Welcome to F.I.E.L.D.- the First Ismaili Electronic Library and Database.

8. Hermeneutics (The Garden)

Windowless revolving turquoise dome: why

is it sometimes a garden, sometimes a wilderness?

First house Ive ever heard of half-desert

half-rosebed, blossoming when you turn your back

on the wasteland. And a black globe

hangs suspended in the middle of the livingroom -

look: no wires. Whos the magician?

A better trick than King Solomons Throne?

Earth - a great tablecloth spread with delicacies

out there on the veranda. When they ask you

to join the feast, think for a moment:

do you deserve it? What about it?

O you whose back is bent like an umbrella.

Look: that eye-in-the-sky, staring,

staring at the earth, looking for the

secret mine-full of jewels, reaching out

with four hands ( Spring, Summer, Winter, Fall).

The jewel is dug out and planted

in another mine: mans body. A pale germ.

Give it colour then - dont be a weakling.

A rubys valued by its >water, man

by his speech. Your body is precious

only because its the shell for this pearl,

this Wisdom, this divine Spirit.

Give spirit to your jewel, for the spiritless

have no mercy from God when the

shell is split open. Wake up! beware

lest you leave this world as you entered it,

hungry, thirsty, naked. Dont buy

before you look at the label. The Divine Law

is Gods grain-garden. His plantation of trees,

some tended by His hand - but others

by Satan. Traveller, if you hunger for

these rare fruits, ask the gardeners permission

(a great and virtuous man) before you come in:

choose the apple, the quince; avoid

the brambles, dont be deceived by tall trees

which bear no fruit. The parrot and owl

are both birds, but one graces the courts

of kings, the other perches in ruins.

Black smokes may rise high as clouds

but gives no rain, not every child

whose father calls him Noah owns an ark

to ride out the Flood. The Messenger

is Lord and master of this house,

commander of humankind, herald of God.

The Messengers child is the gardener,

who protects you from oppressors as the harden

is protected from noxious insects. Just because

apples have worms doesnt mean the farmer

turns the orchards over to pests, any more

than youd surrender your new house

to the mice. A mouse stays in its hole

and travels the wainscotting - what does it know

of the parlour and the porch? No more

than the fool knows of religion. The fool

can mount the pulpit but that doesnt

make him equal to the Sage: the crow

can kick the nightingale out of the garden

but that doesnt mean that it can sing.

Wisdom comes from man, not from a pulpit;

light comes from the sun, not from some

distant star. The Quran is Gods battlefield -

come you knights, ride forth to the lists;

its easy enough to read the Book -

the hard thing is its hermeneutic sense;

if youre not a cow, dont eat chaff with grain

(so said Salman); dont eat the shell with the nut.

It would be libel to say the Prophet didnt know

the meaning of Gods Word - and no one

but the Prophets Family has power

over it now. The rod turned into a snake

in the hands of Moses and Moses alone.

A parrot can talk, but not understand

what it says - so with your reading

of the Quran! Parrots gabble, profitless

absurd, unproven. . . noise. They say

the Prophet died without appointing

a successor. Fools! Prophethood is the

dominion of God, not Rome or China;

what king would turn his empire

over to a stranger? Go, read the

Book of Kings and see for yourself!

Would any Muslim leave his wealth

to a stranger when his daughter,

his son-in-law and his grandchildren were all

still alive? Do you think the Messenger

would act contrary to the Word of the Lord,

the Judge, the Glorious? What crudities!

What are you saying, you around whose brows

the fumes of rebellion smoulder|?

Youll realise its all babble on that Day

when you have to chew stones and weep.

Regret is no use tomorrow if you have not

repented today. Sorrow will not help

the old man who fled from school

as a child. He who spends the summer

drowsing in the shade will not sleep

from hunger through winters nights.

Grief is useless if the patient falls ill

in Iraq, when the remedy is in Badakhshan!

Do you think the Sultan will accept

>Im sorry from the convicted thief?

The Prophets descendant sits in the place

of his ancestor, and the tip of his crown

brushes against Saturns sphere

He is the Chosen one of God - why

do you rave on? There, there where

the Prohet sat at the Divine command

he sits today. Your choice is not

Gods choice - do you know better

than the Creator, the Judge Himself?

Old man, God will not accept

your sacrifice of a dog - even a fat one!

The Prophets son is a sacrifice for you -

find your way by his wisdom to the Garden.

He is the Solomon of the Age; flee

to his gate, escape from your demons.

O Lord of Adams children, your kingdom

like Solomons. Your wisdom like Luqmans,

in the Garden of the Divine Law, March

appears from your justice, April

from your generosity. Religion is

adorned by you, the world made beautiful,

wisdom refreshed, heresy defeated.

When I proclaim your name from

the pulpit on Friday, roses spring up

from your blessing. When your servant

speaks your name - MUSTANSIR BILLAH -

the vale of Yamgan fills with dancing stars.

Your enemies are consumed like foam

in the moonlight. O you title of the Book

of Happiness. Your humble servant

is hounded by enemies only because

he is a guest at your gate. O PROOF

of Yamgan, let your words pierce the hearts

and souls of these villains. If Khorasnas soil

rejected you, be of good cheer - Gods pleasure

is richer than the soil of Khorasan.

Compose your odes on praise of the Wisdom

of the Family, as did the eulogists of old.


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