"‘Allah! Allah!" cried the sick man, racked with pain the long night through,
Till with prayer his heart grew tender, till his lips like honey grew.

But at morning came the tempter; said, ‘Call louder, child of Pain!
See if Allah ever hears, or answers, "Here am I," again.'

Like a stab the cruel cavil through his brain and pulses went;
To his heart an icy coldness, to his brain a darkness sent.

Then before him stands Elias: says, "My child, why thus dismayed?
Dost repent thy former fervor? Is thy soul of prayer afraid?"

"Ah!" he cries, "I've called so often; never heard the 'Here am I;'
And I thought God will not pity; will not turn on me his eye."

Then the grave Elias answered, "God said, 'Rise, Elias, go
Speak to him, the sorely tempted; lift him from his gulf of woe.

Tell him that his very longing is itself an answering cry;
That his prayer, 'Come Gracious Allah!' is my answer, 'Here am I!'

Every inmost aspiration is God's angel undefiled;
And in every ‘O my Father!' slumbers deep a ‘Here, my child!'"

— Dscheladeddin, an Islamic mystic