الهی من نمیدانم
Ellahi Man Namidanam
“O God, I Don't Know”
Lyrics
Lyrics updated · July 2026English Translation
O my God, I do not know — in Your own knowledge, You know O my God, I do not know — in Your own knowledge, You know
One became a beggar, one became despised, one became king of seven kingdoms One was made equal to ashes, another received the sultan's crown
One became righteous, one went astray, one became Majnun wandering toward the desert Going toward Laila's dwelling, into a whole world of bewilderment
One without a heart, one with a heart, one caught in a hundred troubles One bound to the lesson of water and clay, another enchanted by God's holy Name
Transliteration
Elahi man namidanam, ba elme khod tu medani Elahi man namidanam, ba elme khod tu medani
Kas shod gadah, kas shod abtar,, kas shod padshahe haft keshwar Kas barabar ba khakestar, kase ra taje(dadi) sultani
Kas shod saleh(balegh), kas shod gomrah(hozrah), kas shod majnoon soye sahra Rawand ba manzele laila, ba yak alam porayshani
Yake bedil, yake badil, yake dochar sad moshkel Yake paa-pand aab o gel, degar maftoone besmani(sobhani)
متن اصلی
الهی من نميدانم ، به علم خود تو ميدانی الهی من نميدانم به علم خود تو ميدانی
کس شد گدا ، کس شد ابتر ، کس شد پادشاه هفت کشور کس برابر به خاکستر ، کسی را تاج(دادی) سلطانی
کس شد صالح(بالغ) ، کس شد گمراه(حظراه) ، کس شد مجنون سوی صحرا روند با منزل ليلا ، به يک عالم پريشانی
يکی بيدل ، يکی با دل ، يکی دچار صد مشکل يکی با پند آب و گل ، دگر مفتون بسمانی(صبحانی)
O God, I Don't Know — a song of surrendered understanding: I do not know; You, in Your knowledge, know. Zahir's plainest statement of humility before the divine, and one of his most beloved devotional recordings.
About This Recording
Ellahi Man Namidanam turns on a single gesture, repeated until it becomes a kind of rest: the admission of not-knowing, met each time by trust in a knowledge larger than the singer's own. I don't know; You, by Your knowledge, know. It reaches back to the oldest strain of Persian devotional poetry, where owning your ignorance is not a defeat but the start of some peace.
In Zahir's catalog the recording stands slightly apart: less ornamented than his romantic material, addressed upward rather than across. It has had a long afterlife in moments of grief — shared, quoted, and replayed by listeners reaching for a language of acceptance. Among the diaspora it is one of the recordings most often played in remembrance.
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