Ismaili.NET - Heritage F.I.E.L.D.

You, whose name has not been formed by anyone,

whose proof not even intellect can grasp.

To label you would be a loathsome act

for you are far removed from genus and species:

neither a subject nor an attribute ,

neither a Substance nor an Accident.

The moralist can t order you about

nor any censor tells you what to say.

The dance of the Sun s disc through the skies

is your command and gives birth to the shades

of animals; you stir the painter s pot,

the whirling spheres, mixing and mingling all

your most heart-catching colours in the stars.

The very mention of your name in the Nest

of Glory cuts off the wing of Gabriel;

on the Throne of Sanctity your lowliness

unveils the jewels which grace the bride of heaven.

Creation testifies that you were here before it,

and pre-eternity swears to your permanence.

O luminous sun, veiled by your shadow of light,

goal of all lovers, beyond their petty loves,

the paradoxical treasure of Qarun

(which is never where you find it) symbolises

your single pearl, concealed within two jewels -

two jewels which created the world, two gems

which chastised Adam.

The Universe is like

a rolling sea, our planet a tiny skiff

and Nature the anchor; its waves are trees, the stones

which wash up on the beach are animals;

but one, the pearl, the crimson carnelian

if YOU - the lonely beast endowed with speech.

And who is the diver? the Active Intellect

(worthy to be the mind of the Prophet himself).

What is the end? the same as was the beginning.

What is the goal? To seek that which is the best.

Behold the Good, if you have eyes, listen

to Truth, if you have ears to hear it with.

Lust s falcon has snatched you up in its beak, a dove

from Time s snare - have you forgotten, my brother,

Adam our father s sin and repentant tears?

I give a gift wrapped in veils of allusion

hoping you can slice away its seals

with meditation s sword: Adam ate

no bread in Eden; man was not the eater

of grain till his feet crossed the threshold of earth.

All this had happened to Adam when Satan s dam

had not yet come to birth.

What do you say

of Satan s refusal to worship man? Was he forced

not to bow, or did he have free choice to refuse?

If the power was his, to prostrate or not, then God

was impotent; but if God had pre-ordained

him to refusal, then God must be unjust.

No, give up thinking of work which is not your work

and cease to tread a path which is not your way.

No longer seek in vain the Water of Life

in the midst of your own darkness, like some lost

and bootless Alexander; for there were Khizr

found the fountain, the demon is no more

companion of the angel of our soul.