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

Weak as we are - and alone - and dangerous the way -

how can we tread the Prophet s path?

If the road is plagued by day with highwaymen

my son, perhaps we d do better to travel by night,

hidden like stars against the noontide from all eyes

but after sunset, vigilant guides, awake;

corporeally concealed from the ignorant but

to the wise openly visible as sunlight.

Physically all are equal: rank depends on intellect,

dignity on wisdom alone. Again, everyone speaks,

but some speak with knowledge, others not -

judge the speech and you have judged the man:

I and thou in silence are but paintings on a wall.

The Cosmos to its Lord is a garden in which we

are so many trees; come, judge this harvest-tide:

which of us drops the more succulent fruit?

But cease your wrangling - strife such as you concoct

long since exiled me from home. Muhuammad and Ali

are surely supreme amongst all men - should we

not honour them more than any So-and-So?

God s treasures, they reveal His Mysteries

to us, the People of Secrets, Companions of the Cave

(not just any hole in the ground, but the Cavern

of True Religion), pure hearts, friends of the Messenger.

Our portion is wheat - yours but chaff;

never believe we share your bovine taste for straw.

The wine of religion goes to your head; we,

who remain sober, find no satisfaction

in your company; yet day and night we work

for your salvation, knowing that in your madness

you have flung yourself to perdition. We know,

we understand that you are drunk and foolish;

we turn the other cheek; we know that you

cannot abide our words of wisdom;

in your presence we nail shut our mouths.

You could seek from us the cure

for snakebite - but you fancy us the snakes?

What is the purpose of the intellect with which

we sometimes turn to sin, sometimes to the

worship of God? Why should He bid us Do good,

shun evil if we had not been endowed

with free will? The ravenous wolf is not held

responsible for his acts - but we are. Why?

Why blame man for spouting noise, but not

condemn the pickaxe for its thwack! Thwack! ?

Why are you and I weighed down with such tasks

as prayer, but not the deer or the game-birds?

What is the one thing God gave us which makes us

lords over the beasts of the field? Intellect!

And the same faculty which sets us higher

than a donkey, makes us the slaves of the Almighty.

With it may investigate all hows and whys,

without it we are no more than tress without fruit.

It will tell us why we should - for example -

fast all day from morning to night in Ramadan.

If God knows we are murderers and tyrants

why doesn t He simply wipe us all out at once?

He commands us not to sin - and we sin;

does that make us omnipotent ? On the other hand

if we sin only because He wills us to sin,

why should we be blamed? Untie this Gordian knot

and I ll offer you my humblest respect!

But if problems like this scare you, away with you!

Because WE dare to search for answers.

With glowing hearts we raise to the skies

the complex, gold-leafed palace of our thought;

we are warriors, Quranic and Shariite, Partisans

of Ali, the warrior-knight. Invalids

find the taste of sugar disgusting - no wonder

you think us unbelievers. Five hundred snakes,

a thousand ants, ranged against one MAN

scarcely constitutes a threat. Is it

any marvel we ve never reckoned you an army?