Who was Ibn al-Fāriḍ?
Born in Cairo (c. 1181) and buried there (1235), he studied ḥadīth and Shāfiʿī law before turning to Sufi devotion, including a long stay in Mecca. Reference encyclopedias call him one of the greatest mystical poets in Arabic literary history.
Wine ode and Poem of the Way
His slim Dīwān is dominated by love imagery. The short Khamriyya uses wine as a symbol of spiritual intoxication; the long Naẓm al-sulūk (Poem of the Way) maps the mystic’s path and later attracted extensive commentaries.
How to read him today
Hold both levels: the polished Arabic love lyric and the Sufi allegory. Prefer a careful translation or study before drawing doctrinal conclusions from a single couplet.