THE EARTH IS GOD’S
Posted by mania | Filed under Islamic poems
WHO rears the seed in the darkness of the ground?
Who lifts the cloud up from the ocean wave?
Who drew here from the west the fruitful wind?
Who made this soil, or who that light of the sun?
Who filled with pearls of grain the tasselled wheat?
Who taught the months by instinct to revolve?
Landlord! this earth is not thine, is not thine,
Nor yet thy fathers’ ; no, not thine, nor mine.
Poem by Allama Iqbal but the translation of this poem has been taken from “Poems from Iqbal” by V. G. Kiernan.
STAY CLOSE, MY HEART
Posted by mania | Filed under Islamic poems
BY Maulana Jalalludin RumiStay close, my heart, to the one who knows your ways;
Come into the shade of the tree that allays has fresh flowers.
Don’t stroll idly through the bazaar of the perfume-markers:
Stay in the shop of the sugar-seller.
If you don’t find true balance, anyone can deceive you;
Anyone can trick out of a thing of straw,
And make you take it for gold
Don’t squat with a bowl before every boiling pot;
In each pot on the fire you find very different things.
Not all sugarcanes have sugar, not all abysses a peak;
Not all eyes possess vision, not every sea is full of pearls.
O nightingale, with your voice of dark honey! Go on lamenting!
Only your drunken ecstasy can pierce the rock’s hard heart!
Surrender yourself, and if you cannot be welcomes by the Friend,
Know that you are rebelling inwardly like a thread
That doesn’t want to go through the needle’s eye!
The awakened heart is a lamp; protect it by the him of your robe!
Hurry and get out of this wind, for the weather is bad.
And when you’ve left this storm, you will come to a fountain;
You’ll find a Friend there who will always nourish your soul.
And with your soul always green, you’ll grow into a tall tree
Flowering always with sweet light-fruit, whose growth is interior.
(translated by Andrew Harvey)
Science and Faith
Posted by mania | Filed under Islamic poems
Science and Faith
Once Science said to Faith:
“My eye can see all that is in this world;
The Entire world is within my net.
I am only concerned with material things,
What have I to do with spiritual matters?
I can strike a thousand melodies,
And openly proclaim all the secrets that I learn.”
Faith said:
“With your magic even the waves in the sea are set ablaze,
You can pollute the atmosphere with foul, poisonous gases.
When you associated with me, you were light,
When you broke off from me, your light became fire.
You were of Divine origin,
But you have been caught in the clutches of Shaytan.
Come, make this wasteland a garden once again.
Borrow from me a little of my ecstasy,
And in the world set up a paradise.
From the day of creation we have been associates,
We are the low and high tunes of the same melody.”
BY ALLAMA IQBAL
