong
My love is strong, I’ve won this test
My heart and his heart let them mesh
Until my flesh is
nothing but love
Till My heart beats his name and that name is enough
If the price of love is death, then I’ll pay it, any cost
If the price of love is heartbreak then take my heart and let it burst

For love is special
And I’m nothing but a vessel
Let the heart weep and wrestle
With love, let it make me humble
Ask me about love and in Najaf I’ll write you a novel

I’m back to life, faithful
and I live and breathe his name
He holds me on puppet strings and my tongue recites his name
He purchased me a slave and thus Maytham I became
They pinned me to a crucifix and I still recite his name
They came after me with everything and here still I recite his name
I’m dead and I’m buried but I still recite his name
My body beneath the dust and yet I still recite his name
Don’t you hear my voice in his shrine? How is still recites his name
Echoing beneath his dome my voice still recites his name

Saying Ali’s king, everything, Ali’s beginning and end
Ali’s truth, nothing but truth when all others are nothing but pretend
Ali’s mighty, Ali’s weighty, Ali - all faith and piety
Untouchable, unbreakable
Ali’s blood is all royalty
Ali is truth, Ali is worth
This world and all that’s in it
Ali is might, Ali is sight
for the blind who now bare witness
Ali’s action, Ali’s golden, Ali’s captain, Ali’s Eden,
Ali’s oceans, Ali’s chosen, Ali is mentioned, by Allah spoken
Ali is on the frontier, Ali at the foot of fear
Ali’s love is always near, Ali’s comfort always appears
Ali lives in my grey hairs
Ali my love and my despair
I’m deaf and now all that I can hear
Is that Ali is the source of all care
I’m deaf and now all that I can hear
Is that Ali is the source of all care

What is that sound? A heartbeat?
Here I am, back to life
Oh your name is but the price
Of love of death and oh of life

Is that my heartbeat I hear again?
Ali… Ali… the source of all life
Oh my heart, embrace that bittersweet pain…
Ali… Ali… the source of all life….

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