This is a part of a poem written by Zayn al-'Abidin, the great grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. Zayn (RA) is a highly esteemed and beloved figure in both Sunni and Shia Islam. In his own time, he was known as an upright and noble character, with a very strong will and a soft heart, a kind and consciencious and intelligent man, whose piety was unmatched among his peers. Like those with the deepest of souls, he often struggled to contain his genius under the strict veil of the outward principles, and this poem at times touches on this difficult balance which those who reach closeness to God must strike. But throughout this struggle Imam Zayn is secure in his confidence that Allah is shielding him from errors of the soul. The poem is also a call and a motivation toward opening your heart to the stranger, the bravery which is needed to embrace the strange, and at the same time the 'stranger' or 'nomad' is used to signify Zayn's own wandering Soul, trying to remain on a good path in the Desert which the more base aspects of the world and its people can resemble to the individual who has decided to seek for Higher Ideals.
