As I was seated in remembrance and contemplation one night, in front of me appeared a great stag, shining and shimmering in whiteness, and there was a concentration of brilliant white light above its head. The stag was some feet away and was moving toward me. As it got closer, I could see that the white light on its head was emanating from a flaming brand, a torch, lit, glowing with brilliant white star-like light. The flaming brand, ‘qabas’ in Quranic Arabic, was as if a projection from the top of its head. The stag came straight toward me, approached me until it was so near I could have reached out and touched it, and then the flaming brand that was on its head, was suddenly but so naturally, held by it in its mouth. The stag bowed its head and placed this flaming brand, this qabas at my feet, and disappeared. As this happened the following verse flashed through my mind, and I knew I had been given permission to spread the teachings that are coming to me, and I was given the name under which to do so; It is ‘Qabas’, a flaming brand; a torch for warmth and a light for guidance. إِذْ رَأَىٰ نَارًا فَقَالَ لِأَهْلِهِ امْكُثُوا إِنِّي آنَسْتُ نَارًا لَّعَلِّي آتِيكُم مِّنْهَا بِقَبَسٍ أَوْ أَجِدُ عَلَى النَّارِ هُدًىQuran: surah 20, ayah 10When he saw a fire he said to his family, “tarry here, I have indeed perceived a fire maybe I can bring you from it a flaming brand or I can find guidance at the fire”QABAS – Volume 3, ExitingThis is volume 3 in the series. Containing 64 poems, many didactic, that mark the middle stage of the ‘suluk’ (spiritual way) of the author. It follows Volume 1, ‘Early Signs’ and Volume 2, ‘Entering’, and is followed by Volume 4, ‘Returned’. As in other volumes, the number of pieces in this work – 64 – bears resonance with the natural world.
