Night and Day

In His Name, Exalted

Night and Day

An obscure prophet spoke to his Lord:

“Almighty One! Reveal the way

You turn the day into the night

and then the night becomes the day.”

Then thunder clashed and lightning flashed,

and rumbling came the answer: “Nay!

O faithful slave! Your heart won't bear

that which you hope not to repay.”

“How can I pay,” the prophet said,

“for a mere crumb of daily bread?

All is Yours, on which I've fed!

I plead to You in awe and dread:

Show me how the moon and sun,

trade places when their turns are done.

How can night defeat the day,

a day be lost, yet then be won?”

The Lord above, so great and kind,

has mercy on the human mind,

and, so, sends angels to remind

His creatures of what has inclined

them daily to be negligent

of ancient vows and testament

that bind us to what far transcends

the worlds and what on time depends.

“If such changes you would find,

then you must look when those are blind

who sleep when sun's first rays are shined,

whose eyes are closed and stay behind

their lids confined, like jewels unmined,

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confused in dreams, and unrefined.”

The angel's voice then further chimed:

“If you would know, then be resigned.

Go forth and look! Witness the dawn!

This is how a day is drawn

out from the womb of night's dark form,

how comes the morning to be born.

You can see it with your eyes

every day if you'd but rise.

The mystery is in plain view.

Just look at what's in front of you.”

In creases on the prophet's brow

fell shadows as the sun rose, now,

“Most Merciful, to Whom I bow,

there must be more to knowing how

than merely that there is this way

that one can witness every day?

How do You bring this all about

that light comes on when it was out?”

The angel said, “Pick up a fruit

though any sphere would also suit,

if half of it is in the light

and shadow models dark of night,

then turn it and you'll plainly see

how night and day are destiny.”

The prophet took the angel's hand

while saying, “This is truly grand!

How small and large can be the same.

As pieces in a young child's game

are like the tools that grown-ups use,

they serve for them as useful clues.

But this brings double puzzlement,

for models only represent,

repeating everything that could

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remain to be yet understood.

As gold and silver are exchanged,

by turning, dark and light are changed.

But more than this, I just must know!

Reveal, Allah, how changes go!

That which science can't explain

is what I need to soothe my brain.”

“What is this, then, that you would know?”

The angel paced back to and fro.

“Even I dare not to go

closer than two lengths of bow.

But God is great as is His love

and He may draw you far above

until you know yourself no more

and through the heavens you will soar

to a level some call 'unity'

although there's deceptivity

in so describing ecstasy.”

“Never mind! Allah, take me!”

The prophet cried, and shook with fright,

“Show me how day comes from night!

Show me what only You see

when You issue the decree:

'Kun' faya kun; 'Let there be light'

and day begins when all was night!”

Then God let him be substantially changed;

his eyes rolled back, as if deranged,

and after an eternity,

the prophet said, “What happened to me?

What took place beyond this shore,

I still don't know― I was no more!

Tawhid―the purist unity―

exclusively belongs to Thee.”

“Our Lord! I ask You, turn to me,

by all that names You beautifully,

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How can that which was not be

and from its dungeon be set free?

Can all the opposites of motion

be buried in some unknown ocean,

an ocean of eternity

where no wave washes from the sea?

How can there be an Absolute

that leaves us not all destitute?

How can this dark consternation

change into illumination?”

Then a trumpet blast was blown

and returning from the divine Throne,

the angel flapped its wings and cast

below an order: “You must fast!

The holy month of Ramadan

comes with the moon and with it's gone.

From its first day until its last

believers must observe the fast.

From before dawn 'til sun will sink

no food and not a drop to drink;

all this once more is allowed to you

when sunset's red has passed from view.”

The prophet humbly bowed his head,

“To hear is to obey,” he said.

His native land was a torrid clime,

and this fasting was in summertime.

He used the days his rest to take,

while in the nights he stayed awake

to worship God, and eat, and drink,

to meditate and deeply think:

“I think I now can start to see

how to solve what bothered me.

The divine order to keep the fast

unveils the solution to me at last.

Sometimes in this month when we fast

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we wake unsure how time has passed;

To know if it is day or night

one has to look outside for light.

Opposites are joined and fused

when day and night become confused.

It occurs to me that in God's law

that's been ordained without a flaw,

things of day and night are changed;

activities are rearranged:

Sleep that once belonged to night

becomes, instead, a daytime rite;

what normally is consumed at day

until the night must have delay.

So day becomes like unto night,

for what in days used to be right

is allowed only after sunlight,

and likewise into day turns night,

when nocturnal rest takes place

as the sun's steeds above us race,

flying there to West from East

as we in fasting yet may feast

at the banquet table set by Him

Who fills our cup up to the brim,

brings fullness out of emptiness,

existence out of nothingness,

our blessedness from wretchedness,

vitality from morbidness.

How the day comes from the night

by what He alone makes right!

By divine authority

from dark comes luminosity.

To learn this one must only pay

by letting one's own heart obey.”

The prophet humbly bowed in prayer

as angels circled through the air.

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He thanked Allah for everything

he'd learned through Ramadan's fasting.

Then prophet and angels

called out and were glad:

Allah humma sali ala Muhammadin

wa Ale Muhammad.

Hajj Muhammad Legenhausen

12 Ramadan 1433

11 Mordad 1391

1 August 2012

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