So to conclude, I heartfully agree with Mikhail. I am indeed not like what I write. I hope to be, one day. And if that day arrives, Alhamdulillah Habibullah, may I shake your hand and kiss your cheeks, my dear friends. Salams, and thank you for being patient with me.
A Foreword
If there is truth in these pages
It is yours, ya Saidi.
If there is deceit
It is my own conceit.
..........
Actual foreword of the Dam.SunSun.Ana, the First Chapter
43. A Confession (With Poon)
Oh readers! Oh readers!
I denounce myself a hypocrite!
A super-crite, perhaps even a hyper-crite!
Meanest of God’s creatures!
No love,
But self-love!
No creed,
But the need to breed!
The need to seed!
So make me not as a preacher!
For you would only expose me an imposter
Of what I have never desired to be!
Oh readers!
Do not compound error with travesty!
If you cannot get this deal,
Then please,
Leave this book be.
102. Readers II
Readers!
Your understanding teaches me
The meaning of what is
Recorded in these pages.
..........
Both from Chapter 2 entitled ‘ The Dam.Munir.Ana’.
5. Cannot Defend
I cannot defend what I write,
Nor can what I write defend me.
Indefensible am I,
Meanest of all hypocrites.
.........
From Chapter 7 entitled ‘The Twenty-Three Verses’
33. Blessed Blessed Words!
Blessed, blessed words!
What is recorded here
Is nothing new!
Blessed, blessed voices!
What is spoken here
Is nothing original!
It was written before,
It was spoken earlier.
These words that I write
And those voices that I hear.
..........
From Chapter 13 entitled ‘What is in your basket?’
101. Readers (New added - 14th Oct 2010)
One way or the other,
I feel terribly embarrassed
To deny or confirm
Authorship.
And if I gave the impression
That I am a better man
Than I actually am,
Please accept my unreserved apologies.
..........
Both from Chapter 2 entitled ‘ The Dam.Munir.Ana’.
102. The Erring Poet (New added - 14th Oct 2010)
Even poets can err,
Writing themselves into a corner,
But here I shall remain, O’ Lord!
Until you pluck me,
From the ignominy,
Of looking damn silly,
And put me on that jetplane,
Bound for the Gardener of Qubruz,
For I hear he tends to roses,
And other love-sick, world weary fools.
..........
..........
From the Dam.SunSun.Ana, the First Chapter
45. Readers I (Added on 24th October 2010)
I am here,
To help and
To heal,
To carry you
If need be,
Across each
Valley and hill,
Across each
Desert and sea,
Till you come
To meet yourself,
And find the beauty
That I, Praise to God,
Already see!
And that was what I thought,
For I see now clearly
That neither am I carrying
Nor are you,
Both of us, carried upon
The cloud of good wishes
And a good story, written
As He pleases,
Mightiest Writer,
Wisest Reader,
Each breath we sigh
A turning of the pages...
46. Readers II
Alas! Alas the readers
Who are trapped by
Their books!
Their minds led by
Breadcrumbs to
The witch's lair!
Their thoughts becoming
Their jailor, their mind
Chastised by a warden,
Their hearts locked into
A human prison.
Alas! And how fortunate
Are we, you and I,
To find worlds between
Our fingertips, to walk across
Time, to glimpse the future,
To share a journey with eternity,
Trailing our Master, Muhammad,
In whatever name he is called,
The Red Rose, the Moon,
The Orphan, Ahmad Mustafa
Most Beloved of God!
..........
Both poems from the chapter entitled 'The Bride's Dress'
43. O’ Poet!(Added 21st November 2010)
I see you have honoured My Name
In these proses you write.
All very fine and nice!
But have you honoured My Name
In your daily life?
Or have you been writing truths,
Only to live in lies?
Have caution that they are neither equal nor same!
And that a coin left standing on its edge
Inevitably falls,
Either to valour or to shame.
..........
From the 1st Chapter entitled 'The Dam.SunSun.Ana'