Iqra!

       

The master has broken my heart again,
this time hiding his eyes among camellia buds.
I will use my breath to roll away the stone.

Do you understand this?
Have you visited the tomb?
Did you too mistake the gardener for the garden?

I will use my breath to touch the mountain
and put out even the fire that created me.
Do you understand this?

I will send my breath on the Night Journey
from belly to crown, a distance
too great for any haj.

I will use my exhalation to reveal 
what is hidden, and my inhalation to open 
Mary's womb like a rose.

I know you understand. 
It is our own lungs that cry
what Gabriel shouted to Muhammad:

“Iqra! 
Reveal love's secret with your whole body!
Use every Breath to heal, to bless, 

to mold from the clay of silence a new earth. 
Against your Word of creation,
the empire of fear cannot stand.

Painting: Mahmoud Farshchian