The Gift

Today in my Dar al-Islam class we were discussing Sufi mystic poetry, specifically Hafiz.  The students all have to read the collection The Gift, and write a paper analyzing a chapter and then present their favorite individual poem to the class and discuss its relationship to Islam or Sufism or perceptions of the divine.  It's a nice counter-point to all of our readings from the Quran and Nasr's The Heart of Islam.  The discussion always starts off slowly but then gets going as the students get more comfortable getting metaphysical.  After our first day's discussion (and the students always think it will last one day and it will end up stretching out to a week and a half, at least) I turned to find the following words written on the board.  My excellent friend Steve Wehmeyer proposed that it was "so Scudder," and I suspect any student I ever had would agree. It also reminded me of how much I love teaching and what a gift it is.

It all made sense at the time.