We Come Round Right
We Come Round Right

Tis a gift to be simple
Tis a gift to be free
Tis a gift to come down
Where we ought to be

And when we have come down
To the place just right
We will be in the valley
Of love and Delight

When the true
Simplicity is gained
To bow and to bend
We shan’t be ashamed

To turn, to turn
It will be our delight
Till by turning and turning
We come round right

An old Shaker hymn that my mother liked to sing when I was young. I sing it to my kids now. The Shakers were very Sufi I think, admirable people.

Published by bingregory

Official organ of an American Muslim in Malaysian Borneo, featuring plants, pantuns and pictures from the Malay archipelago. Oversharing since 2002.

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3 Comments

  1. SubhanAllah!

    This was sung to me by my grandmother while she was rocking me to sleep many years ago!

    I had no idea though that the lyrics were such, or that it was a shaker hymn…

    Jazakum Allahu Khayran!

  2. Yeah, I don’t know what the Shakers meant by it, but the bowing and the bending work as Islamic imagery, and the turning and turning reminds me of the Mevlevi spinning. Is IlmGate one of your projects?

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