THE POET OF THE EAST

Jesus’ followers, spurning the church, debased the coinage of the Gospel’s Law. When atheism first rent religion’s garment, there arrived Satan’s messenger, the Florentine (Machiavelli). He wrote a scroll for princes.

His evil genius decamped to darkness.

His sword-like pen struck truth asunder.

Carving images like Azar was his trade.

His novel faith proclaimed the state only worshipful. The touchstone he introduced to test the truth was

Gain . . . Dark night he wrapped about people’s eyes. Deception called in his vocabulary, expediency. The freedom of the Muslim community from the bonds of geography Allama Iqbal interprets as the meaning of the Hijra:

Flight is the law that rules the Muslim’s life, And is the cause of his stability. Its meaning is to leap from shallowness—

To quit the dew the ocean to subdue . . .

Be boundless, quest no limit in the world! He who has burst from all dimensions’ bonds Ranges through all directions like the sky. The Islamic community is eternal as God promised it would last until the end of time.

Because our nature is of Abraham And our relation to God the same as that great patriarch’s

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