Slain by the dagger of surrender

بِسْمِ اللّهِ الرَّحْمـَنِ الرَّحِيمِ

كشتگان خنجر تسليم را هر زمان از غيب جان ديگر است

Meaning

Those slain by the dagger of surrender Get a new life every moment from the Unseen

Language

Persian/Farsi

Transliteration

Kushtagān-i khanjar-i taslīm rā,

har zamān az ghayb jān-i dīgar ast.

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Brief Explanation

Those who truly surrender themselves to the Beloved will become immortal.

Background

Ahmad-e Jam, also known by his nickname “The Colossal Elephant” (ژنده پىل) due to his status among the scholars and learned men, was a Persian Sufi, Sufi writer, mystic and poet. He also has had tremendous impact on later scholars, among them Nur Din Jami.

This couplet, attributed to Sheikh Ahmad-e Jami, explains that the submission (Islam) in truth, makes us live for ever by the blessing of the Almighty. Whether in peoples’ memories, or via their contributions, or in other ways that we do not know of. The idea of submitting to the will of the Almighty is a central theme of revealed religions from the time of our patriarch Adam (peace be upon him). As we navigate the challenges even in this 21st Century, these truths become even more evident that what the Beloved and Merciful Lord revealed for us is truly the source of salvation.

These couplets have extra significance in South Asia, which has been blessed with Sufi saints, mystics, dervishes, scholars and other holy people. The dominant silsilah is the Chistiyyah or Chisti silsilah, founded by the great South Asian Sufi shaykh Khwaja Muʿīn al-Dīn Chisti and developed, among others, by his famous disciple, Sufi scholar and poet, Khwaja Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki (May Allah bless them all).

These verses are made extra famous by an incident in which Khwaja Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki was listening to a poetry recital (qawwali) and upon hearing these lines swooned and lost consciousness. Staying unconscious for three days, he gave up his soul on the fourth day and came to be known as a “Martyr of Love.”

To this day, these verses are now considered taboo in qawwali performances, even though the modern qawwalis are a far cry from the original poetry recitations and have become song and dance numbers.