The Beginning
He sat so many days and many nights
Inside a cave in darkness he would think
Till once a vision came and said RECITE
But this was nearly all too much to bear
Muhammad knew not what to do or say
It brought him almost to a deep despair
But then a miracle he did observe-
From in the sky the angel bade him see
And from this faith he vowed never to swerve
From this a lesson all of us must take
That in the darkness there may soon be light
And if a dream you have, do not awake.
I’m not usually very much of a poet (and I don’t claim this work to be a masterpiece), but something about the image of Muhammad reciting in a cave drove me to write this. It’s a bit strange to be writing it, to be sure, as Muhammad was not a man of letters. In fact, the more appropriate form for this poem would be recitation, I suppose.
The Qur’an itself is written in a rhythmic, rhyming cadence, and I endeavored to include rhythm and rhyme in my own poem, though I used the iambic pentameter that I’m more familiar with. We discussed the role of poetry in both pre-Qur’anic societies and Islamic societies, and it seems to be a pretty powerful thing. It’s difficult to write a poem that’s moving and powerful, especially if you live in a culture where words don’t have the same meaning as they did in Muhammad’s time.
Throughout the course of this semester, we’ve seen examples of words that have had a remarkable impact, and that’s made me think about words in American culture. It feels a bit like we’ve lost the weight of words over the course of the past few decades. With so many people saying so many fiery, combative, and perhaps even offensive things at the same time, we seem to have lost sensitivity to a strong oral argument. Perhaps in the time of Muhammad, when it was a serious matter to impugn the dignity of another man, harsh words would have been seen as bold or striking. Now, when virtually no public figure has universally accepted dignity, and when scandals involving honor and dignity are commonplace, it doesn’t mean nearly the same thing to attack someone with words.
Even uplifting words are often met with cynicism. When was the last time that words truly unified us? You could argue that some speeches post-9/11 may have had this effect, but I’d have to argue in return that it was really the event (not the words) that had the effect. Do we live in a society that is too fragmented to value words?