Creative Representations of Muslim Voices

POEM:

“The Lovely Words”

Deep within our pulsing hearts, our whirring minds

our longing souls, they lie, the lovely words.

Like a current flowing from the depths of our devotion, you pull them

To our pens, our tongues, our eye, the lovely words.

You soar to our beloved Prophet like a golden bird to higher realms

upon your wings, they fly, the lovely words.

As His paternal glow imbues our child-like selves,

Through the language of Muhammad’s light, you supply the lovely words.

We caress your syllables, fold your rhymes in lines of praise

And in your frame, they graciously comply, the lovely words.

You unite us through your beauty, bridge our divides

With them build us a ladder to the sky, the lovely words.

You are a soul-guider on our journey of faith and adoration

On your path of spiritual revelation, no one can deny the lovely words.

Poetry of love, you are the chosen form for the chosen one

In your warm embrace they’ll never die, the lovely words.

—–

EXPLANATION:

I was inspired to write this poem by the Urdu na’ts in the Session 2 readings, as well as Professor Asani’s introduction explaining the significance of poetry in South Asian culture and in Islam in general. I found the na’ts beautiful and interesting in the unwavering, unquestioning intensity of their professions of love for the Prophet. I decided to use the form of a na’t to write a love poem to poetry, since it seemed to me the best way to display the value of poetry was through the medium itself. Although my poem can never be a true na’t, since by definition a na’t is a poem praising Muhammad, I sought to mirror its style of romantic language and symbolism extolling the virtues of its subject.

I used the ghazal form, one of the most popular forms in Urdu poetry. It consists of couplets ending with the same phrase and containing an internal rhyme pattern in the last line of each couplet:

Like a current flowing from the depths of our devotion, you pull them/To our pens, our tongues, our eye, the lovely words.//You soar to our beloved Prophet like a golden bird to higher realms/upon your wings, they fly, the lovely words.

I tried to incorporate several recurring themes and motifs found in na’ts, such as bird imagery, light as a symbol for Muhammad’s wisdom, references to the soul, the father-son analogy between Prophet and poet, the theme of journey, and the idea of Muhammad as a guide.

My poem explores the value of poetry as a means of spiritual discovery and expression. Poetry allows the poet to be introspective and draw out his or her own spiritual and religious feelings (“deep within our pulsing hearts, our whirring minds”), then gives them a platform with which to communicate those feelings. It was clear from the samples of Urdu poetry we read for Session 2 and Asani’s explanation that poetry serves as an important bridge in Islam both between earthly and spiritual realms, and between social classes, since it is a common means of expressing a common theme (love for the Prophet) across societal divides.