POETRY

By: Nasser Yousaf

BEYOND DATES AND POMEGRANATES

It may sound self-aggrandizing, but there appears to be no other way of saying it. One may move earth and heaven, but one may not be able to to pay a visit to the God's most favourite tenement at Makkah till an invitation is received from the Transcendental Being.

Like others born in a Muslim household, one must have wished many times to do the pilgrimage to Makkah, but the mailbox remained empty for pretty too long. When the invitation finally did come, one had suffered an irreparable personal loss.

But that's how the Transcendental One works, as our poet laureate Ejaz Rahim loves referring to Him as such in his monumental work titled, 'Beyond Dates and Pomegranates.'

Almost immediately after exiting the Jeddah airport and boarding a waiting coach to Makkah, a thought, awaiting fruition, immediately refreshed.

For quite some time, the word 'Taif' had been tolling in one's mind. One didn't know where from and why with such urgency. A confession is essential. The ignorance on one's part stemmed from the fact that owing to a perturbed state of mind, all arrangements for the great odyssey had been attended to by the family.

While still some way from Makkah, one broached the matter with the family and decided to include 'Taif' in the itinerary. The journey to Makkah took place through a gray and light brown landscape with not a blade of grass in sight. Some emaciated camels were seen fending for themselves in the blazing sun pouring down from the high heavens.

Having performed the fulfilling rituals of 'Umrah,' one settled down in a comfortable lodging. It was from the expansive glass windows of the room, that one would mostly keep looking at the distant hills.

It was quite interesting that while the blessed Valley of Makkah itself remained lit up with the sunlight throughout the long hours of the day, the distant hills appeared to be under a pall of cloud cover. One had no idea that the hills were the abode of 'Taif.' It was only after traversing the vast desert and reaching the hill station that the distant home of the clouds was discovered.

But for the cool comfort of a luxury coach, the journey through a bone dry desert wouldn't have been easier. Looking at the dun, craggy hills and a limitless sea of sand, it wasn't possible not to think of how our Holy Prophet must have traveled here on a camel's back. Some Divine help must have interfered to the relief of the last Messenger of Allah. Some kind of soothing umbrella, one kept thinking.

One had read of a cloud cover protecting Mohammad (PBUH) from the pitless heat of the sun. Later, upon arriving back home, a most beautiful description of the same was found in Ejaz Rahim's epic poem on the life and achievements of the Holy Prophet.
 
Referring to his early childhood in the company of the children of his foster mother Bibi Haleema, the bard from Pakistan's northern climes writes:

They would often quiz their parents 

Why does a cloud always hover

Over his head providing shade

Against the blazing sun

At age twelve, not many years after camping out of Bibi Haleema's care, Prophet Mohammad accompanied his uncle Abu Talib on one of the guardian uncle's trading trips to Syria. Enroute, a Syrian mystic by the name of Baheera met them at a place called Bosra. Mention of the heavenly shadow cropped up here again.

Like Haleema's children in the desert 

Several years before, the Syrian mystic 

Noticed a canopy of clouds 

Protecting his head

Unbeknownst to him

As he trudged in the sun

Many years later, on his return journey from 'Taif' to Makkah, Allah's continued ownership of His beloved Prophet was witnessed yet again. Some miles short of his destination, Mohammad (PBUH) got knowledge of the lurking threat ahead. A pagan chieftain, Mutim ibn Adi, ensured his safe entry at God's own abode through his seven sons with swords in their hands. Abu Sufyan had not yet embraced the faith.

Ejaz Rahim says:

Abu Sufyan and Abu Jahl who were 

Present in the Kabba 

Could not believe their eyes

But opted not to question 

A powerful chieftain's decision 

Of Abu Jahl, the epic story says:

And that idiomatic leopard 

Had not changed his spots-

On the contrary, both his bark

And his bite had turned 

More vicious than ever 

Here, the probable place where his two arch critics were seeing him perform the 'Thawaf' (circumambulation) could be the present-day site of Makkah Tower. An endless burlesque Western capitalist drama takes place here under the euphemism of the Sacred name of Makkah. 

The Holy Prophet's stay at Taif was not quite uneventful as he faced resistance from the locals and their trenchant opposition to his preaching. An old woman caused him much distress by throwing litter in his path, but of such strength was his character that he refused to invoke God's wrath upon his detractors.

They also arranged an assault 

By their minions until 

He bled profusely 

Yet in that precarious state 

He inspired a poor Christian slave 

Named Addas to seek Shahadah

Even to this day, a humble little mosque by the name of Addas stands witness to the events of those days. This, despite the fact that for reasons hard to understand, the present-day custodians of the sacred cities of Makkah and Madinah do not seem to like preserving the historical record of those defining times on the world's stage.

The journey to the hill station at Taif was not a pleasure-seeking trip. It was undertaken at a most challenging time in the life of the last Messenger.

It has been aptly described

As the Year of Sadness for him

Of his beloved wife, Bibi Khadijah

And his loving uncle, Abu Talib the Wise

With their departure 

Two lamps of love went out

Two pillars of strength were lost

Undiluted faith does not need the crutches of miracles. The Holy Prophet remained steadfast in the face of challenges from his staunch enemies to exhibit his heavenly powers which he never claimed to have.

