THE WAY OF ISLAM (Zarb-i-Kalim)
What, shall I tell you then, is a Muslim’s life?
Ecstasy’s summit joined with profoundest thought!
Even its setting flames like a rising sun;
Single its hue, yet manifold age by age;
Neither with those times sharing their scorn of virtue.
Nor with times past their bondage to myth and magic,
Firm on eternal verity’s bedrock standing—
Here is true life, no airy conceit of Plato!
Love, that the Spirit harbors, of loveliness
Mingles amid its elements with Iran’s
Beauty of mind, Arabia’s inward fire.
[Translated by V.G. Kiernan]