Recite, recite [1]
The word eternal
The pre-eminent discourse
The dictum of the dead and the living

Deliver the sacred promise—
The birth pangs from God’s own tongue

Your soul is a sea without a shore [2]
Righteous slave,
You’ve caught the eye of the Lord [3]
Pulled straight from the right side of the mountain [4]
They’ll remember your name [5]

You will speak
And I’ll silence [6]
The bastards, the reprobates [7]
The ones who shut their ears to this decree

The raging oceans [8]
The weeping orphan [9]
Will be calmed by its sound

Galvanize
Dear messenger,
Those who fell asleep
Refine the corrupted decree
Level the mountains
Raise the valleys [10]

A barren garden
Births a miracle—a song of unmatched serenity

Sprouted as a eulogy
But reaped as a dirge

Watch it pierce your soul [11]
Your bride and daughter battle [12]
Black is the ink that’s written
But it dries red [13]

The final answer
To the question all have asked
And yet a question asking:
The response, can you withstand?

You will speak
And be speechless
With awe and dread you’ll bear
The word of God that everyone will hear

The raging oceans
The weeping orphan
Will be calmed by its sound
But not before that deafening wind, overshadowed, has tortured them [14]

Majesty
And terror
Will be a palindrome
Unspeakable its glory
Unspoken its pain

[1] Quran 96:1-3.
[2] Jalālu’l-Dīn Rūmī, Selected Poems of Rumi, (Mineola, New Yok: Dover Publications: 2011) translated by Reynold
A. Nicholson, Dover Thrift Edition, 1.
[3] Luke 1:28.
[4] Quran 19:52.
[5] Luke 1:42.
[6] Ibid., 1:20.
[7] The Book of Enoch, Translated by R.H. Charles (London: Evinity Publishing, 2010) 10:9, Kindle Edition.
[8] Mark 4:39.
[9] Muhammad himself was an orphan, with his father dying before Muhammad’s birth, and his mother dying in his
youth. Raza Aslan, No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam (Newark: Audible, 2009), chapter
1, 1:07:00. See also Quran 93:6.
[10] Isaiah 40:4.
[11] Luke 2:35.
[12] This is meant to be taken metaphorically and literally. Metaphorically, it refers to the Bride of Christ—the
Church—battling with an offshoot, or a child, of the Abrahamic tradition, namely, the Ulama (the community of
Islamic believers). Yet, this is also a literal reference concerning Muhammad’s wife and daughter. Shortly after the
prophet’s death, raging factions divided the community about who should be Muhammad’s successor, with Aisha
(Muhammad’s wife) and Fatima (Muhammad’s daughter from his first marriage) finding themselves squarely on
opposing sides of a bloody conflict over the matter. Hazleton, After the Prophet, chapters 9-10.
[13] This is meant as both an acknowledgement of the Passion of Christ, as well as a particularly disturbing episode in
early Islamic history. Amidst the initial rumblings of the Shia/Sunni split, the third Caliph, Uthman Ibn Affan, was
assassinated by a mutinous Muslim. It is said that his blood spilt over the Quran he was in the middle of reading.,
Vali Nasr, The Shia Revival: How Conflicts within Islam Will Shape the Future (Newark: Audible, 2013), read by
Fleet Cooper, chapter 2, 39:30.
[14] Genesis 1:4. Also see Muhammad Saalih al-Munajjid, “Who is the ‘Holy Spirit,’ Islam Question & Answer, April
23rd, 2001, https://islamqa.info/en/answers/14403/who-is-the-holy-spirit.