What Allah is Feeling

I have just come from the Mosque, and I am shaking my head

I do not understand where the Imam gets his information.

If you listened only to him, and not to your heart

you would think that Allah spends most of his time angry

—at sinners, at heretics, at infidels, and especially at Sufis.

But I talk to Allah frequently,

and anger is not what I hear from Him.

I hear his deep sighing for those who do not return his amorous advances.

I hear him desperate to be loved, talking constantly,

like a girl with a crush when everyone but her knows it is hopeless.

I hear Him worrying about people until I am sick of hearing it

and threaten to throw Him out with the old tea

if he does not stop his mooning.

There’s no reasoning with him.

I talk, He sighs. I pour more tea. He paces.

I try to change the subject, He walks out into the night

without even grabbing His hat.

Najat says: I don’t know. Maybe He is angry. I would be.

But the emotion I hear most from Allah

is longing, and a deep and aching sadness.