Muhammad (PBUH): An Ode
To speak thus of a man unparalleled so
In humanity’s history most uncommon of all;
Of nobility, beauty, piety, of all manly qualities I avow
An epitome thou are O Muhammad and withal
A beguiling perfection yet no trace of conceit.
Semblance none did Jibreel find
Traversing far off universe. Just one star outshone
All the others since my Lord inclined
That not even a shadow shouldst be like thee and it’s known
No human shadow lay beneath thy blessed feet.
Powers mystic thee did hold
Sliding it by a finger’s move, moon thy plaything be,
For Ali once time thee did mould
Reversing back the sun anew shone fully.
Decreed by the Great Lord once,
On lightning Buraq commenced thy distinct journey,
Prophets all at Al-Aqsa thou led,
After universe whole, heaven and hell seen
Greeted by the Lord, only thou have met,
Returning from Meraj no time absorbed.
Guide to travellers adrift, thou brought
From caverns dark into the light of wisdom
And Islam, the deluded, faithless multitude. Thou sought
And justice did, earned rights the women of a kingdom
Which had prior girls buried alive. The Lord thee solicited
Up at nights whole for thy Muslim community's remission sole
While foes thine, thee always absolved
And on the Final Day that's each one's dole
Sublime ahead us all, our advocate before the Lord,
The man leading us to paradise thou shalt be.
A Sanguine Pearl, a Mountain of Forbearance
Destiny prior unto the eyes unfurled
yet relinquished not martyrdom,
being in the right, issued audacity forth.
A protector renouncing none
and indeed salvaging for all time —
integrity, verities, maidens’ chastity
and his Progenitor’s Islam.
A flawless sculpture thus shielded,
at the hands of the Oblivious
the sacred glass did not splinter.
An exemplar for generations,
to relent to fiendish designs not
Imam Hussain’s word unto all, a legacy of
the emblem of morality, the mountain of forbearance.
Children in the Park
Two children in the park
flushed faces and carefree days,
surfaced a nostalgic memory.
Twenty years now and
innocent incomprehension a thing of past,
can’t coax ecstasy to last forever.
Will too be short-lived
their childish euphoria.
Children’s naivety
sent me into a reverie,
myself mastering
the art of playing with mates
at the dawn of my prime
when I was roused,
a tap at my back
made blurry a pleasant reminiscence.
No one can the waning years dodge
soon with our fast flowing foe
we shall recline in a puny, muddy cell.
An Experience of Life
Life has its ways unanticipated
unfolds as it reveals
what we were destined to be
that can be amended
by neither you nor me.
Erratic for me life has been
like weather that takes whimsical turns;
oft I surfed contented above the deep
but sometimes took me down
waves threatening, subduing
to start all over again.
Of all the impediments
the most uncommon marred
those jovial days
filled my mind thoughts
indescribable and vague,
beset by them
downcast and depressed
lost life’s sheen and shimmer
bringing over clouds of melancholy.
While reminiscences
of the gleeful bygone
down the memory lane remained.
But as a sailor prepared am I
(like Ulysses was despite the looming peril)
to gallantly face the unpredictable,
with or without the will o’ the wind,
come what may —
gale or berg or anything
I try to sail through the land of the living.
Lawlessness
Guided by principles of anarchy
some people aspire lawlessness
but the country faces turmoil
persistence of peace, crime and tyranny ultimately foil.
While some states display total lawlessness
a jungle with its denizens roaming free;
others design a loosely-knit structure
of rules and penalties
with no proper implementation and remedies
where people take lead,
through bribery, source and intimidation
evade rulings and penitentiary.
Hence prevailing orders become nugatory.
Tenacious where laws are
thrive those nations
but where rules like tramps be,
crime not appropriately rewarded,
such a populace is genuinely sordid.
Note: “Muhammad (PBUH): An Ode” is in the praise of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). “Buraq” is a creature that carried the Prophet during ‘Meraj’ — the journey he undertook from this earth to see the universe and to meet Allah. Archaic English words like thou or thee have been used to give the poem an elevated form. “A Sanguine Pearl, A Mountain of Forbearance” is a poem commending Imam Hussain R.A. and his martyrdom at Karbala.
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