They accused the Holy Prophet 

Of being a con man, as someone 

Who forged revelations 

With the connivance of a ghost-writer

Identified as Rahman of Yamama

And taunts like:

Call upon Him', they demanded

'To descend from the skies

In a blaze of radiance

In front of our eyes

Let Him convert our barren hills

Into fertile plains dotted with water rills

Let him resurrect for us 

Our great ancestor Kosai

Whom we all respect 

As proof of his puissance'

Before proceeding to Makkah, one's simple mind would always think of the two most obvious signs of miracles which one thought were enough to reinforce one's faith. The eternally flowing spring of Aab e Zam Zam in the otherwise parched desert and the Divine Book revealed to an unlettered shepherd.

The famous Iqra command: Read

In the Name of the Creator-

The Lord of all creation

'How can I?' remonstrated instinctively 

The untutored and unlettered Makkan

Upon reaching Makkah, one immediately realized that here was another miracle, greater than the other two that had captured a simpleton's imagination. The sun-baked desert was in fact a sea in which all the rivers of the planet Earth flowed. 

Despite the avowed declaration in: 

Al-Baqarah (The Cow)

Let there be no compulsion 

In matters of Religion 

There wasn't a land that had not sent a representative, or many thousands of them, to plead on their behalf to the Omniscient and Omnipotent.

We will show them of Our Signs

In the Afaaq, or the far reaches

Of the universe 

And in their own selves or Anfus

Until it is manifest to them 

That this is indeed the Truth 

The journey to Makkah had necessitated a re-reading of 'Beyond Dates and Pomegranates.' One had already read it immediately after receiving it. What a great companion to the Holy Land the epic would have been, one keeps thinking. Especially, since Ejaz Rahim appears to have left little to imagination. 

He starts his arguments with the challengers to the faith: 

Aficionados of Modern Science 

Flaunting fluorescent flames

Yet, alas, many have fallen 

Into the ubiquitous trap 

Of hubris, that illusory state 

Where mortals start believing 

They've overthrown their Creator-

Fashioner and Sustainer 

Of the universe, and of every aspect 

Known and unknown in the cosmos

Earlier, in a beautifully scripted and convincing prologue, Ejaz Rahim lays down the framework of his project when he pens:

Science has superseded 

Both religion and philosophy 

To become in our times

Executioner, judge and jury 

In the hunting grounds 

Of haunting realities 

Surrounding us with spectres 

Of probabilities and possibilities 

Never encountered before 

Nowhere in the epic stretching over 345 pages, does the poet leave a shred of doubt about his love for science and reason. Indeed, he builds his epic solidly with reason and rationale.

Reason should not be run down 

Or scoffed at lightly 

By ecclesiastical champions

Or secular tycoons 

Reason and faith must seek 

A happy balance 

To achieve the best outcomes

For human beings 

And then with an even greater conviction, he says:

We are not faceless cogs

In a heartless machine 

But a body-spirit phenomenon 

Playing a pivotal part 

In a grand cosmic opera

Where the known, the unknown 

And the unknowable 

Are performing in sync

And further on:

We who are apt to measure 

The flow of celestial time 

By successes and failures

Of our own wiles and guiles

Must also understand 

That without God's intervention 

In the order of existence 

Not a single current will sail

In one's direction-

But when He wills

A whole river will fall like a cascade

At one's feet

As regards reason, Ejaz Rahim couldn't have got his inspiration from nowhere. The protagonist of his epic himself was the fountainhead of reason.

The Holy Prophet recognised

Reason as a heavenly book

Meant to generate

And validate knowledge-

The kind of reason preached in the aforesaid lines is best in evidence at the Haram and the Grand Prophet's Mosque at Madinah. As the call for the prayers go, not only the the milling crowds made up of hundreds and thousands of people from all over the world but also the pillars and stones and indeed the entire edifice of the two august houses fall in order as if by a fiat from God Himself. 

What is so wonderful to find at such moments is the complete absence of acrimony and malice. In row after row, people from different countries and regions would be seen praying in their own styles but no coneited or self-righteous among them would have the strength to pluck the courage and point out any oddity. In fact, every prayer turns out to be a congregational prayer.

And, all this due to the Allah's beloved messenger who was a human being just like all of us. His likeness to the human beings is manifest from the Surah Abasa when he gets a reprimand from the High above for neglecting an ordinary blind man. He was a mortal like us as is forcefully mentioned in the Surah Aal-i-Imran:

Every human being is bound to taste death...

Mohammad is only an apostle 

If he dies, will you then turn away?...

Prophets before you have also 

Suffered in God's way

Many years ago, one had read a book by an American writer called Michael Moore. The book was titled 'Stupid White Men.' As the title suggested, the writer was at war with the Republican voters, mostly whites, for electing a man like George Bush as the president. The writer taunted the US president on many counts including the latter's inability to have read and understood Iliad by Homer.

Such is the way in which the West makes its literature known to the world. Although Iliad was little more than mythology with a limited sphere of influence, yet its renown is such that not having read it is considered as unfashionable, if not gross ignorance.

But here is a true story of unimaginable importance, consequences and influence narrated by a man who is a veritable repository of knowledge of the world. Ejaz Rahim has an inexhaustible treasure of words with which he embellishes any story that inspires him like no one else. The story of the Holy Prophet is the closest to his heart and soul and he has narrated it in a way that no one else can do with such passion, flair and finesse.

One hopes this great epic will be remembered for all times to come, beating all other epics told by everyone else.

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