The Republic of Rumi: A Novel of Reality
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The Republic of Rumi: a Novel of Reality

Chapter 34

Creation Stories


By Khurram Ali Shafique

Beyond the flowers of Sinai you see the House of Reflections. It contains diverse ideas from Iqbal’s mind, each contained in a poem that comes to life as you concentrate on it.
One of them is ‘The Conquest of Nature’. It consists of five holograms with separate subheadings.

1. The birth of Adam

There is commotion in the universe. Love rejoices while Beauty trembles. Lying unaware in the embrace of Life, Desire opens eyes and a new world comes into being. Life declares that since it struggled restless in the darkness of the earth for many eons, a door has at last opened in the dome of the sky.

2. The Devil's refusal

God bids angels to bow down to the newly created Adam. Since the Devil was born of fire, he considers himself superior to the human being. He refuses to obey and says to God, “This short-sighted ignoramus creature was born in your lap but it will grow old in my arms.”

3. The temptation of Adam

The Devil avenges his expulsion from heaven by tempting the first couple. “A life of passion and longing is better than eternal quiet,” he says. “Do you not know as yet that passion fizzles out if union is achieved?”

4. Adam speaks on coming out of Paradise

The human being comes out and says, “How good it is to fill life with passion and longing: to open the door of the cage on to a spacious garden. I would exchange certainty for doubt, for I have become a martyr of the quest.”

5. The dawn of Resurrestion
(Adam in the presence of God)

Adam says to the Almighty, “You whose sun illumines the star of life, with my heart You lit the candle of the sightless world. My skills have poured an ocean into a strait, my pickaxe makes milk flow from the heart of stone. Venus is my captive, the moon worships me. Although his sorcery deluded me, excuse my fault, forgive my sin: the world could not have been subdued otherwise, for pride could not be taken prisoner without the halter of humility. Reason catches artful nature in a net and thus Ahriman, born of fire, bows down before the creature of dust.”

Adam’s address to the Almighty on the Dawn of Resurrection sounds like it is coming from you: words printed in this book are like stones and your soul is hacking at them to allow streams of life flow out and become this garden.

The Garden is suddenly filled with the fragrance of a houri who had turned into a rose and withered away. Time begins to play its song, and its five stanzas make a strange parallel to the five episodes of the Creation Story.

1

Everything in the world seems to be pegged on the wall of Time, which is nothing if you look at it but it is your soul if you look within: the primary description of your life is the span of time you get to spend in the world. The birth of Adam – Time as yourself?

2

Time is an artist who paints with blood: Genghis Khan, Tamerlane, European colonialism and the greatest catastrophes of history are sparks shed by the flame of Time, which is also a pleasing garden at the same time. The Devil’s refusal – Time as a sign of God?

3

Time appears to be passing but is also eternity and stays still: tomorrow can be seen in today except that the human eye cannot behold the wine’s effect in the wine directly. The temptation of Adam – Time as God?

4

While you propose your plans, Time disposes destiny beyond the spell of reason. You are free to choose only because the highest choice will take you to another dimension of Time and never possibly beyond it. You are the secret of Time just as it is yours. Adam speaks on coming out of Paradise – Relativity of Time?

5

Time is the traveler seeking you as its destination. You are the fruit of its labors. You are a song of a thousand melodies with a single heart, which is the only container big enough to contain the ocean of Time as if it were a storm rising of your own tide. The Dawn of Resurrection and Adam in the presence of God – Time as your reward?

DISCUSS

  • How is Adam on the Dawn of Resurrection similar to you?

  • How do the five stanzas of the song of Time reflect on the five clues of Joseph?


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