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WISDOM IS A GREAT GOOD

God has declared, Wisdom is a great good;
wherever you may see this good, seize it. 1310
Science gives pinions to words and sounds,
bestows purest substance on things without substance;
science finds a way even to heaven’s zenith
to pluck the sight out of the sun’s own eye.
Its transcript is the commentary of the cosmos, 1315
the fate of the cosmos hangs upon its determining;
it says to the desert, ‘Bubble up!’ and it bubbles,
to the sea, ‘Produce a mirage!’ and it produces it.
Its eye beholds all the events in creation
that it may see the sure foundations of creation; 1320
if it attaches its heart to God, it is prophecy,
but if it is a stranger to God, it is unbelief.
Science without the heart’s glow is pure evil,
for then its light is darkness over sea and land,
its rouge renders the whole world black and blind, 1325
its springtide scatters the leaves of all being,
sea, plain and mountain, quiet garden and villa
are ravaged by the bombs of its aeroplanes.
It is its fire that burns the heart of Europe,
from it springs the joy of raiding and robbing; 1330
it turns topsy-turvy the course of the days,
despoils the peoples of their capital.
Its power becomes the faithful ally of Satan;
light becomes fire by association with fire.
To slay Satan is indeed a difficult task, 1335
since he is hidden within the depths of the heart;
better is it to make him a true Mussulman,
better to smite him dead with the sword of the Koran.
God save us from majesty that is without beauty,
God save us from separation without union! 1340
Science without love is a demonic thing,
science together with love is a thing divine;
science and wisdom without love are a corpse,
reason is an arrow that never pierced the target.
With the vision of God make the blind to see, 1345
convert Abu Lahab into an impetuous Haidar!

Zinda-Rud

You have displayed the foundations of the Book of God,
yet is yonder world still veiled in a shroud.
Why does it not strip off the veil from its face,
why does it not issue yet out of our hearts? 1350
Before us lies a whole world wasting away,
a nation quietly reposing in its own dust;
the heart’s ardour of Tartar and Kurd is vanished—
either the Mussulmans are dead, or the Koran is dead.

Sa‘id Halim Pasha

The religion of God is more shameful than unbelief, 1355
because the mullah is a believer trading in unfaith;
in our eyes this dew-drop of ours is an ocean,
to his eyes our ocean is a dew-drop.
At the elegant graces of that Koran-vendor
I have seen the Trusty Spirit himself cry out! 1360
His heart is a stranger to what lies beyond the sky,
for him the Archetype of the Book is but a fable;
having no share of the wisdom of the Prophet’s religion,
his heaven is dark, being without any star.
Short of vision, blind of taste, an idle gossip, 1365
his hairsplitting arguments have fragmented the Community.
Seminary and mullah, before the secrets of the Book,
are as one blind from birth before the light of the sun.
The infidel’s religion is the plotting and planning of Holy War;
the mullah’s religion is corruption in the Way of God. 1370
The man of God is the soul of this dimensionate world;
say from me to him, who has gone into solitude,
‘You whose thoughts are life itself to the believer,
whose breaths are confirmation to the Community,
having the sublime Koran by heart is your rite, 1375
your religion the publishing of the Word of God.
You with whom God speaks, how long will you hang your head?
Come, bring forth your hand out of your sleeve!
Speak of the history of the ‘white’ people,
speak to the gazelle of the vastness of the desert. 1380
Your nature is illumined by the Chosen One,
so declare now, where is our station?
The man of God takes not Colour and scent from anyone,
the man of God receives colour and scent from God;
every moment there is in his body a fresh soul, 1385
every moment he has, like God, a new labour.
Declare the secrets to the believer,
declare the exposition of the mystery of Every day.
The caravan has no halting-place but the Sanctuary,
the caravan has naught but God in its heart;
I do not say that its road is different—
it is the caravan that is different, different its regard.

Afghani

Have yon any acquaintance with the Traditions of the Chosen One?
‘God’s religion came a stranger into the world.’
I will tell you the meaning of this virgin saying. 1395
The ‘strangerhood’ of religion is not the poverty of God’s remembrancers;
for the man who is truly a researcher
‘strangerhood’ of religion refers to the scarceness of its verses.
The ‘strangerhood’ of religion every time is Of a different kind;
ponder well this subtelty, if you have eyes to see. 1400
Fasten your heart again to the perspicuous Verses
that you may seize a new age in your lasso.
No man knows the inner secrets of the Book;
Easterners and Westerners alike twist and turn this way and that.
The Russians have laid down a new design; 1405
they have taken bread and water, and jettisoned religion.
Behold truth, speak truth, seek only truth;
speak one or two words from me to the people.